High Five Happy Home Friday

The sun is shining but it is COLD. I bundled up extra-warm and went for a walk first thing this morning, and nearly immediately froze. If I hadn't had a 20 minute podcast to listen to, I'm sure I would have turned right around and gone straight home.

This podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, leads to the best of my week, otherwise known as the High Five Friday!
 


1. One Minute Rule

This one is just like it sounds. If it takes a minute or less to do something, then by all means, take care of it! When we do this, it frees our mind from all those nagging little tasks that stress us out. It's an adaptation of an idea from productivity guru, David Allen; I wrote about it before here.

2. The Sweet Spot

There is another woman who is also writing about happiness and habits: Christine Carter. I imagine Rubin and Carter as the Notorious B.I.G./Tupac Shakur of happiness research but with advanced degrees instead of guns. {Rubin is on the East Coast, studied law at Yale, and clerked for Sandra Day O'Connor. Carter is in Marin County, California. She has a PhD in sociology and is pals with the former governor of my state.}

In Carter's book The Sweet Spot, which I just finished reading, one of the many great suggestions is to time yourself to see how long things really take.

Since "time organized" is something I struggle with, these two tips have helped me enormously.
 
3. Maximizers vs. Satisficers

Both Rubin and Carter have written a lot about this phenomenon for how people make decisions. Suffice it to say, satisficers are happier because once they find something that meets all their criteria, they quit looking.



Calico

I did that recently with this fabric. Are there zillions of other choices out there? Could I have chosen a different color? Another pattern? Absolutely. Does this one work for my kitchen project? Yes, and that is the final word.

As I was listening to the podcast, it occurred to me that satisficing is possibly one of the best explanations for why you should hire a decorator. The decorator, who lives and loves choosing fabrics and furnishings is the one to wade through the many decisions related to room design. Let me do that for you.

4. Treadmill desk

At the end of the podcast, Gretchen Rubin's sister talks about the happiness boost she has gotten from her new treadmill desk. I'm working on a post about our new exercise room so this seemed very interesting. Such a great way to combine two things we have to do (and also one of the topics in The Sweet Spot--Carter recommends only doing one type of "brain" work while doing this sort of multitasking).
 

 

5. Novogratz Castle

via

Another East Coast-West Coast story I'm following is the NYC Novogratz's new home in Hollywood. Read more about their plans for this modern castle here. If you love their style, then you just know this will be one fun house!

I'm listening to Cheap Trick today--my fingers are crossed that the predicted warm weather for the next few days is not one.
 

Happy weekend!

Xoxo~Carrie