American Express OPEN Forum

Follow:

Highlights:

Employee Management
Money
Social Media
See More
- Topics
  - The World
  - Technology
  - Money
  - Marketing
  - Managing
  - Lifestyle
  - Innovation
- Features
Search

Search OPEN Forum

Search OPEN Forum

Happiness? There’s an App for That

Jen van der Meer Many Hats, Inhabitat Recent Posts

1 Comment

Tumblr
Email

July 31, 2009

OPEN Forum Message

Business Forecasting 2012

Our special feature on forecasting sheds light on how to choose the right model, offers advice from Jack Stack and more.

Get started

Featured Response

“I wonder how happy camper you will be if you ...”

Martin Lindeskog

View all comments

It turns out, money doesn’t buy happiness. In fact, as Daniel Gilbert pointed out in his book Stumbling on Happiness, humans are famously bad at predicting what will make us happy, because of logic-processing errors in our brands. So what does create the conditions for happiness? A new research project by doctoral student Matt Killingsworth out of Professor Gilbert’s Hedonic Psychology Laboratory at Harvard is enrolling anyone with an iPhone to find out. Volunteer research subjects can register their moods through the Track Your Happiness app to learn what factors for you personally associate with a happier state of mind.

How does it work? After you sign up on the website, Track Your Happiness sends you text messages 3-5 times a day asking questions like, “How happy are you right now?”, “How focused are you on your current task?”, “Do you want to do what you’re doing?”, “What time did you go to sleep last night?” The payoff for participating in the project is the Happiness Report, which are charts and graphs that help you figure out what aspects of your life cause you to feel happy, or not happy at all.

I learned that I’m happy when I’m actually doing work, writing, researching, playing with my daughter, and eating at restaurants with my family, but not so happy when I’m thinking about work, travelling, or excessively multitasking. I suppose I should put down this computer right now, take off my headphones, finish my dinner, and cuddle with the child in my lap. What makes you happy?

Image: Getty Royalty Free 87401707

Featured: Crash Courses a VERI Experience

Cutting Business Costs

Have a New Year's Resolution to cut costs?
Get a head start with our latest crash course, Cutting Business Costs.

Launch Course

StumbleUpon
InShare
Tumblr
Email
Share
- Facebook
- Twitter
- StumbleUpon
- InShare
- Tumblr
- Digg
- Reddit
- Email
Print

Related keywords

Jen van der Meer, Article, social media, applications, iPhone

What do you think?

Join the conversation ( 1 )

Martin Lindeskog 2 years 6 months and 9 days ago

I wonder how happy camper you will be if you get several SMS per day! ;) I strive for happiness by achieving my values. Have you watched the movie, Pursuit of Happyness?