392: When Do People Know You’ve Stopped Listening? Plus a Moving Hack and a Way to Put Down Your Phone

Update

A listener suggests keeping a “Smile File,” and I mention using the Memento Keepsake Journal as a way to keep your keepsakes organized.

Photo of Memento Journal
Try This at Home

Ask two people in your life, “How do you know when I’ve stopped listening?” For instance, you’re checking your phone, or you raise a completely unrelated subject in the middle of a conversation.

Elizabeth heard this suggestion during a diversity and inclusivity training session for showrunners run by Dr. Steven Jones. She and Sarah talk about more ideas from this training suggestion, which they found extremely useful, in Happier in Hollywood episode 274.

Happiness Hack

For moving, a listener recommends using 18-gallon Sterilite bins if you’re doing frequent moves (for instance, with college-age kids).

Another listener suggests that, as a strategy to stay off your phone, think of your phone as a novel.

Listener Question

How do I spend my time during my daily visits to the Metropolitan Museum?

Demerits & Gold Stars

Elizabeth Demerit: All summer, she’s been lamenting the fact that the time is going so fast.

Gretchen Gold Star/Demerit: I was angry when Jamie got the time wrong for a college tour; I could’ve behaved better, but I could’ve behaved worse.

Resources

Visit the Happiness Project Shop if you’re interested in the One-Sentence Journal or the Memento Keepsake Journal that we discussed.


The Happiness Project journal collection

 

What we’re reading

  • Elizabeth: The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller (Amazon, Bookshop)
  • Gretchen: Frida Kahlo: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations (The Last Interview Series) (Amazon, Bookshop)

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