---
name: "personal_crm"
description: "Build and run a personal contact follow-up system (personal CRM): capture habits, tiered contact lists, a digital tickler file for dated follow-ups, re-engagement cadence, and outreach templates. Use when a user wants to stay in touch with contacts, never let relationships go cold, set up follow-up reminders, or re-engage dormant connections."
---

# Personal CRM

## Purpose
Most relationships die from neglect, not conflict. This skill installs a complete follow-up system for one person: capture every new contact fast, sort contacts into tiers, and let a digital tickler file surface exactly who needs a touch each day. Small, frequent, generous contact beats heroic catch-ups.

## Workflow

1. **Capture within 24 hours.** Every new contact goes into the system the same day they are met, with where you met and one detail worth remembering. Follow-up speed matters: sales research popularized by Harvard Business Review found contacting a new inquiry within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes carried ~100x the contact odds and ~21x the qualification odds (directional figures from InsideSales/Dr. James Oldroyd data, ~two decades old, treat as direction not gospel). The personal version: same-day capture and a first follow-up within days, not months.

2. **Tier the list.** Put each contact in one tier:
   - `inner`: people who tell you the truth, your core circle. Default touch every 14 days.
   - `key`: important professional and personal contacts. Default every 45 days.
   - `outer`: the wider network. Default every 90 days.
   - `aspirational`: people you want to know but do not yet. Default every 120 days.
   - `dormant`: strong past relationships gone cold. No automatic cadence; one deliberate re-engagement, then re-tier.
   Cadences are this skill's own defaults, adjustable in `contacts.json` under `settings.cadence_days`. They are not research findings.
   Sizing note: Robin Dunbar's 1992 research predicts humans can maintain stable relationships with roughly 150 people (95% CI 100 to 230). If the outer tier balloons past that, prune or the system collapses under its own weight.

3. **Run the daily tickler.** This is the tickler file from David Allen's Getting Things Done: 43 folders (31 daily + 12 monthly), each day's folder emptied and reviewed daily, the monthly folder redistributed at month start. Here the folder is a command:
   ```
   python3 <skill-dir>/bin/pcrm.py due
   ```
   It lists overdue and soon-due contacts. Allen's trust rule applies: review it every day or the system loses credibility. If you skip days, check the missed ones before trusting it again.

4. **Ping with generosity.** Each touch should give something: an article, an introduction, a congratulation, a real question about their work. Never open with an ask. The core principle comes from Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone: ping contacts constantly, not only when you need something, and build the network before you need it.
   Use `assets/touch-templates.md` for message shapes: the memory ping, the useful share, the connector intro, the dormant re-engagement.

5. **Log the touch.** Record every interaction so the tickler resets on real activity, not good intentions:
   ```
   python3 <skill-dir>/bin/pcrm.py touch "Ada Lovelace" --note "sent her the robotics piece"
   ```
   `--next YYYY-MM-DD` overrides the auto-computed due date when a specific follow-up was promised.

### CLI quick reference
```
pcrm init
pcrm add "Name" --tier inner|key|outer|aspirational|dormant --channel email --note "met at X"
pcrm touch "Name" --note "what you did" [--next YYYY-MM-DD]
pcrm tier "Name" key
pcrm due [--days 7]
pcrm list [--tier outer]
```

## Output Contract
- When setting up a system: a tiered contact list with every contact assigned a tier, a next-due date, and a capture note.
- When running the daily review: the output of `pcrm due`, plus drafted ping messages for each due contact using the templates (one short, specific, generous message per person, referencing a real detail).
- When re-engaging a dormant contact: one message shaped by the dormant template, naming the shared history, with zero asks.
- Every factual claim about the research behind the system (tickler file, Dunbar, follow-up stats) must match `references/research-notes.md`. Never restate the cadence defaults as research.

## Operating Rules
1. Same-day capture is non-negotiable. A contact added weeks late is a contact the system failed.
2. One touch is a touch: a text, a call, a useful email, a real comment on their work. Liking a post does not count.
3. Never ping with an ask first. Give twice before asking once.
4. Keep the tiers honest. Promoting everyone to `inner` breaks the cadence math; the list must fit real life.
5. The tickler is reviewed daily or not at all. No batching a month of pings in one sitting.
6. Dormant re-engagements get one careful message. No follow-up nudge if there is no reply; re-file them as `outer` with a long cadence or let them go.