This is Steve Robbins. Welcome to the Get It Done guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Relationships. I just love relationships. Friends, schmupies, vendors, colleagues, bosses, relationships are great.

Because you get to interact with another person. And how do you know they're another person and not just your imaginary friend?

Because they don't behave how you expect.

They're different from you.

They think differently.

They react differently.

They even smile differently.

And that sadly is the problem with relationships as well.

No matter how much we wish it were so, people just aren't mindless automaton's behaving

the way we want.

Most of these mismatches aren't a problem, as long as you know that they're coming.

Indeed, you might love hearing Shmoopy's stories about that time with the dog and the

porcupine and the two-gallon jug of Raspberry Jam.

You might laugh and laugh and laugh, But please, couldn't it wait until not

when you're in the middle of trying to write the concluding paragraph of your thesis?

Set expectations in a relationship up front. When you start a new relationship, whether it's a

boss or a schmoopee or a colleague or a friend, or when you check in on an existing one,

or when you quietly decide not to quit your job this week,

have a conversation where you set expectations about how you'll conduct your relationship.

These are called process conversations because you're designing the process that you'll use to run your relationship.

While process conversations don't guarantee smooth sailing, they can help you deal with predictable relationship issues in advance,

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