Try This at Home
Join our annual challenge.
Every year, we do an annual challenge with listeners. It’s part of the Happier Trifecta, along with one-word theme and “24 for 24” list.
We’ve done #Walk20in20, #Read21in21, #Rest22in22. For some reason, framing a habit this way makes it feel more fun—and also easier to maintain.
2023: We review our annual challenge for 2023, Go Outside 23 in 23.
The challenge was a great success, and in honor of all the benefits we all received from going outside, we made a donation to the terrific organization, One Tree Planted.
2024: We reveal the new challenge for 2024, Write 24 in 24.
This year, you can choose a track by writing 2-4 minutes or 24 minutes.
Short or long, it’s up to you.
We suggest several resources:
- Facts of Life book
- One-Sentence Journal
- Five-Senses Journal
- Know Yourself Better Journal
- People Who Led to My Plays by playwright Adrienne Kennedy (Amazon, Bookshop)
- I Remember by Joe Brainard (Amazon, Bookshop)
- The Glen Rock Book of the Dead by Marion Winik (Amazon, Bookshop)
- Listography: Your Life in Lists by Lisa Nola and Nathaniel Russell (Amazon)
- Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Ilene Beckerman (Amazon, Bookshop)
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (Amazon, Bookshop)
- The Happier app
Happiness Hack
Whether you choose to write for 24 or 2-4 minutes as your minimum, if you’re in the writing zone, feel free to keep going.
Know Yourself Better
Build a consistent writing routine by considering what works for you.
We mention several resources:
- Life in Five Senses
- The Four Tendencies quiz: Are you a Rebel, Obliger, Upholder, or Questioner?
- The Muse Machine
- Don’t Break the Chain Tracker
- Better Than Before, my book about habit change
Demerits & Gold Stars
Gretchen’s Demerit: I didn’t listen attentively while my daughter Eliza was telling me about a work challenge.
Elizabeth’s Gold Star: She gives her husband Adam a gold star for cleaning the backyard the day before Thanksgiving, instead of on the day itself.
Resource
Join the “Write 24 in 24″ challenge in the Happier app. If you’re already using the app, great—when you open up your home page, you’ll see the challenge featured there. Tap to get started and follow the prompts to tailor the challenge to you.
If you’re not yet using the app, download it for free in the App Store or the Google Play app store. To learn more about the app and this year’s challenge, head to thehappierapp.com.
What We’re Reading
Instead, we listed some of our favorite books about writing:
- Stephen King’s On Writing (Amazon, Bookshop)
- Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (Amazon, Bookshop)
- Dani Shapiro’s Still Writing (Amazon, Bookshop)
- William Zinsser’s On Writing Well (Amazon, Bookshop)
- Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way (Amazon, Bookshop)
- Octavia Butler’s essay “Furor Scribendi” in Bloodchild and Other Stories (Amazon, Bookshop)
- Ann Patchett’s essay “The Getaway Car” in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage (Amazon, Bookshop)
461
[music]
Gretchen
Hello and welcome to Happier. A podcast where we talk about how to be happier. This week we will review our annual challenge for 2023 and we will reveal the annual challenge for 2024. I’m Gretchen Rubin, a writer who studies happiness, good habits, and human nature. I’m in New York City, and joining me today from L.A. is my sister, Elizabeth Craft.
Gretchen
And Elizabeth, I am so happy that this is your year to spend the winter holiday in Kansas City with my family.
Elizabeth
That’s me, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in L.A.. And yeah, I’m getting my bag packed. I cannot wait to see everybody in KC. Yeah, then hit Winsteads.
Gretchen
Elizabeth, you go to Kansas City every other year, but we go every year because, you know, Jamie’s Jewish. So we celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Passover, Hanukkah with his family, also Thanksgiving. And conveniently, they live around the corner from us in New York City. And then we get every Christmas in Kansas City for those holidays. Yeah.
Elizabeth
So this is our year to all be together in Kansas City. It’s going to be great.
Gretchen
So fun. Now, this week our try this at home suggestion is to join our annual challenge. Every year we for the last several years, we have issued a challenge for ourselves and listeners based on the year. It’s part of the happier trifecta. So the trifecta is the one word theme, the 24 for 24 list. And now we’re getting ready to do the challenge.
Elizabeth
Yeah. So, Gretchen, to review what we’ve done, we did #walk20in20. Yeah. Where we walk 20 minutes a day. We did #read21in21 where we read 21 minutes a day. That was great. And then we did #rest22in22.
Gretchen
Yes. Yeah. For some reason, framing habit this way makes it feel more fun. A lot of people join in where you’re thinking, Well, why does this make it easier to maintain? Why is this feel more compelling? Part of it is that everyone’s doing it together. Part of it’s this we just are shining a spotlight on it. But people really seem to enjoy this approach.
