At EML we like to put our research into practice – and when we know things work we share them. Maintaining your relationships is important for all sorts of reasons, particularly during a pandemic. Here are a few simple ideas that seem to work well.

Remembering a birthday goes down well. In the digital era its easy to remember a birthday – put it in your address book once and it just keeps popping up – year after year. Subscribe to an e-card service (I use Jacquiline Lawson) and it’s easy to send a line. Recently the service has been upgraded to allow the recipient to send a note back – I am delighted to say that most people do.

Christmas card lists – even if most of your cards are now electronic! It’s amazing how useful a complete list of your friends and family can be. Sending a Christmas card keeps the list current and the process of reviewing it – even in the heat of summer is a sure fire feel good exercise!

And now a new one. For many lock down has been the catalyst for a major sort out. Our sort out turned up a raft of old photos – not good enough to make the album cut – but important moments in time particularly to those who appear in them – so send them on with a covering note – this simple gesture has gone down very well – why not try it?!