What counts as a life event worth logging?

Anything that changes the future shape of the relationship: a move, a baby, a job change, a breakup, a loss, a milestone birthday, a diagnosis. The quick test is whether it would matter to mention next time you speak. If the answer is yes, log it - those are exactly the moments where reaching out lands hardest and where forgetting stings most.

How do I actually remember to write it down in the moment?

Don't rely on memory - capture during the conversation, not after. Open the contact card while you're still on the call or at the table. It feels awkward the first couple of times and completely normal by the third. The brain files passing remarks as low-priority and discards them within minutes, so the only reliable window is while the person is still talking.

What if I only know the season, not the exact date?

Log the season - it's far better than nothing. "Moving sometime this spring" or "surgery in the autumn" is enough to surface the event at roughly the right time and prompt you to ask. You can sharpen it to an exact date later, the moment you hear one. The goal is to never lose the signal, not to capture it perfectly the first time.

Should I log life events for acquaintances, not just close friends?

Yes, and it's arguably where it pays off most. You'll naturally remember a close friend's big news; it's the wider circle - the former colleague, the friend-of-a-friend you liked - where the detail evaporates and a well-timed "how did the move go?" turns an acquaintance into a real connection. The cost is twenty seconds; the upside is being the person who remembered.

Isn't my calendar enough for this?

A calendar is great for fixed, dated events like a birthday, but it has nowhere to keep the context that makes a life event worth remembering - what happened, who it involved, what to ask next. Logging it against the person keeps the event and its story together, so when you reach out you know what to say, not just that something happened. The date is the alarm; the note is the reason it matters.

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How to log life events you only hear about once

The hardest signal in any relationship is the one that's said in passing. Here's how to catch it.

How-to

Life events

Finn GlasCo-Founder + Engineering

·December 18, 2025·

3 min read

Key takeaways

Open the contact during the conversation - not afterwards.

Capture the date if it has one, otherwise capture the season.

Tag with a one-word category ("job change", "move", "loss") for later filtering.

Step by step

Open the contact while you're still talking

The "oh by the way" detail is gone within minutes of the call ending, so capture it live, not later.

Write the event in plain words

"Mum's hip surgery", "moving to Berlin in spring", "started a new job" - a short line you'll understand in six months.

Add a date, or the season if there isn't one

Exact dates power reminders; "sometime this autumn" is still enough to ask about it at the right time.

Tag it with a one-word category

"job change", "move", "loss", "birth" - so you can later filter for the moments that need a check-in.

Set a reminder if it calls for follow-up

A surgery, a first day, a funeral - drop a nudge for the day it matters so the system remembers to reach out for you.

What counts as a life event

Anything that changes the future shape of the relationship. A move. A baby. A job change. A breakup. A loss. A milestone birthday. A diagnosis. The exact line is fuzzy and personal - but the test is: would this matter to mention next time? If yes, log it.

Capture during, not after

If you're on a call, open the contact card while you're talking. It feels weird the first time. After the third time it feels normal. The thing about the "oh by the way" moment is that you'll forget by the time the call ends - the brain treats parenthetical information as low-priority and discards it within minutes.

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Written by

Finn Glas

Co-Founder + Engineering

Finn is one of the Co-Founders. He owns the engineering side, the infrastructure, and most of the late-night fixes that ship before anyone notices.

finn.glas at aicuflow dot comLinkedIn Website