Elizabeth
Yeah, what’s great about it is that once you’ve focused on that for a year, I feel like you keep going with it, or at least I do. It sort of keeps it. I feel like ever since the Read Challenge, I’ve read more. Ever since the walk challenge, I’ve walked more. Now it’s in my mind as something I can incorporate into my day.
Gretchen
Yeah, maybe it’s because we carve out the time for it so it doesn’t feel like trying to cram something in. It just feels like part of an ordinary day. I absolutely feel the same thing. And I think from what listeners say that really happens that it just becomes incorporated into your ordinary life. But so before we reveal our plan for 2024, Elizabeth, we have to reflect on Go outside.
Gretchen
23 in 23. I loved this challenge.
Elizabeth
Yeah, I did, too. Gretchen You know, I did my Fryman 100 this year where I did Fryman Canyon 100 times. Started out as 50, then I upped it to 100. Yeah. So that really helps with my being outside. In fact, I think that knowing that I had the be outside challenge was part of how I even was motivated to do the Fryman 50 because it was, you know, a way to be outside.
Elizabeth
Yes. Right. And then I also, of course, was outside a lot for the WGA strike, picketing. So that although I was not happy about the strike, yeah, it did help me spend 23 minutes a day outside a lot of days for sure. And then my other thing that was helpful was walking Nacho and Daisy knowing I had to go outside.
Elizabeth
It’s like, Well, I might as well why not use Nacho and Daisy? So that helped me with that walking habit.
Gretchen
Well, this reminds me of how when we did walk 20 in 20, so many people said how happy their dogs were, because when the Yes, when the people were walking more, a lot of times the dogs were walking more and the dogs were super enthusiastic. So I think a lot of that also helped. And Elizabeth, also, weren’t you trying to work on your laptop outside more?
Elizabeth
Yeah. So those things I mentioned were all really walking things outside, but I also sat outside a lot more. You know, we love our backyard. We have lots of great seeding. You do? And I started to I usually work on my iPad, taking my iPad outside and sitting outside to work, and that was really nice. Also, I’ll even just if I’m working with Sarah on the phone, I’ll do it outside sometimes.
Elizabeth
So that’s really nice. And of course, being in Southern California, yeah, we can be outside pretty much year round, which is the best thing about Southern Cal.
Gretchen
But here’s the thing. I mean, this is like me going to the Met every single day. Just the fact that you can doesn’t mean that you do. And sometimes you.
Elizabeth
Right.
Gretchen
A little nudge to remind yourself, I am so incredibly fortunate. I have the opportunity to do something that other people couldn’t do. Why don’t I do it?
Elizabeth
Yes. No, I mean, it never occurred to me to do it until we started this challenge. So absolutely again now that I do it, it’s something I do. So it’s in the routine, right?
Gretchen
Well, for me, I was walking more in Central Park, also going for longer walks with my dog, Barnaby. And here’s a thing that it had kind of an unintended consequence for me. So I’m a person who tends to like and this is part of why I wrote Life in Five Senses. I can get all up in my head and very distracted and I don’t tune into what I’m doing.
Gretchen
And what I realize is that. So I go to the Met every single day. I started that for life in five senses, but I still do it. I would treat my walk to and from the Met just like a stage that I had to get through. Like, that’s just like I need to move through that as quickly as possible and so I can get to the Met, which is my destination.
Gretchen
But doing go outside 23 and 23 made me focus on that is like that is its own experience. That little walk to and from that is part of my go outside 23 and 23. And that itself is worth attention and enjoyment and paying attention. And so pay attention to the light and pay attention to the trees and pay attention.
Gretchen
I like to try to peer into people’s windows as I walk by, have it be something that I enjoy on its own terms. Instead of feeling like it’s just something that is preventing.
Elizabeth
Me motoring.
Gretchen
Motoring through, slowing me down. But here’s the thing. I mean, so many great things happen when we go outside. We exercise, we get sunlight, we engage with our neighbors, we get more focus. And then also doing a little bit often makes us want to do more. It’s like you and Fryman Canyon.
Elizabeth
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It’s once you’re going, then it’s easier to keep going. Yes. It’s just like the thing we always say, if you don’t feel like reading, just try reading for 5 minutes. And usually if you open a book and start reading for 5 minutes, you’ll want to read for an hour. But it’s the getting it going that can be hard.
Elizabeth
Yes.
Gretchen
Well, a lot of people track this in the happier app. That was super fun. We did a donation to One Tree Planted, which is all about planting trees, which is, you know, they are so important. So much of the enjoyment of the outdoors comes from trees. So we did that. That was a super successful challenge for 2023 and now it is time to reveal 2024 Drumroll please.
Gretchen
Okay, 2024 is Write 24 in 24. So this is to write. What will you write in 24?
Elizabeth
Yeah, this is very close to both of us, Gretchen, since we are both writers after all. Yes. The exciting thing here is for the first time we’re suggesting two options for following along, depending on what kind of writing you want to do.
