The K-M Rule
Only plan as far ahead as your relationship has existed
If your relationship began 1 week ago, you can plan up to one week. After six months, you can plan six months, and so-on.
The K-M Horizon is farthest date in the future that you should make plans.
Calculate your K-M Horizon!
The K-M rule origin story
Like many good stories, the origin of the K-M rule involves a share-house, love, and some 19-year olds making poor choices. In order to protect the (mostly) innocent there are no names used in the telling of this story.
The Pyrmont love-square
The year is 2006, and two high-school friends, whom we can call h, and m have moved out from under the shackles of parental supervision, into a share-house together. It was a perfect location for a university-student bachelor pad, in a suburb of Sydney called Pyrmont. It was close to the city nightlife, universities, and jobs. Friends regularly crashed on the couch rather than taking hour-long train and bus rides back to their parents basements in the outer suburbs.
Meanwhile, h had been introduced to a young lady whom we shall refer to as k1 . They bonded over their shared love of music and began a relationship that lasted for several months.
A girlfriend of k1, whom we can call k2 was a frequent visitor to the Pyrmont house, and became good friends with h, m, and their friends.
The Lowenbrau Debacle
The Lowenbrau is a German themed bar in the nearby Rocks area, in the shadows of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. One young man (we can call j) nicknamed it "the number-getting place".
The exact events of the Lowenbrau Debacle are somewhat hazy, Facebook only launched for Australian universities in December 2005, so photo evidence from this period is scarce (probably in everybody's best interest).
What we know for sure is that before the Lowenbrau Debacle, h, and m were living together, and h was dating k1. But after the Lowenbrau Debacle, h is now dating k2, and m is dating k 1. Even though neither k1 , nor k2 actually lived there, the convenient location made it tempting to spend lots of time at the Pyrmont Pad.
The K-M Rule is born
A week or two after the Lowenbrau Debacle, k1, and m announce that they are going to India on a
3-month holiday...
... leaving in 9 months time.
Some people (me, it was me) may have suggested at the time that planning one year in advance was a bad idea, especially given how high emotions were running after the Lowenbrau Debacle. But back then I was a single engineering student with questionable fashion sense, and unquestionable commitment issues. So nobody was coming to me for relationship advice.
Maybe booking that far ahead locked in the best airfares? However, it still would have been better for k1, and m to maybe wait a few months before booking their epic trip.
In the end, k1, and m made it to India, but broke up shortly after returning to Australia.
Epilogue
As I write this in 2021, the eponymous m, and k1 of the K-M Rule have accomplished a lot since 2006/7. I still count all four of the characters in this story as friends, and hopefully that will still be true after they read this this.
Also, in case you're wondering, the girls (k1 and k2) stayed close friends for many years after the Lowenbrau Debacle. The Pyrmont Pad of h and m did not last much longer. It was there for a short but memorable time in our lives!