If you are in a relationship or have been in a relationship, you are likely to have experienced a problem that many couples experience at one point or another. This problem is deciding what to do with the precious time you have. I have sometimes found myself discussing ideas for an evening out for so long with my better half that we end up running out of time. Thus defeating the point in making time to go out together!
Hence, the Date Jar – an idea that I came up with a few months ago. It is not expensive, it is not difficult and it will allow you and your partner to share ideas with each other without the need for compromise. The Date Jar is a container of some sort (in my case an old shortbread tin) that you fill with date ideas. You write each date idea on a post it note, scrunch it up and pop it in the jar.
Then at the beginning of each week you take a post it note out of the jar at random and find out what date you and your other half are going on. The trickiest bit is when you have to find a convenient time where both of you are available to go!
As a very rich and famous meerkat would say “Simples”!
It is a brilliantly simple and fun solution that allows you and your partner to continually surprise each other. This is because each time you take a date out of the jar the person who picks it keeps it a secret and books it, so the other person gets a surprise! It also is a very fair way of going on a date as you take it in turns to write date ideas and put them in the jar, thus there is an equal chance of picking activities either of you would love to do!
If you are really well organised you could also colour coordinate the post-it notes, for example, if you have three colours, you could use one colour for dates that last no longer than an hour, the next colour for dates that last no more than an evening and the last colour for dates that last no longer than a weekend. Thus, you can randomly pick a date that fits your schedule (not to mention your budget!) for the week.
I shall be keeping you up to date on the activities that come out of my date jar as well as recommending ideas that you and your partner can try.
I shall give you a hint for the date I picked out of our date jar this week. It involves a lot of sugar, sweetness and general food heaven. Any ideas Ladies and Gentleman?
Tweet your date jar ideas and experiences to @ThePGentleman with the hastag #3PGdatejar .
I would love to hear how you get on and what surprises await you!
Sam Adam Smith #3PG
