Things You Can Do That Will Make You Happier

It really bugs me that people can rip content wholesale from someone else's blog, add a tiny attribution at the bottom, and consider it fair game.

For reference, this is actually a Buffer blog post: http://blog.bufferapp.com/10-scientifically-proven-ways-to-m...

I think the long commute tip is accurate overall, however can be mitigated. Before going back to grad school, my job required a long commute (easily 60 minutes each way). Getting up early bothered me, but the drive to work was fine as local radio morning shows were pretty good (though over the course of only 4 years of this commute, schedules changed removing 3 nationally syndicated shows, and 2 local shows before just setting on NPR...FM radio seems to be a cruel world). However, driving home was the worst...just the worst, even when listening to music off of my mp3 player, if i was running late to leave by even a few minutes the commute home could take an extra 15. I was much more stressed at the end of each day just from driving, and by the time i made and ate dinner i'd only really have ~2 hours to relax before having to go to bed to get up and start again. The unhappiness timeline:

- Stress turned into a general depression that my weekdays were robotic (sleep, wake, drive, work, drive, eat, sleep)

- I found myself becoming a more aggressive driver (more stress = wanting to get home faster)

- My general attitude was changing for the worse

- I started to alienate my significant other

A friend suggested i read a book for some reason and i picked up the audio copy to kill some time on the drive home. This turned out to be a life changer. Instead of focusing on getting home as soon as i could, i was relaxing on my drive. Happiness timeline:

- I found myself sitting in my driveway to hear the end of a chapter

- Getting home didn't mean i needed to retreat to the study for time to unwind

- I started driving slower and less aggressive (even letting people cut me off, etc)

- My relationship with my SO improved

- I felt smarter. My usual reading list is text book chapters to better understand a concept, but i really felt like i was a generally smarter person by including non-fiction.

- Most important is that i didn't feel like i was wasting time. Driving became a hobby in some sense, as opposed to a delay of when i can start/end my day.

By the end of my tenure i sometimes looked forward to my commute, only so i could keep listening. Of course audio books may not be your game, but the thesis is that if you find some way to make you feel like you're not wasting your time then you'll most likely not mind the commute (for example, my mom calls her mother, my grandmother, everyday on the commute home).

Brain-scan heatmaps are such pseudoscientific rubbish in this context. Am I supposed to be happier with an active brain like the one pictured after exercise? or with a quiet brain like that one pictured after meditation?

I grew up in a small town and was never bothered by driving around. In fact, I enjoyed it. I liked driving to and from high school.

Now that I live in a big city and the traffic is exponentially worse, I find I hate driving. This is just me, of course, but my driving experience is completely ruined in big cities most of the time. I can never quite get used to how aggressively people drive and just how bad the traffic can become. The city I'm in also has almost no public transportation.

It's not the time that bothers me. It's the manual driving and dealing with traffic. I spent a semester in Russia while in college and had about a 30 minute commute to class via the metro and I was never bothered by the time involved at all. I hardly even noticed the impact of the time spent commuting, though I admit that might have been influenced somewhat by the perpetual feeling of magic one experiences when studying abroad.

Anyway, in my case I decided to just rent an apartment in walking distance of the office and it was one of the best decisions I've made. If you're the sort of person who doesn't mind fighting traffic twice a day, I'm actually jealous of you--I could get a full house for the cost of my apartment if I moved to a suburb.

>> Move closer to work – a short commute is worth more than a big house

Ah yes, a simple thing I can accomplish today!

1. Exercise more – 7 minutes might be enough

2. Sleep more – you'll be less sensitive to negative emotions

3. Move closer to work – a short commute is worth more than a big house

4. Spend time with friends and family – don't regret it on your deathbed

5. Go outside – happiness is maximized at 13.9°C (57°F)

6. Help others – 100 hours a year is the magical number

7. Practice smiling – it can alleviate pain

8. Plan a trip – but don't take one

9. Meditate – rewire your brain for happiness

10. Practice gratitude – increase both happiness and life satisfaction

The short commute is nice, for sure, but you can't just uproot and move at the drop of a hat. There's a (not so) secret trick I use to deal with my long commute: public transportation. I live about 30 miles from my work in the city center and there's a commuter bus park and ride that cuts out my need to drive entirely. The benefits I've found so far:

- I save a ton of money I'd otherwise be spending on gas.

- By not having to worry about actually driving in traffic, I've found that I'm not stressed and in a bad mood by the time I get to work.

- I have time to myself to read, work on side projects, or take a quick nap.

