10 Simple Things You Can Do That Will Make You Happier, Backed By Science
Happiness is something we think about a lot at Buffer.It's been a cornerstone of our culture from the beginning (just take a look at this slide deck about it from way back in 2013). Though our values have evolved since then, you'll still see echoes of how important happiness is for us to cultivate in our most up-to-date version.No surprise then that I thought it would be interesting to dig into the research on how to become a happier person. Spoiler: there's a lot of it! After combing through as much as I could, here are 11 of the simplest things that make you happy, according to science.
1. Exercise (even 10 minutes is enough)
You've likely heard of endorphins, the pain and stress-relieving hormones released when you exercise. But the release of these feel-good chemicals is not the only dramatic effect that exercise can have on your body.Getting moving also triggers the release of more happiness hormones, serotonin and dopamine. On top of that, exercise increases your heart rate, which in turn pumps more oxygen to your brain. A well-oxygenated brain is as great as it sounds — many studies have found that this can help manage anxiety and depression, too.In Shawn Achor’s book, The Happiness Advantage, he cites a fascinating study on this. (The book is a great read, by the way — I'll be referring back to it a lot in this article!).
In the study, three groups of patients treated their depression with either medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. The results of this study surprised me. Although all three groups experienced similar improvements in their happiness levels to begin with, the follow-up assessments proved to be radically different:
2. Sleep more — you’ll feel like you’ve won the lottery
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), sleep deprivation dramatically impairs memory and concentration, disrupts your metabolism, and increases levels of stress hormones.Beyond the severe physical consequences of getting enough sleep (“People who chronically fail to get enough sleep may actually be cutting their lives short,” the APA says), you don’t need me to tell you that a bad night’s sleep can seriously impact your mood.A study published in the journal Sleep, which analyzed the sleep patterns of 30,594 people over the age of 16 in the U.K. across a period of 4 years, found that insufficient or poor sleep worsened emotional states.With the widely used General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a survey that helps determine health-related quality of life, they made some interesting comparisons with participants who got more and better sleep:“Changes on the GHQ are comparable with those seen in mental health professionals completing an eight-week program of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy designed to improve psychological well-being,” researchers write.“They are also comparable with the average improvement in well-being shown by U.K. lottery winners two years after a medium-sized lottery win.” Read: Getting more sleep will boost your mood as much as winning the lottery.
3. Move closer to work (or work from home)
Our commute to the office can have a powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that we tend to do this twice a day, five days a week, makes it unsurprising that its effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy.Several studies have found that happiness and commute time are inversely proportional. As this paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health put it: “The longer the commute, the lower the satisfaction with work and life; the length of commuting can also cause damage to health, affecting physical health and causing inactivity.”Little wonder then that a commute that is a matter of seconds — i.e. the distance between your bedroom/kitchen/bathroom and your desk — is a huge factor in happiness and well-being.A 2023 study by Tracking Happiness found that remote workers are 20% happier than their in-office counterparts. In our most recent State of Remote Work report, 91 percent of respondents had had a positive experience of working remotely, while 98 percent said they would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers.
4. Spend time with friends and family
Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving our happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have found that time spent with friends and family makes a big difference to how happy we feel, generally.I love the way Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert explains it: “We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends, and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.”Psychiatrist George Vaillant is the director of a 72-year study of the lives of 268 men, one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. In an interview in 2008, he was asked about what he'd learned from the men. Vaillant’s response: "That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people."He shared insights of the study with The Atlantic's Joshua Wolf Shenk on how the men’s social connections made a difference to their overall happiness: “The men’s relationships at age 47, he found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except defenses," Wolf Shenk writes. "Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when younger."
5. Get outside somewhere green-ish
Great news for those of us who spend most of our days at our desks: you don't need to spend hours in the sunshine to reap the benefits of good old-fashioned fresh air.Spending time outdoors in a green space for just 20 minutes was enough to boost well-being, according to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research.“Some people may go to the park and just enjoy nature," study co-author Hon Yuen told TIME. "It’s not that they have to be rigorous in terms of exercise. You relax and reduce stress, and then you feel more happy.”If the idea of finding a space green enough to be considered 'nature' feels a bit far off, fear not — the study had participants visit urban parks in Birmingham, U.K., not Yosemite.A study from the University of Sussex also found that being outdoors might contribute towards a happier life: “Being outdoors, near the sea, on a warm, sunny weekend afternoon is the perfect spot for most. In fact, participants were found to be substantially happier outdoors in all-natural environments than they were in urban environments.”
6. Help others to help yourself
There are plenty of studies that show volunteering, random acts of kindness, or just giving someone else a compliment can boost your mood.In his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman explains that helping others can improve our own lives:"We scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested."If we go back to Shawn Achor’s book, he says this about helping others: "When researchers interviewed more than 150 people about their recent purchases, they found that money spent on activities — such as concerts and group dinners out — brought far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches. Spending money on other people, called 'prosocial spending', also boosts happiness.
7. Practice smiling — it can alleviate pain
Fun fact: The simple act of smiling causes the brain to release those feel-good hormones, dopamine and serotonin.Smiling itself can make us feel better, but it’s more effective when we back it up with positive thoughts, according to this study published in the Academy of Management Journal:“Customer-service workers who fake smiles throughout the day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity. But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts — such as a tropical vacation or a child’s recital — improve their mood and withdraw less.”One of our previous posts goes into even more detail about the science of smiling.
8. Plan a trip — you don’t even need to take it
As opposed to actually taking a holiday, planning a vacation or just a break from work can improve our happiness.A study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as employees enjoyed a sense of anticipation, which boosted happiness for eight weeks. After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar — even if it’s a month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.
9. Meditate — rewire your brain for happiness
Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, clarity, and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm.It turns out it’s also useful for improving your happiness. A study by Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation.After the course, they scanned participants' brains again — and found that the parts of their brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank.According to Shawn Achor, meditation can make you happier long-term:“Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating, we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness.”
10. Practice gratitude to increase both happiness and life satisfaction
This is a seemingly simple strategy, but I’ve personally found it to make a huge difference to my outlook.There are lots of ways to practice gratitude, from keeping a journal of things you’re grateful for, sharing three good things that happen each day with a friend or your partner, and going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you.In an experiment where some participants took note of things they were grateful for each day, their moods were improved just from this simple practice.Participants "exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the three studies, relative to the comparison groups," the authors of the study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology write.