How to be happy in one sentence (with commentary)

My single sentence on how to be happier (subject to revision and improvement!): Sleep, eat, and exercise, and optimistically work closely with others towards specific goals that contribute to the greater good.

This sentence is, of course, an oversimplication. Still, some habits are far likelier to lead to happiness than others, and scholars have in recent years made great progress in identifying these habits. To learn more, I recommend Professor Tal Ben Shahar, author of the bestselling book Happier, who teaches one of the most popular classes at his college. His course and book use research to determine what can lead us to more fulfilling lives. I would also point you to Professor Martin Seligman, one of the pioneers of the positive psychology movement; his book Authentic Happiness is fascinating.

Now for a little more detail on my happiness sentence:

Sleep. When constantly surrounded by friends, this is particularly difficult. I would suggest taking some time just after dinner each night to reflect on your sleep goal. Then plan your evening tasks backwards from that point. Sleep allows learning to solidify and leads to happier and deeper personal connections - something to think about if you frequently miss sleep to study or to hang out with friends! Professor Norbert Schwartz discovered in his recent happiness study that "Making sixty thousand dollars more in annual income has less of an effect on your daily happiness than getting one extra hour of sleep a night."

Eat. Michael Pollan, author of An Omnivore's Dilemma, recommends "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” By "Eat food," he means "Don't eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." I would add that the "not too much" advice is aimed toward an overly sedentary American population as a whole; as active, competitive and growing high school students, I might even change this completely to "Quite a bit!"

Exercise. Almost all of you are excellent on this point so I will not belabor it. Hooray for the runner's high, and for general fitness.

Optimistically. One’s thoughts have a self reinforcing quality. While it is not possible to turn a tragedy into a joy simply by thinking about it, it is possible to preempt a blah day with a conscious focus on gratitude, forgiveness, curiosity, and energy.

Work closely with others. Spending time with others makes people happier. School makes this not only quite easy, but almost unavoidable! Here is another area in which almost all of you excel.

Towards specific goals. Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi not only has one of the coolest names I've ever come across, he also has written Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He concludes that great happiness often comes from striving towards challenging but attainable goals.

Contribute to the greater good. Studies have shown that people are happiest in jobs that serve others, and that people who give time, money, or support to others are more likely to be happy and satisfied with their lives.

So go forth and sleep, eat, and exercise, and optimistically work closely with others towards specific goals that contribute to the greater good!

Keeping a calendar and to-do list

Many people find keeping a calendar and a to do list at the heart of staying organized. In this post for the student success blog Gearfire, Chris Y. lists his top 100 steps to getting things done. Check it out!

Organizing for tasks that do not repeat

High school is repetitive (in a good way). Where are you supposed to be next Tuesday at 10:40 AM? In September you receive a piece of paper that tells you, and you fairly quickly memorize it. What are you supposed to do this evening around 8 PM? Run through a list of classes for the next day in your head and recall, look up, or ask a friend what the homework is. You do not need an advanced organizational system to stay on track (or, more precisely, school has created an advanced organizational system for you).

Searching for the right college, however, is a series of actions that generally are most likely things you have not done before and things you will not do again. This poses a challenge, since you are used to succeeding without any way of making sure you get things like this done. This may be one reason why the college search can feel harder than a class, even though it is neither as intellectually challenging nor as time intensive.

How to handle tasks like this? I like David Allen's Getting Things Done, but whatever system you choose I suggest the first step is recognizing that you may need a structure to organize your college search to-dos.

Why this blog?

As a teacher and college counselor at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, I frequently email my students advising them to take some action or another. As my students are busy and likely to tune me out if I write to them too frequently, I strive to keep my messages to "mission-critical" activities. I hope to use this weblog as a place to share potentially interesting and helpful ideas beyond the everyday tasks preparing for or searching for the right college.