Two Very Different Ways to Update Your Address Book, Depending on Your Personality Type
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Choosing a photo for the front of your holiday card is the fun part. The not-so-fun part is making sure you have everyone’s addresses ready to send them mail.
Even if you’re not the type to send paper cards, this is a good time of year to update your address book, making sure you have the latest address for all your loved ones. Care packages and happy mail have become one of the best ways to stay in touch with friends from far away (and support the USPS while you’re at it).
As cheerful as the end result can be, collecting addresses is a slog, for most people. But turning chores, like this one, into capital-p Projects is one of the most efficient ways to get them done—taking something you dread doing and turning it into something you’re feeling challenged to finish. And to get started, you just need to learn how to speak your brain’s language.
Allow me to help…
Day 7: Update your address book.
Depending on your personality type, there are two ways to get today’s assignment done.
If you’re the type of person who’s motivated by finishing things properly and completely (looking at you, Capricorns, perfectionists, and INTJs), turn your address-update into a bigger ritual:
- Make a list (or better yet—a spreadsheet) of everyone you consider your inner circle. Leave spaces for their addresses, birthdays, kids’ and pets’ names, or anything else you want to remember about them.
- Hunt down the info that you can from social media or things they’ve sent you.
- Then, reach out to each person to fill in the blanks that are missing.
- This spreadsheet is now your friendship database. Add their birthdays to your personal calendar (and put the addresses in the details for bonus points) and know you’re ahead of the game for the whole year.
- Refer back here any time you hear someone is moving or celebrating a milestone.
If you’re the type of person who just wants to check the box and move on (hello to my Sagittarians and Enneagram 7’s), try a service like Postable. You set up an account, get a link you can share with friends (in a group text or just plaster it on all your socials), and then your friends will update their own addresses for you. Sign up, share (“Hey, please fill this out if you’d like to get a holiday card from me!”), move on to the next thing.
If the idea of sending greeting cards feels overwhelming, you can re-think that tradition: Send quick bulk-bought postcards, or new year cards in January instead. Or skip it entirely!
Or, you know, if neither of these options appeal to you, you could decide your thing is January new year cards instead, and just wait to write down the return addresses on any holiday cards you receive instead. No judgement here.
More Ways to Participate in the Holiday Cure:
- Sign up for email updates
- Visit the 2020 Holiday Cure page and catch up on assignments
- Save or print your own Holiday Cure tips workbook
- Download the Holiday Cure calendar
- Join the Apartment Therapy Cure Facebook group