Good moments box

End of the year (or any other time) is always a great time to reflect on everything you’ve been doing so far. What makes you happy? What makes you unhappy? What do you want to change in the next year?

I think this year is the first time ever, that I actually started sth on 1st January 2015 and kept the habit. In 2015, I was writing down good moments. Actually, I wrote 274 good moments. From small things, like drinking a great cup of coffee, to bigger things, like realizing a new idea. The number of written good moments actually reflects the way I felt at certain times of the year really well. I wrote from 12 to 52 good moments per month, with average of 23 good moments.

 My good moments box

I already tried writing down good moments in 2014, but I only did it for 4 months on a couple of occasions. What changed? I realized the environment is really important. My box is in the kitchen, on the microwave, that I use every day to make my coffee/tea. So I constantly see it and I'm reminded of it. The second important element: having post-its and a pen available at all times.

I love my good moments box, since

1. thinking about good moments at the end of each day makes you happier,
2. you can become more aware of what makes you happy and this way you can increase your happiness.

Box opening & reading good moments day

 

On a Christmasy sunday morning, I sat down in my living room with my boyfriend and my best friend. I opened the box. I was looking forward to this all year long.

 

Being as structured as I am, I couldn’t just randomly start reading them. So, I took them out and made my year path from month to month. I counted the number of good moments for each month and read them out loud. After the big picture overview, I wanted to go deeper. So, I asked myself two questions. Who makes me happy? What makes me happy?

I was already quite aware of the answers before making the analysis. Still, some small things surprised me and I’m glad that I invested a Sunday afternoon in this. To answer the question who makes me happy, each time a person was mentioned, I made a mark by their name. What makes me happy was tricky, since things overlap. One event can cover several categories: socializing, eating good food, playing board games, trying out new things, having interesting conversations … Well, I didn’t want to overcomplicate things and somehow I made the analysis.

I'm really glad that I went on with writing good moments for the whole year. I will keep the habit in the next year. I also plan on changing some things:

1. This year I mostly used post-its. Without ever planning to post them somewhere. I’m switching to small beautiful colorful papers (thank you Alenka).
2. I will have a reminder in my calendar, asking me about my good moments each day. I did it quite regularly this year, but for sure I missed some of them.
3. I will open the box after each month and evaluate how I spent my time. This year, I only had a sneak peek after 6 months, but it would actually make sense to re-check my happiness more often, so that I can make changes faster.

I will also keep some things:

1. I will keep on mentioning small things, because they matter. Like receiving a text from a friend you haven’t heard from in a while. Or waking up to a snowy morning. Or having a proper cup of coffee.
2. I will keep the same box, I will just change the title to 2016. I will keep it in the same place, on my microwave, since this way it’s hard to forget about it. Also, I will always have paper and pen available there.
3. I will keep on writing dates on the papers, to know when a certain good moment happened.

For sure there is a mobile app for that, since there is a mobile app for everything. I prefer paper and I plan to save all 2015 good moments in a big envelope, so I can come back to it in a few years and for sure I’ll remember much more about 2015 then I would otherwise. I hope I inspired some of you to give good moments of 2016 a try and if you have any ideas, how to make this even better, please share your ideas.