Gretchen Rubin's Blog, page 260

I Love Anthropologie! Why?

I love Anthropologie because this fabulous store is going to carry The Happiness Project. Yay! I can't wait to see it there.

Make It Easy To Do Right.

I'm working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too. Everyone's project will look different, but it's the rare person who can't benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday's post will help you think about your own happiness project.

In order to keep all my happiness-project resolutions – making resolutions is fun, but keeping them is tough -- I've been trying hard to follow the resolution to "Make it easy to do right." I try to make it as easy as...

"Write Drunk, Edit Sober; Drink Coffee While Reading the Paper; Watch the Cat."

Happiness interview: Larry Smith.

When I was at the SXSW Interactive conference a few months ago, I met Larry Smith. He's the editor of SMITH Magazine -- "Everyone has a story. What's yours?" It's the home of the crazy brilliant Six-Word Memoir project -- and a place for passionate, personal storytelling of all kinds.

I was so pleased to meet Larry, because I'm such a fan of the six-word memoir form. Reading them is dangerously addictive. Here's a good one for a person starting a happiness...

8 Tips for Handling Mail (the Old-Fashioned Kind) More Efficiently.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.

Last week, I posted 5 realistic tips for using email more efficiently, but ye olde paper post continues to deliver a large stack to my door, too. After much trial and error, I developed a system that works very well for me to keep the pile manageable.

One key to my system is the physical lay-out of my mail-processing area. I stand in front of a chest-of-drawers in my hallway. It has a wastebasket on one...

Video: Meditate on Koans.

2010 Happiness Challenge: For those of you following the 2010 Happiness Project Challenge, to make 2010 a happier year – and even if you haven't officially signed up for the challenge -- this month's focus is Mindfulness. Last week's resolution was a quiz, How mindful are you? Did you take that quiz? How did you do?

This week's resolution is to Meditate on koans. A "koan" is a question, story, or statement that can't be understood logically. Zen Buddhist monks meditate on koans as a way to...

A "Little Thing" (Very Little) That Makes Me Happy: the Gift Bag.

Samuel Johnson wrote, "It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery, and as much happiness as possible," and I'm often struck by how much happiness I get from small, seemingly trivial aspects of my life.

Solving a nagging problem, even a very insignificant one, can bring me a sizable boost. One of my Twelve Personal Commandments is to Identify the problem, because once I recognize a problem, I can often identify a solution. Here's an example.

I...

"People Need To Be Reminded More Often Than They Need To Be Instructed."

"People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed."

-- Samuel Johnson

* Through my friend Laura Miller's great Salon post, A reader's advice to writers: Beware of Mary Sue, I found my way to an extraordinary site, TV Tropes. Oh, my goodness, it's fantastic. If you liked Polti's The Thirty Six Dramatic Situations, you will love it.

* Join the happiness conversation on the Facebook Page -- lots of interesting discussion there.

Think about Your Mother.

I'm working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone's project will look different, but it's the rare person who can't benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday's post will help you think about your own happiness project.

Some people think it's ridiculous to celebrate holidays like Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day – that these are just commercial holidays forced on us by clever marketers. But I think it's nice to be prompted to think...

"Listening to Dance Music, Mowing the Lawn, Getting Out of Debt, and Spending Time with Friends."

Happiness interview: J.D. Roth.

J.D. Roth is another member of LifeRemix network -- "Great writing about great lives" -- because he runs the popular blog, Get Rich Slowly, "personal finance that makes cents." He has a new book out, Your Money: The Missing Manualthat also helps people get control of their personal finances. The relationship between money and happiness is one of the most complicated and emotional sub-issues within the larger subject of happiness, so I was interested to hear...

Five Realistic Tips for Using Email More Efficiently.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.

Email. Can't live with it, can't live without it. I'm trying to be smarter about how to use email so that it makes my life easier, not tougher.

I've read a lot of advice about email that, although it sounds helpful, just isn't realistic. For example, I've read that you should deal with each email as it comes in. I just can't do that.

I also commit the classic mistake of having a "miscellaneous" folder...