Anyone else get anxiety when waiting for communication on anything soft-planned (or even hard planned for that matter)? Spiraling and all that.
Especially if the person involved is late or didn’t respond. Ofc the reaction is to check in, that’s what I’d want someone else to do for me if I indicated I’d do something or message someone. However, that can be interpreted as being needy or clingy when really I just want to know the plan and not be left hanging.
Life happens ofc, people gotta cancel plans, that’s okay. But what really rubs things wrong is being left without information, that’s when the anxiety shoots. Do you wait for them, or go do something else? If you go do something else, what happens when they’re suddenly available? That’s not respecting my time, so it’s rude, but do you convey that?? What if you hinged your day on something, that just throws a big ass wrench in.
Everyone is living their own lives, and things happen, preventing communication. It just feels like it’s more common than it used to be, or more… Negligent?
Gah.
I guess /rant really.
If I can offer an alternate perspective…
By making such concrete plans you may be ceding too much “control” to someone who you don’t yet know will have the same reliance on solid planning or respect for other’s time as you do.
So, if that’s the case, what can you do about it?
Plan differently.
Plan a one hour “date with yourself” that also works for you + a date.
Example: Make a plan to meet at a coffee shop or cheap bistro near a park… but bring a book/kindle/podcast/homework, or whatever you’d otherwise do on your own.
If they show, cool, you now have topics to discuss. If things are going well, continue over a walk in the park.
If they flake, cool, you’ve now got a solid hour to do something you enjoy, in a (hopefully) interesting place, and you’ve done it for cheap… Maybe take yourself on a walk in the park. :)
Hope that helps a bit.
Agree.
Setting your own expectations so that you’re never disappointed also helps.
Anticipate meeting up, so that if it happens, you’re excited. At the same time, anticipate that they may not show up so don’t expect that they will.
Love the other person but love yourself first. Yes, it’s cheesy and cliché but there’s a reason for that: it works incredibly well in your favour since there’s no way to lose.
People fail to show up for a variety of reasons. They may have suffered an accident. Their phone might have died and they don’t know how to get to the meet up without it, and have no way of letting you know. They may be stressed and could have forgotten, even if they were really looking forward to it.
And the kicker, they might be even more anxious than yourself and don’t know how to deal with that.
5-1-0
Plan something 5-days in advance to do something.
Reach out 1-day ahead and ask if they are still up for doing it. It provides them with an out, and opens up your day tomorrow in the off chance that they have to cancel.
On the day of the planned activity, let them know you’ll be heading out shortly to meet them at x place at y time.
For extra soft plans (i.e. do you want to get together and study later this evening?), still text before hand about an hour or so as it gives them a quick reminder, and allows you to alter plans.
Communication works both ways, and sometimes people need reminders. If they don’t respond, just let them know you didn’t hear from them and you’re going to do something else. Don’t freak out about it. People waffle on things all the time.
Oh boy. Another thing where I am happy to live in germany. No soft-planned things here. If there is a possible appointment (and we pretty much always do appointments to meet each other) we say yes, no, or don’t know yet. Only yes classifies as planned. I know that in most other countries in the world this is not the case. I feel like germany is a very autism friendly country compared to most others when it comes to such ambiguous situations I read about online.
I don’t have answers, but you inspired me to contact someone just now because I was doing just that. Thanks.
I’ve honestly just stopped putting stock in people who are consistently unreliable with planning. Soft agreements stay soft and I’m always mentally prepared for a “oh I forgot, now it’s too late sorry”
