If relationships are compounding interest, most people are accidentally day trading.
Not because they don’t care, but because the system is missing. Important people end up scattered across inboxes, LinkedIn, notes apps, and “I’ll remember later.”
Rolodex solves this with a simple structure you can set up in one sitting:
Create a list of the 50 relationships you want to maintain
Create a board view with “warmth stages” you can score yourself
Set a Keep-in-Touch frequency for everyone (e.g., once a week)
Once this is in place, Rolodex helps ensure you actually keep in touch, consistently, without turning your network into a sales pipeline.
Below is the core setup and how to run it week to week.
Step 1: Create your “Top 50” list
Start by choosing the 50 relationships you want to maintain proactively. These are typically people who create outsized value over time:
past colleagues you trust
mentors and advisors
partners and potential partners
customers you want to stay close to
investors, founders, operators you admire
connectors who are always one conversation away from momentum
In Rolodex, create a list called Top 50 (or Priority Relationships). Add the contacts you want to keep warm.
A good rule: if you’d feel slightly foolish realizing you haven’t spoken to them in a year, they belong here.
Why a list first?
Because lists create a boundary. You’re not trying to “keep up with everyone.” You’re intentionally maintaining the relationships that matter most.
Step 2: Turn the list into a “Warmth Board” you can score yourself
Now the fun part: take your Top 50 list and switch it into Boards View.
This is where Rolodex becomes a relationship cockpit: you can visually see how warm each relationship feels right now and move people between stages as things change.
Example board stages (simple and effective)
Use stages that match how you think:
Hot: active conversations, high trust, recent touchpoints
Warm: relationship is healthy, but not currently active
Cooling: it’s been a while, risk of drift
Cold: overdue, needs a revive
Paused: intentionally not engaging right now (timing, context, etc.)
This is not a “deal stage.” It’s your personal relationship temperature gauge.
Key idea: You score the relationship yourself.
Rolodex gives you the structure to track it, but you decide what “warm” means based on context, history, and your goals.
Keep it living
Anytime you have a meaningful interaction, adjust the stage:
After a great catch-up call: move them Cold → Warm
After weeks of silence: Warm → Cooling
After repeated back-and-forth: Warm → Hot
Your board becomes a mirror of reality, not a static database.
Step 3: Set a Keep-in-Touch frequency for everyone (e.g., weekly)
Now add the engine: Keep-in-Touch.
For each person in your Top 50 list, set a cadence, like once a week. You can also vary it by tier:
Tier 1 (inner circle): weekly
Tier 2 (important): biweekly or monthly
Tier 3 (strategic, slower): every 60–90 days
But if your goal is “warmth at scale,” setting a weekly cadence is the simplest way to start. It creates a predictable heartbeat.
What Rolodex does for you
Rolodex makes sure you don’t need to remember who is due. Each week you can open Keep-in-Touch and immediately see:
who you haven’t reached out to within their cadence
who is coming due
where attention is slipping
This turns relationship maintenance from “mental load” into a short weekly routine you can actually keep.
How the system runs week to week
Once your List + Board + Keep-in-Touch are set up, here’s what “weekly relationship management” looks like in Rolodex:
1) Open Keep-in-Touch and pick your outreach
Start with the people who are due this week. You don’t need to message all 50 every week, but you do want to maintain the rhythm Rolodex is tracking for you.
A simple approach:
focus first on anyone in Cooling or Cold
then touch a few in Warm to keep things healthy
2) Use the Board to guide your priorities
Keep-in-Touch tells you who is due.
Boards View tells you who needs it most.
That’s the magic combination.
If someone is due but already “Hot,” you can keep it light.
If someone is due and “Cold,” you know it’s time for a real revive.
3) Move cards as reality changes
After outreach (and after responses), update the warmth stage.
Over time, your board becomes:
a weekly planning view
a truth tracker for relationship health
a simple way to avoid “silent drift”
Bonus: Stay timely with Title Changes (easy wins for warm outreach)
One of the easiest ways to keep relationships warm is to reach out when something changes.
Rolodex helps you track title changes across your contacts, so you can catch:
promotions
role changes
company switches
new leadership responsibilities
When you see a change, you can send a quick congrats message. No awkward small talk, no forced reason to reach out. The reason is real.
This is one of the highest signal, lowest effort touchpoints you can build into your weekly routine.
Pro tip: When someone has a major title change, it’s a good moment to move them up a stage:
Cooling → Warm after a congrats + reply
Warm → Hot if it turns into a catch-up
Create more boards if you want other ways to “see” your Top 50
The warmth board is your main view. But the real power is that you can create additional boards for different lenses, without changing the underlying list.
Examples:
By role type (Founders, Operators, Investors, Partners)
By geography (Nordics, UK, US)
By industry (Fintech, SaaS, Healthcare)
By “intro power” (Connectors, Specialists, Decision-makers)
By personal vs professional (if you mix both)
Same people, different perspective.
This makes it easy to answer questions like:
“Who are my warmest founder relationships right now?”
“Which partners have gone cold?”
“Who should I invite to a dinner next month?”
Why this works: structure without the CRM feeling
This setup works because it’s not built around “closing.” It’s built around staying connected with the people you actually want in your life and career.
Lists give you focus
Boards View gives you a simple, human way to score warmth
Keep-in-Touch gives you consistency without mental overhead
Title changes give you timely reasons to reach out
That’s warmth at scale.