What Makes You Happy?

20 Aug 2009 | Tags life productivity

Track Your Happiness is an entertaining experiment. It’s a site that periodically sends out links to surveys. The surveys are designed to gather information on your general well-being and happiness. The surveys work fine on iPhones too, so I was able to fill them out wherever I was.

It focuses on a few main areas:

  • Activity
  • Focus
  • Productivity
  • Social interactions
  • Sleep time and sleep quality

Before taking the tests I had these preconceptions:

  • Sleep doesn’t bother me
  • Productivity and focus are proportional to happiness
  • I like working alone
  • I prefer reading and playing to working or watching TV

After taking two or three weeks of tests I finally completed the “course” of surveys. The results were contrary to my assumptions:

  • Sleep is strongly tied to my happiness
  • Productivity does not relate to my happiness
  • I prefer working with at least one person
  • Reading and watching TV make me more happy than any other activity
  • I’m happier outside

All of these facts surprised me. When I was a child I’d play outside all the time, but I still had weekend hacking sessions on the ZX Spectrum. Also, as an entrepreneur and freelancer, I thought productivity made me happy. It turns out that my workaholic nature has been compromising my overall well-being.

Try signing up and sticking with Track Your Happiness throughout the course of surveys. They can be annoying and repetitive, but you might be surprised by what you discover.