Zoikes, today is a VERY happy day for me.

I’m thrilled that the Happiness Project is today’s “Featured Blog” on Typepad. Hello, new visitors, and thanks for dropping by!

I’m a-glow at the recognition and the extremely kind, generous words from my beloved Typepad. I even get a t-shirt, how fabulous.

In honor of the occasion, I’ve decided to re-publish my most popular post. Back by audience demand, it’s…Seven tips for making yourself happier IN THE NEXT HOUR.

(Usually Wednesday is Tip Day at the Happiness Project, but I decided to bend the rules, just this once.)

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Seven tips for making yourself happier in the next hour.

You can make yourself happier – and this doesn’t have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now. In the next hour, check off as many of the following items as possible. Each of these accomplishments will lift your mood, as will the mere fact that you’ve tackled and achieved some concrete goals.

1. Boost your energy: stand up and pace while you talk on the phone or, even better, take a brisk ten-minute walk outside. Research shows that when people move faster, their metabolism speeds up, and the activity and sunlight are good for your focus, your mood, and the retention of information. Plus, because of “emotional contagion,” if you act energetic, you’ll help the people around you feel energetic, too.

2. Reach out to friends: make a lunch date or send an email to a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Having warm, close bonds with other people is one of the keys to happiness, so take the time to stay in touch. Somewhat surprisingly, it turns out that socializing boosts the moods not only of extroverts, but also of introverts.

3. Rid yourself of a nagging task: answer a difficult email, purchase something you need, or call to make that dentist’s appointment. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a big rush of energy and cheer, and you’ll be surprised that you procrastinated for so long.

4. Create a calmer environment: clear some physical and mental space around your desk by sorting papers, pitching junk, stowing supplies, sending out quick responses, filing, or even just making your piles neater. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizeable dent. Try to get in the habit of using the “one minute rule”—i.e., never postpone any task that can be completed in less than one minute. An uncluttered environment will contribute to a more serene mood.

5. Lay the groundwork for some future fun: order a book you’ve been wanting to read (not something you think you should read) or plan a weekend excursion to a museum, hiking trail, sporting event, gardening store, movie theater—whatever sounds like fun. Studies show that having fun on a regular basis is a pillar of happiness, and anticipation is an important part of that pleasure. Try to involve friends or family, as well; people enjoy almost all activities more when they’re with other people than when they’re alone.

6. Do a good deed: make an email introduction of two people who could help each other, or set up a blind date, or shoot someone a piece of useful information or gratifying praise. Do good, feel good—this really works. Also, although we often believe that we act because of the way we feel, in fact, we often feel because of the way we act. When you act in a friendly way, you’ll strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.

7. Act happy: put a smile on your face right now, and keep smiling. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile has a positive influence on your emotions—turns out that just going through the motion of happiness brightens your mood. And if you’re smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable.

Some people worry that wanting to be happier is a selfish goal. To the contrary. Studies show that happier people are more sociable, likeable, healthy, and productive—and they’re more inclined to help other people. So in working to boost your own happiness, you’re benefiting others as well.

Feel happier yet?

Research shows that a key component of happiness is a sense of control over your life. The more you perceive yourself to be in control, the better you feel.

A sense of control means having a feeling of autonomy, of choosing how you spend your time, of doing your own work in your own way.

This is obviously true about major issues, such as whether you can control when you leave work each night or whether you have any leisure time. Lately, though, I’ve noticed how much better I feel even in insignificant situations when I feel like I have some control.

Generally, if the Big Man makes dinner, I clean the kitchen; despite the obvious moral hazard inherent in this system, it works well. The other night, however, as we finished eating, I looked around and noticed that he’d somehow used every pot and chopping board we owned.

“Don’t worry about the kitchen,” the Big Man volunteered, before I said a word. “I’ll clean it up after my conference call.”

I went ahead and cleaned up the mess myself. By telling me that he’d take over the chore even though it was my responsibility, he put me in control. By offering to do the clean-up himself, he removed my sense of resentment, and he also made me feel like I was choosing to give him a treat.

Also, discomfort is easier to bear when you know that you can end it when you choose.

A few months ago, for our trip to India, I got my first prescription for sleep medication. I used to get very worked up when I had trouble sleeping, but now my bouts of insomnia bother me less. I almost never actually take the Ambien, but just knowing that it’s in the medicine cabinet makes me feel in control of my sleep.

So I’ve been looking for ways to make people, particularly the Big Man, feel that they have more control, especially in situations they find unpleasant. I’m trying to say things like…

“Do as much as you can, and I’ll finish up.”
“We’ll leave as soon as you want to leave.”
“Don’t worry about that, this time I’ll take care of it.”

