Ja’s Happiness Project: All the Tasks and Links

Posted on by theageofthediary

Here’s a break down of all the tasks listed in Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project and all the links to the blog posts that I wrote about what it was like doing those tasks:

  • Starting a Happiness Project at a Time of Absolute Misery
    • Introduction to the Happiness Project
    • Reasons why I decided to do this
  • Task 1: Make a list of things that bring you joy
  • Task 2: Make a list of things that make you sad
  • Task 3: Make resolutions and keep them
  • Task 4: Read
    • Read biographies
    • Read about other people’s happiness projects
    • Read Plato, Boethius, Montaigne, Bertrand Russel, Thoreau, Schopenhauer
    • Read about religions
    • Read about positive psychology, Martin Seligman, Daniel Kahneman, Daniel Gilbert, Barry Schwartz, Ed Diener, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Sonja Lyubomirsky
    • Read about happiness experts, Oprah, Julie Morgenstern, David Allen
    • Read novels, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Marilynne Robinson, Michael Frayn’s A Landing on the Sun, Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, Ian McEwan’s Saturday
    • Read philosophy
    • Read Psychology Today
    • Read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Elizabeth von Arnim’s Elizabeth and Her German Garden, the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness, Marla Cilley’s Sink Reflections
    • Read Blaise Pascal
    • Read Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
    • Read Seneca, Martin Seligman
    • Read about friendship
    • Read the play The Blue Bird
    • Read Epicurus, Nietzsche
    • Read Samuel Johnson
    • Read Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness
    • Read Erasmus
    • Read W.H. Auden
    • Read Zen Koans
    • Read Story of a Soul by Saint Therese of Lisieux
  • Task 5: Boost Energy
  • Task 6: Do something new
  • Task 7: Sing in the morning
  • Task 8: Lighten up
  • Task 9: Do things that will help you remember happy times. Decorate your space with memories
  • Task 10: Take time for projects
  • Task 11: Read memoirs of catastrophe
  • Task 12: Keep a gratitude notebook
  • Task 13: Emulate someone you admire
  • Task 14: Write a novel (50,000 words), join the National Novel Writing Month
  • Task 15: Make a video blog every day for 100 days about doing something positive (advice from Gretchen’s reader)
  • Task 16: Join a marathon, join a triathlon (advice from Gretchen’s reader)
  • Task 17: Write a memoir (advice from Gretchen’s reader)
  • Task 18: Create a mental are of refuge

Quotes from The Happiness Project:

  • “What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”

This post will be updated as I continue with my happiness project.

More Happiness and Inspiration:

Check out my other blog categories.

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One thought on “Ja’s Happiness Project: All the Tasks and Links”

  1. Pingback: Create a Mental Area of Refuge – Age of the Diary

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