A happier new year in 5 minutes a day

No, you don't need to make your bed every morning

Hi! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist and professor at Brown University, co-founder of Tech Without Stress, and mom of two young kids. Here at Techno Sapiens, I share the latest research on psychology, technology, and parenting, plus practical tips for living and parenting in the digital age. Subscribe to join 20,000 readers, and if you like it, please share Techno Sapiens with a friend!

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5 min read

Well, it’s that time of year again. Our social media feeds are filled with tips for healthier living. Our inboxes are brimming with new routines and habits. Everything we read is offering new suggestions for remaking our lives in the pursuit of happiness. It’s also the time of year when I spend some time each day browsing these suggestions, wearing my sweatpants, large iced coffee in hand, and thinking nah. 

Make your bed each morning! No, thanks.

Start each day with a mug of hot water and lemon! Nope.

Spend Sundays prepping healthy meals for your family for the week.¹ I mean, c’mon.

Now, maybe you’re in the same boat as me. Maybe the idea of writing “white chicken chili” on a notepad and listing out its ingredients every Sunday fills you with existential dread.

But I would venture to guess that, for some of you, this idea is energizing. You feel great when you plan out your meals! You guzzle hot water and lemon! Making your bed each morning (which roughly 70% of you do) is the best part of your day!

Much of the Internet’s self-improvement advice is packaged as one-size-fits-all, but it turns out, different strategies work for different people. 

So, what should you do to be happier this year? This new study can help you find out.

I like the sound of this

The project we’re discussing is called Big JOY. It was designed by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley,² and it’s a little different from a typical study. Big JOY is a one-week online program that teaches a “micro-act” each day, designed to increase happiness. These micro-acts are based on prior research in positive psychology, and can be done in just a few minutes per day.

Here’s the basic idea: 

• Big JOY asks participants to fill out surveys reporting on their well-being before and after each micro-act, as well as at the beginning and end of the week.

• Anyone can sign up to participate in the program and answer the surveys. I, of course, did this. 

• So far, roughly 87,000 people from 22 countries have participated.

• Data collection is ongoing, and the goal is to identify which micro-acts work best for which people. 

• Participants also get a personalized report telling them which micro-acts led to the biggest change in their happiness—this is how you can figure out which strategies work for you.

What are these “micro-acts”?

Have you ever been driving a boat, and you’re heading in one direction, and then you shift the wheel ever so slightly, and a few hours later you’re hundreds of miles off course? Me neither.³ 

But this is a good analogy for the way that “mico-acts” can work to make us happier. We don’t necessarily need to redesign our lives. We don’t need to wake up at 5:30am everyday to meditate for three hours. Small changes—even 5-minute strategies—can make a big difference in changing the course of our lives. 

So, let’s take a look at Big JOY’s menu of micro-act options:

• Shift your perspective: Think of a situation that has made you frustrated or upset, and try to think about its “silver linings.”

• Dwell in awe: Watch something that inspires awe. In Big JOY, this is a video of a natural wonder of the world, but this could also work with a real-life nature experience, your child, a sunset⁴—whatever inspires you.

• Celebrate another’s joy: Ask a person in your life about something that made them feel good. Listen, ask questions, and celebrate with them. 

• Tune in to what matters: Think through values that are important to you (e.g., generosity, honesty, integrity), and reflect on how you practice these day-to-day.

• Make a gratitude list: Make a short list of things you’re thankful for.

• You are a force of good: In Big JOY, this involves listening to a recording from the Buddhist tradition about how you inherently contribute goodness to the world. A brief prayer or meditation would likely work, too.

• Do something kind: Think about people you will see today and something you could do to brighten their day—a favor, a compliment, or just some words of encouragement.

• Share a laugh: In Big JOY, this involves listening to a short audio clip of others laughing. You could also share a laugh with someone in your life, or watch something funny.

So, do they work?

When researchers analyzed the data they’ve collected so far (11,000 completed surveys), they found, on average, that people who participated in Big JOY reported improvements in well-being over the course of 7 days, including:

• 26% increase in overall well-being

• 23% increase in positive emotions

• 30% increase in relationship satisfaction

• 12% increase in sleep quality

On average, people reported a 26% increase in overall well-being after one-week of participating in Big JOY. Each dot here represents one person.

Find what works for you

There are, of course, limitations to this type of study. People self-select to participate in Big JOY, so despite the sample being large and geographically diverse, there’s a good chance they’re all kinda like me—enthusiastic about positive psychology and primed to believe it will work. Not to mention, all measures are self-reported and very simple (e.g., rating how satisfied you feel with your life on a scale of 1-11).

But here’s the most useful aspect of the study, in my opinion: participants receive a personalized list of micro-acts that worked best (or worst) for them. Over time, the researchers can use this information to draw conclusions about how different strategies help different people. It’s a good reminder that we don’t need to adopt every piece of advice we find on the Internet—what matters is that we find what works for us, individually.

According to my personalized report, my top strategy was “Celebrate Another’s Joy.” Spending five minutes talking to my husband about something that made him happy turned out to be an effective, and shockingly easy, happiness boost for me.

Going forward, I’m planning to make these conversations a habit⁵—unless, of course, what brings him joy is making the bed every morning. Then he’s on his own.

Want to participate in Big JOY? It’s free, and you can sign up here.

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A quick survey

What did you think of this week’s Techno Sapiens? Your feedback helps me make this better. Thanks!

The Best | Great | Good | Meh | The Worst

1. Based on a recent expedition to my local Trader Joe’s, it seems everyone within a 50-mile radius has decided to do this type of meal planning this year. Except for one woman I saw, whose cart contained only: One (1) large carrot and eight (8) containers of chocolate-covered almonds. This is exactly the energy I think we should all be bringing into 2024.

2. I’ve been to Berkeley, CA only one time. As a junior in high school, I went on a lacrosse recruiting trip to UC Berkeley to meet the team, see the facilities, etc. One of my only memories is a gym, whose treadmills looked out at floor-to-ceiling windows with truly unbelievable views of the surrounding landscape—so the idea that people there are interested in studying things like “awe,” “joy,” and “gratitude” checks out. I recognize there’s a lot more to Berkeley than these windows, but no need to convince me otherwise. [Also, a quick Google search has not turned up any gym like the one I remember, so it’s entirely possible I imagined this?]

3. The amount of Googling I did to write this one sentence about boats is a good reminder of just how little I know about boats. Do you “drive” a boat? (seems like you actually “pilot” or “steer” it). How fast do boats go? (big range). How many nautical miles in a mile? (0.86) What are knots? (nautical miles per hour). Big fan of boat analogies, not so much boats themselves, it turns out.

4. On my original list of examples of things that might inspire awe, in addition to “a real-life nature experience” and “your child,” I had “a tall building.” My husband (i.e., editor-in-chief of Techno Sapiens) read this and was like, “wait, what? A tall building?” I’ve replaced it with “sunset” to be more universally appealing, but I think the old “tall building” still deserves a mention in the footnotes—if only to convince my husband, whom I love very much and who also spent too many years living in New York City to truly appreciate a good building. Do you know when the first skyscraper was built? 1884. Power tools did not exist! Cranes did not exist! Cars didn’t even exist! How did they build these things?! Awe-inspiring, if you ask me.

5. My husband and I have been trying to put something like this into practice for awhile, by asking each other, at the end of most days, “What was the best part of your day?” Simple and very effective for increasing happiness-boosting conversations. We’ve now started to involve our toddler, which has made the tradition even better. He likes to answer the question by stopping, looking around the room, and proclaiming that the “part of his best day” (so close) was the first thing he notices (e.g., the Christmas tree, his dinner, etc.)