One of the most common happiness recommendations is to keep a gratitude journal. Studies show that doing so raises people’s life satisfaction, improves health, increases energy, reduces troublesome thoughts, and promotes good sleep.

So, as part of this month of memento mori (“remember you must die”), I’ve started a gratitude journal (although, I must confess, it struck me as somewhat precious and artificial). Each night, I type up three things that I’m grateful for, or appreciate.

Looking back at two weeks of entries, I see that I never mention some of the most important factors for my happiness: a stable, democratic government; my health and the health of my family; the relative lack of dysfunction in my family; my secure financial situation; my love of my work and where I live; the proximity of good friends.

Reading my list from last night, for example, I see that I didn’t mention the clean bill of health (I assume) I received yesterday afternoon.

I went in for a routine medical test. My usual inclination is to postpone such things, but it was starting to nag at me that I was overdue—and there’s nothing like reading a stack of cancer memoirs to convince you to keep up with your check-ups.

So I went, and I have to go back in six months so they can double-check some results, but they don’t seem concerned at all. It gave me a chill to look at my report.

[ ] NORMAL/NEGATIVE: No evidence of cancer.
[X] PROBABLY BENIGN (not cancer): Recommend repeat test in 6 months.
[ ] ABNORMAL: there is a finding that requires further tests for a more thorough evaluation. You should contact your physician as soon as possible.

Did I feel happier as I left that office? Nope. I didn’t feel like going for the test, and I didn’t enjoy the process, but I didn’t dread it so much that I felt happy just to have it over. I felt about the same as usual.

But nevertheless, I’ve furthered my happiness by removing a source of unhappiness—the uneasiness of procrastination, of not doing something I know I ought to do.

And this is a great example of an important happiness principle: Manage down as well as up (is there a catchier phrase?). For happiness, it’s not enough to focus on being happier; I also need to remove sources of unhappiness. That, I did.

And there’s a way to extract happiness from this experience, as well.

In a famous story, Sherlock Holmes perceived a clue in the fact that a dog didn’t bark. My gratitude journal should remind me to feel happy about the problems that aren’t there. Yesterday was the day that I didn’t have cancer—a happy, happy, happy day.

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I like checking out the blog 37 Days to get ideas for the happiness project. And its question of”What would you be doing today if you had only 37 days to live?” is particularly interesting me now, given my theme for August.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: The twenty-seven most important rules for keeping your house in order.

To keep your house from falling into cluttered chaos:
– never buy “souvenirs.”
– somewhere, keep an entirely empty shelf or drawer.
– strive to keep surfaces bare. Put away kitchen appliances you don’t use every day; don’t cram stuff onto every ledge.
– get rid of newspapers and magazines as soon as possible. Never keep a newspaper overnight, and never keep a magazine for more than two months—unless you find a positive joy in keeping an orderly collection.
– have an exact place for everything.
– know where to give things away: books, clothes, kitchenware, toys. It’s much easier to get rid of things if you can imagine who will benefit. Figure this out before you start a major clutter-clearing effort.
– fight the piles that accumulate in the hallway, in corners, on bedside tables, on the dining room table.
– use dimmer switches.
– don’t buy things on impulse, particularly from bargain stores.
– storing a thing means you don’t need to use it. So before you squirrel something away, ask yourself, “Do I really need to keep this?”
– never accept anything for free, unless you’re thrilled with it. A mug, a tote bag, a hand-me-down toy, the lamp from your mother-in-law–if you don’t need it, don’t take it.
– According to “broken windows theory,” signs of decay like broken windows or graffiti create an atmosphere that contributes to larger crime. Burnt-out light bulbs and empty toilet-paper holders are the broken windows of the home; don’t tolerate them.
– have enough hangers in every closet.
– make your bed every morning.
– keep your keys in the same place each day.
– every night before bed, do a tidy-up to put away everything that’s out of place.
– if you have stacks of unopened CDs, unread books, unwatched videos of PBS series, or unopened spice jars, don’t let yourself buy any more until you’ve made a dent in what you already have.
– don’t let yourself run out of necessities like envelopes, tape, toothpaste, stamps, Band-aids, batteries, and the like. If you hate to shop, buy large quantities and stockpile them.
– don’t hoard huge quantities of things that you could never use up: binder clips, rubber bands, clay pots, florist vases, plastic grocery bags. Give the rest away.
– hang up your coat (this is probably the rule I personally violate most often).
– buy a box-cutter. They really are handy.
– if you have lots of things that you’re reluctant to throw away because you’re not sure what they are—mystery cables, random remote-control devices, important looking screws that appeared mysteriously on the floor, obscure vacuum-cleaner attachments—put them all in one box. You’ll never use the stuff, but you’ll know it’s there.
– for extra credit, put a date on the box, and if you haven’t opened it in a year, throw it away.
– never allow a drawer or a closet to get so full that it’s hard to open and shut.
– get rid of things that don’t work. If you’re like me, you’ll be amazed at how many things you have around the house that are perfectly useless.
– set aside a place where you put things to give away, and as soon as you realize you want to get rid of something, put it there. That way, you prevent clutter from accumulating.
– if you can’t find something, clean up.

