Try This at Home

Don’t assign or accept homework.

Happiness Hack

Our listener Alanna suggests writing an “unhappy list” with proposed solutions.

Happiness Stumbling Block

Our listener Anna suggests that if you’re dreading a milestone birthday, make a long list of things you’d honestly love to do in the upcoming year, to help change your dread into anticipation.

The passage I read is May Sarton’s memoir Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year.

Listener Question

Hannah asks, “I live somewhere new where I don’t know that many people. How can I handle time by myself so that it doesn’t take away from my happiness?”

Elizabeth’s Demerit: One of Elizabeth’s mottoes is “Don’t treat a gift like a burden,” and many times during this pilot season, she’s done just that.

Gretchen’s Gold Star: I give a gold star to my daughter Eleanor, for catching the wave of clutter-clearing and clearing out her whole room.

My book Outer Order, Inner Calm will hit the shelves in March 2019 — just in time for anyone who likes to do spring cleaning. What a joy it has been to work on this little book.