Child-rearing experts advise giving children a sense of control by allowing them to make choices about the little things in their lives—though with kids, it’s better to limit the choices so they don’t feel overwhelmed.

“Would you like to wear your green shirt or your white shirt?”
“Do you feel like having milk or water with dinner?”
“Pick out a book for me to read to you.”

This blog is a great example of how having a sense of control changes perception of a task. If “someone” had assigned me the job of writing a blog entry six days a week, I would have considered it an enormous burden. But because I control the blog, and I can change my mind whenever I like, keeping up with the writing feels like a satisfying exercise of autonomy, rather than an onerous assignment.

“Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness, which is always founded upon a peculiar relish for all the little pleasures which common occurrences afford. We readily sympathize with it: it inspires us with the same joy.” –Adam Smith.

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Several readers have been kind enough to write to let me know that my text appears underlined if they read it using Firefox or Safari. I’m working on it! Please don’t give up on reading; I’ll get it fixed asap.

The other day, I was waxing poetic to a friend about the joys of clearing out closets, and she sighed, “I know, my closets are a mess, and I’m dying to get them cleaned out. As soon as I have some free time, I’m going to get started.”

The fact is – she doesn’t have any free time.

I suffer from this illusion as much as anyone. I fantasize about the summer looming long and empty, with ample time for me to undertake all sorts of projects that I can’t do during “the year.” I think I’ll get a lot done at night after the girls go to bed. I imagine that as soon as I’m done with my book proposal/my manuscript/book publicity, I’ll have a glut of leisure.

But for a lot of people, including me, that kind of open time just isn’t going to present itself.

The fact that I have no “free time,” however, doesn’t mean that I can’t “free up some time.” I need to set priorities and make time for the things I want to do.

Only since the Happiness Project have I kicked the bad habit of putting off things I didn’t want to do, with the excuse that I’d do them when I had free time — priorities like weight-training, doctors’ appointments, starting a blog, organizing all my wonderful happiness quotations in a book.

These days, I often go to the extreme of making an entry in my calendar, like “research Disneyworld” or “clean out coat closet.” Otherwise, I never find the time.

I might have thought that making time for these “free time” priorities would make me feel overwhelmed by a crowded schedule. Actually, it makes me feel more relaxed, because I see that I can tackle the tasks that I know should be done. As the list shrinks a bit, I feel like my life is in better shape.

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There are so many aspects to happiness in my view: diet, exercise, relationships, romance, parenting, creativity, efficiency, spirituality, order, learning, work….the list goes on. When I poke around the internet, there is SO MUCH that interests me that sometimes I just turn away and pick up a book. Yesterday I was checking out the “self-improvement” zone, and came across Today is That Day and ended up spending a lot of time there.

One of my Twelve Commandments (see left column) is “Identify the problem.” I’ve realized that often I’ll put up with a minor problem or an irritation for years, simply because I haven’t taken a minute to consider the nature of the problem and how it might be solved.

This rule seems so obvious that I’m surprised that it has proved so tremendously helpful. Nevertheless, it has.

Here’s an embarrassing example. I was always slightly annoyed by my need to run around the apartment getting this or that—a screwdriver, a pair of scissors, some Advil. Finally, light dawned, and I realized that as an expression of my love of clearing clutter, I was an over-consolidator.

What’s an over-consolidator?

I’d consolidated all the tools in the toolbox, all the scissors in the office-supply drawer, all the medicine in the medicine cabinet. Not a good idea. Some items SHOULD be spread around.

I put a screwdriver, a pair of scissors, and a bottle of Advil in the kitchen. I scattered scissors throughout the apartment. Etc. How did I not figure this out earlier?

Here’s a solution to a trickier problem. I’d been feeling weighed down by all the adorable drawings the Big Girl brought home from school. I loved them, but I didn’t know what to do with them. They were everywhere.

Finally, I said to myself, “Take a minute. Identify the problem. What am I going to do with these drawings?” and I came up with a great plan.

I chose the twenty best drawings. The Big Girl and I sat at the computer, and she dictated an explanation of what was going on in the pictures (not always quite obvious). I printed out the captions, glued them on the drawings, took the drawings to Kinkos to be color-xeroxed and bound. Then I threw away the originals (an important clutter-clearing step).

The whole process took weeks, and the color-xeroxing was surprisingly expensive, but it was worth it; now the drawings are preserved forever, and I gave copies for the grandparents and great-grandparents, who loved the gift.

So whenever I feel fretful, I instruct myself, “Identify the problem.”
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Therese Borchard has a blog on beliefnet, Beyond Blue, where she writes about “the daily spiritual journey of life with depression and anxiety.” We come at the subject of happiness from different angles, but obviously, we’re both deeply interested in the question of how we and other people can be happier. Therese was nice enough to run an interview with me.