The other week I caught myself blogging “if we spend only 5% of our time doing things we enjoy it shouldn’t come as a surprise if we’re not happy.” It seemed such an obvious statement. I started wondering if there was anything else obvious I was missing? A recent app called Mappiness came to the rescue in helping me determine the blindingly, and yet not so (If I go on what I am and am not doing), obvious.
Mappiness has been set up as part of a research project by the LSE which is particularly interested in “how people’s happiness is affected by their local environment — air pollution, noise, green spaces, and so on.” Twice a day the app asks me to determine how happy, relaxed and awake I am. It then asks me where I am, what I am doing and who I’m with. Which has led me to conclude the following blindingly obvious factors that impact my happiness:
- I’m happier when I’m with other people (and yet large % of my time is spent on my own)
- I’m happier when I’m outside (and yet large % of my time spent inside)
- I’m happier when listening to music (and yet I rarely listen to it)
- I’m least happy when travelling (and yet I’ve done so much of it recently)
What’s staring you in the face that could significantly increase your happiness?
