Because of the law of diminishing marginal returns (to beer, pizza, happiness), the last few units of pleasure are less valuable to your overall happiness than the first few units of purpose, and vice versa. This means that, as soon as your happiness in a relatively pleasurable activity starts to wane, you should do something else that is relatively purposeful. And when the happiness from that activity starts to wane, it’s time to flit back to a relatively pleasurable activity.
Your attentional resources won’t become as depleted as they might otherwise because you are able to change tasks when you start to feel tired or distracted, and you avoid adapting to what might otherwise become mundane. But remember to stay focused on each activity while engaged in it. So this is not the same as multitasking, which, as we shall soon see, is not at all good for happiness.
For a given activity, you can also seek to pay attention to different aspects of it to keep diminishing marginal returns at bay. Take commuting. You could try walking or cycling a bit more, which has been shown to make the journey to and from work quite pleasurable. Okay, so this might not be possible for those of you with long commutes, but you could still change the nature of your commute so that you attend to stimuli that will make you happier. Make efforts to pay attention to what you listen to, what you do, or who you talk to on the train or in the car.
When activities might be quite boring, such as standing in line or waiting at an airport, you can look to pay attention to pleasure by listening to some music or to purpose by reading a book. Or strike up a conversation with a stranger if you’re in the mood to chat. You probably do these sorts of things already and so it will simply be a case of reminding yourself to do them more often. You don’t need to change what you do so much as change what you pay attention to in the experience.
We know by now that taking a break when making a choice can help us. Similarly, sometimes taking a break from what you are doing and then returning to it again can increase your happiness when you return to the activity. Imagine being asked to watch TV programmes with or without commercials. I bet you would prefer to watch TV without those annoying adverts.
Me, too. But in a study that randomly selected people into one of these two conditions, those who watched with commercials enjoyed the programmes more—and, just like us, they had failed to predict this effect. This is distinct from distraction because most television programmes are designed specifically for commercial “interruptions” whereas other tasks are not: TV programmes leave you with a cliff-hanger for a few minutes, allowing you to return to the programme eager to find out what happens and happier when you do.
Interestingly, the type of break you take can affect performance. As a great illustration of this, 145 participants from the University of California, Santa Barbara, each completed “unusual uses” tasks, where they had to generate as many creative uses as possible for a common object, such as a brick. They then took a break, during which time some of the participants completed a nondemanding task (where they saw coloured digits on a screen and indicated whether they were even or odd). When they returned to the task, these people performed the best the second time around because their brains weren’t under- or over occupied; just like Goldilocks’s porridge, their break was just right.
If you are feeling a little more adventurous, try having a few new experiences. Start small and see how it goes. Change radio stations in the morning to take in different music. Buy tickets to see a comedian you have never heard of but who has had rave reviews. These will direct your attention in happiness-enhancing ways—and if they don’t, well, don’t do them again, and try something else. Also try new experiences with new people. There is some suggestion that they will make you more creative, which as we have seen is good for happiness: entrepreneurs report more innovation and are more likely to apply for patents when they have diverse social networks beyond just their family and friends.
If nothing else, these or other new experiences will help to slow down the perceived passage of time. Part of the reason time passes so slowly for children is because they are constantly having new experiences. In fact, a ten-year-old will think that the passing of one minute is more than two minutes.
It appears as if our brains actually calculate time based on the number of events that occur; so the more events, the more time we feel has passed. If you saw six slides for thirty seconds each and thirty slides for six seconds each, you would think that you had spent more time looking at the thirty slides even though the time is obviously the same overall. This could help explain why you recall that a day has passed quickly when you’re in meeting after meeting but slowly if you’re just at your desk.
Those who are high in the personality trait “openness to new experiences” report being more satisfied with their lives and experience more positive emotions. Yeah, great, you might say, but what if I’m not an open type of person? Well, it will certainly require more of a nudge to push you into trying something new, but what’s the worst that can happen? You don’t like the new experience and so you don’t do it again. As always, attention is critical. You can attend to the pleasure and purpose of a new experience that turns out well, and you can also attend to the lessons learned from a new experience that turns out badly.
Happiness by Design is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.