The “negativity bias” is a well-recognized psychological phenomenon: people react to the bad more strongly and persistently than to the comparable good.

For example, within marriage, it takes at least five good acts to repair the damage of one critical or destructive act. With money, the pain of losing a certain sum is greater than the pleasure of gaining that sum.

I know this from my own experience. I remember, for example, that hitting the bestseller list with Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill thrilled me less than a bad review of that book upset me.

Research shows that one consequence of the negativity bias is that when people’s thoughts are wandering, unoccupied, people tend to begin to brood; the negativity bias means that anxious or angry thoughts capture our attention more effectively than happier thoughts.

I’d noticed this about myself, long before I heard about the negativity bias. To counter that effect, I’d invented the idea of the “area of refuge.”

Once, when I was back up at Yale Law School to teach a seminar, I wandered around a newly renovated wing. I noticed a sign by an elevator, declaring—to my astonishment—that the area was an “area of refuge.” I’m guessing it’s where a person in a wheelchair or with some other difficulty should go in case of fire.

The phrase stuck in my mind. Now, if I feel myself dwelling on bad feelings, I seek an “area of refuge,” a subject for my thoughts that calms or cheers me. No kidding, I often I think about Winston Churchill, and his great speeches.

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be.
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender; and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old.

Or I think about some of the funny things the Big Man has done. Years ago, he came into our bedroom in his boxers and announced, “I am LORD of the DANCE!” and hopped around, with his arms straight at his sides. I still laugh every time I think about it.

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I just found out that an old friend has started a great new website, Stylehive–”social bookmarking for the style and shopping obsessed.” I hate to shop, so the site makes me feel a little nervous, because I begin to wonder if there’s something out there I really do want. But most people just find it fun.

One conclusion from my happiness-project research: I don’t spend enough time thinking about how money could buy me happiness.

Sure, money can’t buy happiness. But it can’t buy unhappiness, either. We’re in control. And for many elements of happiness, money helps a lot.To take an obvious example, health is very important for happiness, and money sure makes it easier to stay healthy.

So I’ve been trying to think of ways that money could help me reach my various happiness goals. While we were on vacation, I had a great idea: have family photographs taken by a professional photographer.

Years ago, an older friend remarked to me, “One of my greatest regrets about my children’s childhoods was that I didn’t have more professional pictures taken—they’re so much better than even the best snapshots.”

I agree, and ever since my kids were born, I’ve been zealous about arranging for pictures. One big help is that my parents often give me a combined birthday/Christmas present of a photo session while we’re in Kansas City. (In fact, why have I not asked that that be my gift every year?)

Remembering happy times gives a big boost to happiness, and looking at photographs—which practically never record bad times; who takes photos at a funeral?—helps make those memories more vivid. And while it’s a lot of fun (and also a pain) to take pictures myself, it’s also nice to have some pictures that are particularly well-done.

While we were at the beach, I realized that our friend Jamie Watts, a professional photographer, was there, too. So I asked if he’d mind interrupting his vacation to take some pictures. No problem. I haven’t seen the results yet, but I’m sure they’ll be terrific, and I’ll have great photographs for us, as well as gifts for the grandparents and great-grandparents. It makes me happy just to think about it.

So the money I spent on the photographs will strengthen family bonds, enhance happy memories, and capture a fleeting moment of childhood. Pretty good. People have different levels of wealth, of course, but anyone who has any disposable income can reflect on how spending money differently might bring a happiness boost.

This is also a great example of the tiresome fact that happiness takes thought and effort. These photographs were easy to arrange; in the scheme of things, not hugely expensive; will contribute greatly to our family happiness; and yet it probably never would have occurred to me to organize it, unless I happened to be thinking about happiness all the time.

“The years as they pass plunder us of one thing after another.” –Horace