This Diary Trick Will Increase Your Happiness!

Recently, I have felt that I’ve lost a little of the balance to my life. Maybe you feel the same…

Perhaps something in your life has taken over a little more than it should do and you feel like you need to re-balance and gain perspective?

I have the simplest solution that we can both do right now to fix this…

The solution that I promise will increase your happiness over this entire year simply involves you, your pen and your diary!

Here’s How it Works…

Go, grab your diary and simply schedule in ‘experiences’.

An ‘experience’ can be anything from: going for a walk with a friend, to going on a weekend break. It can be as in-expensive or as expensive as you choose. But it must be an experience.

Other ideas for experiences include: booking a makeover at your favourite beauty counter (many are free!), being a tourist in a town you’ve always wanted to take a road trip to, buying a bunch of your favourite magazines and scheduling time to read and enjoy them.

Experiences need not take up the whole day. Work them around your lifestyle. An experience can be as simple or as extravagant as you wish.

The Important Bit…

Each experience that you wish to do must be diarised. It must be given a date and written in your diary.

Then, when you’ve finished one experience, you tick it off and you immediately diarise the next one….

You can put in as many ‘experience dates’ as you like per month. It could be just one, it could be ten! Base it around the time you have. Remember, free experiences such as going for a hike can be as meaningful as the expensive ones.

What The Experts Say…

My friend James Wallman recently wrote a book called ‘Stuffocation”; it’s really thought-provoking. In his book, James explains that now, in the twenty-first century, we need experiences more than ever. In his groundbreaking book, ‘Stuffocation”, James finds that in western society we are overwhelmed by ‘stuff’, and that our starting point for a well balanced and happy life should start from the realisation that happiness is more likely to come from enjoyment of experiences, than the accumulation of ‘stuff’.

‘Stuffocation’ by James Wallman, it’s well worth a read. Give it a google!

My Experience…

When my Dad became terminally ill some time ago, we made countless little plans in the diary to do experiences together.

In the 18 months of my Dad’s life, the experiences we planned together gave a sense of something to look forward to, particularly on tough days. And, we all have those days. It’s crucial to always have something little planned in our diaries to look forward to. It need not be expensive holidays.

For me, regular, simple experiences scheduled in my diary gave my life an extra dimension and happiness during a very tough time.

But, it’s not just about the tough times. Because, even when life is just merrily going with the flow, by ‘experiencing’ more on a frequent basis, our lives gain more meaning, more flow, more enjoyment, more conversations, more connections and more balance.

So, Let’s Take Action…

It can be so easy to fall into the routine of our daily lives as the weeks and months flash by. I’m guilty of this. For example, since my Dad has died (nearly a year ago), I’ve stopped diarising ‘experiences’ and I’m angry at myself. But, today let’s DIARISE some EXPERIENCES. Let’s go grab our diaries. Let’s make this year really count!

What will you plan first? Mine is simply scheduling in a trip to the cinema! Pure escapism. Ah bliss!