Everyone knows how important networking is, yet many of us dread it. Use this advice to make it a game you'll actually enjoy.

Charles Duhigg works for The New York Times, and is responsible for coordinating conferences. When he got the job there was one problem - He hated conferences and found them incredibly awkward. Fortunately for him (and us) he found a solution.

In the past, when Duhigg attended conferences, he said he would end up talking to one person he knew and meeting the people they knew. That wasn't enough.

Now he tries to speak to 4 different people in the first 10 minutes of a conference, then go back to the person he liked most and keep talking to them. The goal he achieved "was to try and have interesting conversations that were real, but to also try and meet people that I wouldn't meet otherwise," he said.

It took some experiementing before he got there. Read more about his process here. And the next time you're at a networking opportunity, try out his method! The benefts should greatly outweigh any anxiety you feel going in.