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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Meik Wiking
Read between
April 7 - April 9, 2021
Tuesday-morning quiet time.
four hours of “thinking time”—and
For some people, no-talk Thursdays or quiet Tuesday mornings are similar in concept to working from home. No meetings, no interruptions.
DO-NOT-DISTURB INITIATIVES Try out initiatives like Tuesday-morning quiet time, which may improve your sense of freedom at work.
work-from-home Wednesdays.
SEO (search engine optimization) company Brath, which reports: “Today we get more done in six hours than comparable companies do in eight. We believe it brings with it the high level of creativity demanded in this line of work. We believe nobody can be creative and productive for eight hours straight.
No e-mails after work Germany: In 2011, Volkswagen stopped its BlackBerry servers sending e-mails to a portion of its employees when they are off-shift. The staff can still use their devices to make calls, but the servers stop routing e-mails thirty minutes after the end of employees’ shifts, and start again thirty minutes before they return to work. (This did not apply to senior management.)
Trust is not only something you see, it is something that is shown to you.
“A successful society is one in which people have a high level of trust in each other—including family members, colleagues, friends, strangers, and institutions such as government. Social trust spurs a sense of life satisfaction.”
HAPPINESS TIP: ENCOURAGE PRAISE AMONG COWORKERS TO INCREASE TRUST Employee of the week is the one who has made their colleagues shine or told other people about their achievements.
A focus on empathy and collaboration is one thing, but equally important is the understanding that success does not have to be a zero-sum game. Just because you win, it does not mean that I lose.
HAPPINESS TIP: TURN COMPETITION INTO COOPERATION
Change games of competition into games of cooperation by reconfiguring rules and goals.
UK is a pioneer in the well-being field. For one thing, the Annual Population Survey asks 160,000 people every year four well-being questions such as “Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?,” “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?,” “Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?,” and “Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?”
If you listen to people’s stories, you may find that you might have made some of the same choices if you had lived their life rather than yours. We are not so very different; we just had different starting points.
if we listen we might learn that it is inequality, unfairness, and injustice that are the enemy and that empathy, trust, and cooperation are the way forward.
A process called the Parallel Narrative Experience aims to help each side of the conflict understand the personal and national narratives of the other.
“If you need help, I’ll help. For free. (Especially if your needs are fun, different, and morally deserved.) TheFreeHelpGuy.”
My life is vivid. Giving is happiness.
HAPPINESS TIP: BE MORE AMÉLIE Find ways to bring happiness to others through acts of kindness.
There is a Chinese proverb that goes “If you want happiness for an hour—take a nap. If you want happiness for a day—go fishing. If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime—help someone else.”
doing something good makes us feel good, because the action produces a mild version of a morphine high.
HAPPINESS TIP: CELEBRATE WORLD KINDNESS DAY
World Kindness Day
and is celebrated on November 13 each year.
People who volunteer are happier than those who do not, even after controlling for other factors such as socioeconomic status. Moreover, they experience fewer depressive symptoms, less anxiety, and enjoy a more meaningful life.
five seconds of a longer journey toward a kinder world. Remember, big things often have small beginnings.
KINDNESS: A LANGUAGE THAT THE BLIND CAN SEE Mark Twain once wrote that kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Robert Levine has taken that literally.
HAPPINESS TIP: DON’T ASK, JUST HELP
Bypass the whole “Let me know if there is anything I or we can do” thing. You know what to do.
The point is that, sometimes, there is no reason to ask if someone needs help—so just help.
“There is an important word in Brazil: simpático. It refers to a range of desirable social qualities—to be friendly, nice, agreeable, and good-natured, a person who is fun to be with and pleasant to deal with.
Random Acts of Kindness Foundation encourages people to become a “RAKtivist” (Random Acts of Kindness activist)—a sort of kindness ambassador.
HAPPINESS TIP: BECOME A RAKTIVIST Start doing little Random Acts of Kindness
Most of us remember criticism far better than we remember praise.
The initiative is changing the way the pupils think about food and health. They call it propaganda gardening. They have found the language that unifies us: a language that cuts across age, gender, and culture.
Incredible Edible is built on three fronts: community, education, and business.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
you see something that increases the happiness of you, your community, or the world as a whole, talk about it, write about it, film it, photograph it—and pass it on.
At the Happiness Research Institute, we will be following the hashtag #Look4Lykke on social media. Tell us what works when it comes to improving quality of life. In what ways are people and societies paving the way to happiness?
Most important, find out how you can have a positive impact on your world. On our world. We need more dreamers and doers. We need more creators of kindness, heroes of happiness, and champions of change.