- I stay on a consistent work schedule

- I get regular morning exercise by walking from the downtown bus stop to and from my office about 5 blocks away

When I tell people I take the bus, they're usually surprised and tend to ask "Well...how much longer does that take?". The response is always the same: "The same amount of time it would take to drive, only I don't pay for gas and I'm not stressed by traffic". Honestly, I'd recommend it to anyone.

> 3. Move closer to work – a short commute is worth more than a big house

I disagree with this one. It's possible to live too close to work. If the commute is less than 15 minutes or so, or perhaps more to the point, if it isn't far enough to feel like a separate place, I'm less happy. I need the separation.

I've experienced this both in college — I was happier when I moved across the river from most of my classes and classmates — and recently at a job, where it was about a 7 minute bike ride to work. You'd think that's ideal, but I felt trapped, like my home was nothing but an extension of the office.

One of my happiest times, in fact, was when I had an 11 mile bike commute (or an hour and 15 minutes on two trains). It wasn't very practical, and was logistically difficult (and I was often late), but I felt amazing.

I've never owned a car, though, so maybe the guideline about shorter commutes is correct if you drive. I've always either walked, biked (exercise) or taken the train (opportunity to read, meditate, relax).

A little bit related, but taking public transport has improved my life quite a bit. I now have 25 minutes a day where I do nothing but read. It's been terrific.

Lukeprog wrote a great and well researched blog post on being happy:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/4su/how_to_be_happy/

> Sleep more – you'll be less sensitive to negative emotions

For individuals with depression that might not be the case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation#Treatment_for...

"Plan a trip – but don't take one"

Advice like that makes me doubt the science a bit. As well as the famous result that people are happier without children. It's certainly interesting to measure such things and ponder what it means, but perhaps the results should make them wonder if they have been measuring the wrong thing.

Dan Ariely pointed out that for example mountaineering seems to be all misery, but people seek out the experience again and again. I wouldn't be surprised that with their technology, the happiness researchers would conclude that mountaineering does not bring happiness at all. Like if they ping the mountaineer every ten minutes to ask "how happy are you right now on a scale of 1 to 10" all they would see might be misery.

Also Nassim Taleb noted in "antifragile" that a happiness researcher he knows who is famous for the "more money doesn't bring more happiness" result is himself very keen on being paid well for his speaking gigs.

Some hits, some misses

Obvious miss - "8. Plan a trip – but don't take one" ??

"Don't regret it on your deathbed" - this is a lame feel good idea that directly contradicts most theory.

Live in the moment not (totally) for the future, aka your death bed. You're alive today, live now.

What makes you happy on your death bed doesn't make you happy today.

The point goes on to make a kinda miss. Friends top family for happiness and are more commonly what people have more control over.

It is not clear that exercise is an effective treatment for depression.

http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD004366/exercise-for-depressi...

> Exercise is moderately more effective than no therapy for reducing symptoms of depression.

> Exercise is no more effective than antidepressants for reducing symptoms of depression, although this conclusion is based on a small number of studies.

> Exercise is no more effective than psychological therapies for reducing symptoms of depression, although this conclusion is based on small number of studies.

> The reviewers also note that when only high-quality studies were included, the difference between exercise and no therapy is less conclusive.

> Attendance rates for exercise treatments ranged from 50% to 100%.

> The evidence about whether exercise for depression improves quality of life is inconclusive.

EDIT: Exercise is good. Don't stop exercising. But don't tell people that exercise alone is a treatment for depression.

"as we get older, particularly past middle age, we tend to grow happier naturally." Sounds like literal survivorship bias.

What is happiness? There are hundreds of things that count as happiness. Release of endorphins? Connection with others? Work/life balance? Sense of purpose? Sense of community? Satisfaction? Calmness? Serenity? Being in the zone? Joy? I tend to use happiness as a catch-all word for positive experiences.

Actually commuting with the bicycle makes me more happy. Because it combines several of his positive points (exercise, be outside etc.) and avoids the stress of driving a car in heavy traffic.

In my opinion the most important thing you can do for happiness is to have purpose. If you don't have a cause you are willing to dedicate your life to, something that you will give it your all to see realized, then you are not really living, you are just surviving, and when you reflect upon your life you'll feel emptiness.

10. Practice gratitude – increase both happiness and life satisfaction

This is true. A lot of us ungrateful in life sometimes and we forgot the little things like family, friends and having some basic things we need in life to survive.

Stop reading HN and go outside :)

glad to see meditation on the list - adding it to may daily routine has had a subtle yet profound impact on the quality of my life.

HN today seems all brain trainy and happinessy..