Hello, I’m thrilled to announce the annual challenge for 2024: #Write24in24! Join the challenge to write for 2-4 minutes or 24 minutes every day in 2024.
Although I do a lot of writing in my daily life, I want to use this challenge for a separate goal and see how I could use 2-4 daily minutes to create something additional over the course of 2024.
I plan to use this time to write in my Five-Senses Journal. I tend to get stuck in my head, and I know from experience that using this journal helps me stay keyed into my environment. It also acts like a memoir, so at the end of the year I’ll have a record of my experiences. | | 5 Things Making Me Happy 
I was interested to read about the home fragrance trend in Well+Good’s 2024 Wellness Trend predictions report. One of my aims for 2024 is to give myself a boost with scent every day—I love using fragrance to shape my sensory environment. Delightful! Speaking of trends, I predict that in 2024, we’ll start to discuss how flexible work schedules sometimes make it more challenging to maintain healthy habits. Flexibility helps some people with their habits, but for others, the consistency of the Monday-Friday/9-5 schedule made it easier to maintain good habits. | |
I love color, and each year, I look forward to the day when Pantone reveals its “Color of the Year.” For 2024, it’s Peach Fuzz. I made a point to search for this color on my daily visit to the Met, and I found many beautiful examples in the artworks on display.
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In writing my book Life in Five Senses, I was struck by how differently we all experience the world. As writer Zora Neale Hurston observed, “Every man’s spice-box seasons his own food.” For that reason, an environment that seems delightful to one person might be overwhelming to someone else. I was interested to read that Walmart now has “sensory-friendly” hours with dimmed lights, no music, and TV screens showing static images instead of moving video. And the last time I traveled through the San Francisco airport, I appreciated spending time in a “Quiet Airport” which made efforts to reduce the amount of noise experienced by travelers. | |
You know when you think that something about you is deeply idiosyncratic, then you find out you’re part of a trend? That happened to me with miniatures. I’ve loved miniatures my whole life, and now I find that many other people do, too. I was fascinated to read this deep-dive into the world of miniatures—for instance, how I love a “roombox” (though I just learned that term). In particular, I was intrigued by this observation: “If [Robert] Off includes a table in a roombox, and that table has a drawer, well: something will be in that drawer. Pencils, a sewing kit, tools, cutlery. Nobody will ever see it. Nobody will ever know it’s there, yet putting it in there is an essential part of what Off is doing.” This has long fascinated me: the unseen, the hidden promise. Don’t I remember that in his work, Joseph Cornell would sometimes put an object in a drawer, then nail it shut? | |
My sister Elizabeth, who loves a great themed mug, sent me this mug for my birthday. It features a koi fish, which I chose as the symbol for my one-word theme for 2024: “Revisited.”
| | Updates To help you kickstart your aims for 2024, I’m offering 30% off journals from The Happiness Project Collection. This deal is especially useful for those participating in #Write24in24. Ends tonight, December 29 at 11:59pm PT. Use code: NEWJOURNAL30 | | This week on Happier with Gretchen Rubin PODCAST EPISODE: 462 A Surprising Way to Be More Likeable, a Habit-Keeping Hack, and an Unusual In-Laws Problem Listen now > | | | | ARTICLE Join us for #Write24in24 | | MORE HAPPIER Observance for Justice O’Connor, 5-Senses Portrait of KC Christmas, and Joy in First Drafts | | | | |
