From the Archives: Happiness & How to Achieve It

A 3-Part DIY Guide for Finding Happiness!

The Problem: Running on Empty

Have you got the media miseries? Do you feel beaten down by complaining talking heads, political ranters and all manner of folks screaming for your attention based on the latest nasty scandal or ugly emergency? Are you worn out by your friends and family constantly complaining or maybe legitimately suffering from genuine obstacles to their happiness? 

Maybe it's time to take a step back, regroup and connect with your own happiness. After all, if your happiness reservoirs are empty, you're going to find it hard to find the energy to empathize with them and support them. And, worse yet, it's going to be tough for you to bring positive energy to your own life.

The Science of Happiness

Here's the bottom line: You can achieve happiness. In fact, there's a science underlying happiness that you can leverage to bring more happiness into your life. A few years ago, I published a series of articles all about that science. You can revisit them through the links below. Enjoy! 

Go to Part 1, A Little Theory

Go to Part 2, Some Fun Stuff

Go to Part 3, Train Yourself to Be Happier

See Also: 

• 10 Specific Actions That Can Help You Become Happier (an audio podcast)
• 10 of My Most-Accessed Items at Internet Archive
• Why It's Pointless to Argue about Politics or Religion
• Travel Back in Time, Through the Mountains of France & Around the World with Robert Louis Stevenson
• Some New Graffiti on the Wall of the Universe: All My Stuff at Internet Archive

Stop fiddling with that 2nd screen! And SEE what you're missing.

"... multitasking people not only perform
each task less suitably, but lose time in the process." 

Multitasking with Media: Challenging the Behavior

If the content you're watching seems flat and unengaging maybe it's you! What are you bringing to the experience? After all, you gotta engage your brain and your eyes and your ears and get on board for the full ride if you want to get the most out of what media creators have put together for you. 

Think about it: Actors, directors, editors and all sorts of creative team members have carefully crafted a finished media product they can be proud of and that will give you a powerful experience. Yet you sit there fiddling with your device, missing half or more of what they created. What a waste!! (And, BTW, you're probably paying good money for that streaming service you're half ignoring to play with your tablet! What kinda economic sense does that make?)

While you're playing with that hand-held device, the media visuals, like actors' raised eyebrows or rolled eyes or subtle smirks and grins or beautifully-framed vistas, go completely unnoticed. So if your "watching" experience feels unsatisfying it's likely because you're choosing to engage it superficially and miss half of it! 

But "I'm great at multitasking!" you say? Not so! Multitasking is a myth... It's really just fast task switching, resulting in doing several things half-assed! And in doing so, you never reach that satisfying flow state that comes from full immersion in an experience.

So why not just relax, lay that phone or tablet down and disappear into that carefully-crafted media experience you're paying for?

Go deeper.

• Managing Chronic Multitaskers - This is a fairly deep dive into the myth of multitasking and its futility from a project management perspective. It includes practical suggestions for project managers.

• Reflections on Sochi, the "Second Screen" and Half-Baked Decisions - This uses an Olympic broadcast I saw on NBC a few years ago as a springboard for examining decision making while "multitasking." 

Get clinical.

• Clinical overviews of smartphone overuse describe higher cortisol from frequent interruptions, more anxiety, and dependence on the device as an emotional regulator.  More here. 

• Some neurology clinics describe patterns labeled “digital dementia,” where chronic multitasking and rapid information shifts are associated with shorter attention spans, memory complaints, and increased mental fatigue.  More here.  

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* Thank you, ChatGPT, for creating the custom image above for me based solely on my verbal description!