The Happiness Project

A chronicle of my attempts to test-drive every tip, principle and scientific study that promotes happiness.

Gretchen Rubin is working on THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, a book and a blog about her adventures learning to be happier. See full bio

November 4, 2009

A Fundamental Secret to Happiness? Get Enough Sleep.

I’ve written before about my resolution to Get more sleep, and I’m bringing it up again, because I’m truly convinced that this is one of the first aspects of life to tackle when you start a happiness project. Read More

October 30, 2009

Five Great “Don’ts” of a Happiness Project.

Several people have said to me, “When you’re making a resolution, it’s better not to say ‘No’ or ‘Don’t’ to yourself. You should keep it positive. Find ways to say 'yes'!” I think there’s some merit to thinking about resolutions this way – but I don’t agree completely. Read More

October 21, 2009

Stop Expecting to Change Your Habit in 21 Days.

In my research on happiness, I keep running into the assertion that it takes twenty-one days to develop a new habit -- but I’ve always had my doubts about the validity that number. Read More

October 4, 2009

A Secret to Happiness? Don't Get Organized.

One of my favorite things to do is to help my friends clear their clutter. It’s less emotionally taxing than clearing my own clutter, plus I don’t have any delicious, horrible piles left to tackle (okay, maybe I do have one messy pile of shirts in my closet). As a consequence, I’ve seen a lot of clutter and heard lots of people talk about their thoughts about clutter. And I’ve reached an important conclusion: Don’t get organized. Read More

October 2, 2009

Eighteen Tips that Aren't, It Turns Out, From a Churchyard.

I was over at a friend’s house – for a meeting of one of my two children’s literature reading groups, in fact – where I saw her framed copy of “Desiderata.” (“Desiderata” is a Latin word meaning “things to be desired.”) I’d seen it before, but I’d never read more than the first few lines, and I was struck by the soundness of the suggestions. Read More

September 25, 2009

Six Tips for Coping with the Fact that You Don't Remember Someone's Name.

If you’re like me, you sometimes have trouble remembering people’s names, or even how you know them. A few years ago, while at a chaotic birthday party for a three-year-old, I was on the brink of going over to some little kid’s father to say, “I think we went to college together.” Turns out it was Dylan McDermott! Read More

September 22, 2009

A Resolution I Bet You've Never Tried: Tweeting "The Waves."

I have a new (highly specific and quite idiosyncratic) happiness-project resolution, “Use Twitter to send out a daily quotation from Virginia Woolf’s brilliant novel, The Waves. Read More

September 19, 2009

Why "Having a (Playful) Mission" Can Make You Happier.

Writer Jean Stafford scoffed, “Happy people don’t need to have fun,” but in fact, studies show that the absence of feeling bad isn’t enough to make you feel good; you must strive to find sources of feeling good. Research shows that regularly having fun is a key factor in having a happy life; people who have fun are twenty times more likely to feel happy. Read More

September 18, 2009

Ten Tips for Getting Along with Your Mother-in-Law.

I’m extremely lucky with fate as it relates to my mother-in-law and father-in-law. We get along very well, which is fortunate, because we live right around the corner from my in-laws, and I mean right around the corner. You don’t even have to cross the street; one lone skinny townhouse separates our apartment buildings. I see my in-laws many times each month.

Obviously, though, many people aren’t in such a happy circumstance. I’ve noticed that relationship problems with in-laws are among the most common issues that people raise. Read More

September 8, 2009

Twelve Tips to Create a Happier (and More Productive) Workplace

I just finished First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. I’d heard about it for years, but I didn’t actually pick up a copy until a smart friend told me to read it. The authors did a study with the Gallup Organization to find a way, among other things, to measure strong workplaces, ones that would attract and retain the most productive employees. Read More

Books by Gretchen Rubin

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Happiness Basics

Research on how to increase positive moods and capitalize on your strengths has proliferated lately thanks to the positive psychology movement, and has shed light on ongoing insights into personality, mood, and cognition.

Go to the Happiness Basics page for more on Happiness including:

Current Issue

Everyday Creativity

How to start living creatively and reap the benefits.

Subscribe to The Happiness Project

Books by Gretchen Rubin

Happiness Basics

Current Issue