Gretchen
Right? So we’re riffing off 24. You can choose to write from 2 to 4 minutes each day, 2 to 4. That is enough to count. You are participating in the challenge. If you write for 2 to 4 minutes a day or if you want to go the extra mile, you can write for 24 minutes a day. You can do short or long.
Gretchen
It’s up to you.
Elizabeth
Yeah. Now one thing is don’t wait until you feel like writing, whether it be 2 to 4 minutes or 24 minutes, commit to doing it every day. That’s what’s helpful about the challenge is it gets you doing it every single day.
Gretchen
Right? And we’re both writers, so we write a lot, but we are committing to doing like specific writing for this challenge. So here are some ideas. If you want to do it short and you’re thinking, okay, I want to do the challenge, I’ll do it from 2 to 4 minutes, but what would I do with that time? You might sit down in the morning and write a list of priorities for the day by making a today list.
Gretchen
Or maybe you want to clear your mind of nagging thoughts by making a to do list. Maybe you want to make very manageable but consistent progress toward a big aim. We’ve talked about the Facts of Life book where and I’ll link to the episode where we talk about that. A lot of listeners have written in about the Facts of Life book.
Gretchen
This is where you write down your accounts, your medications, your bank, anything that anybody would need to know about you. It is a lot of work to create those. But 2 to 4 minutes at a time, you could get through that.
Elizabeth
Yes. Maybe you want to stay in regular touch with friends or family by sending texts, emails or handwritten. Yes. Spend time doing that. You could keep a ta da list of what you’ve accomplished that day. If you tend to be hard on yourself. So sit down every evening, let’s say, and do your writing and do that. You could also use this to schedule time to worry and write your worries down.
Elizabeth
Yeah, every day. Yes, that helps free your mind.
Gretchen
And here is another suggestion. You can also make progress on a major creative endeavor. Just 2 to 4 minutes a day. Remember, if you do something every day for 2 to 4 minutes a day, it will add up to something quite significant by December. So as you think about this challenge, consider whether you’d like to build towards some major finished final project.
Gretchen
And there are many ways to approach this. And so here are some very interesting short forms that you might consider building toward.
Elizabeth
One thing you can do is a one sentence journal.
Gretchen
Yeah, you.
Elizabeth
Have a one sentence journal or you write a sentence a day about what happened today. And then at the end of the year, you have this whole journal of your year. There’s also a Five Senses journal you could do that you created after you wrote your Five Senses book, which is really fun. Or you could do a Know Yourself Better journal graduate’s funny because you have all these ideas and then you end up having a generic, which is great, and the know yourself better is interesting because you answer a question about yourself and then at the end of the year you would have this really new sense of yourself.
Elizabeth
Yeah, we always talk about self knowledge being the most important thing toward habit change and living in an atmosphere of growth and all of that.
Gretchen
So those are journals that you can create on your own or you can look at mine, I’ll post a link to them, but here are some additional ones that I have found Super thought provoking. Okay. The first is a book called People Who Led to My Plays. It is written by the playwright Adrian Kennedy, and it she creates this absolutely riveting memoir just by writing down the people who inspired her work.
Gretchen
She describes each person or encounter in just a few sentences. I would read 15 volumes of this. It is so interesting. She’s just talking about who is inspired, her thoughts, her creative process, her life, kind of along the same lines. Author Joe Brainard has a memoir called I Remember. And just in a sentence or two, he writes down specific memories.
Gretchen
Whatever rises to the surface of his mind and you come away with it was just this such an intense portrait of him. It’s just mesmerizing. There’s a really interesting book by Marion Winik called The Glen Rock Book of the Dead, where she writes one page, Portraits of the Dead people she has known. It’s really interesting. There’s a book called Listography Your Life in Lists.
Gretchen
It’s a journal designed to help you write your autobiography through list making. So again, it’s just making a list. And then there’s this really interesting book called Love Loss and What I Wore. Eileen Beckerman tells the story of her life outfit by outfit. It’s illustrated with the outfits. That’s how she tells the story of her life.
Elizabeth
Well, this exercise can work with any element that pervades your life, such as foods you eat, music you listen to, books you read, art you admired. Yeah. And her memoir is illustrated, which is an interesting additional element. You could illustrate this. I love all of these for inspiration and for Big Project.
Gretchen
Just they’re wonderful to read. So I will post links to all these books and I highly recommend them just as reading experiences, but they also get you very fired up to do the same thing yourself. Now, if you want to do 24 minutes a day, you can change your mind midway. There’s no right way. There’s no wrong way.
Gretchen
Some ideas for 24 minutes a day, morning pages. This is Julia Cameron’s idea that she writes about in the artist way. A lot of people love to do morning pages. You could work on a novel. You could just have a journal or a bullet journal that you’re writing. And many people want to be more consistent in keeping a journal.
Gretchen
So you could do that.
Elizabeth
You could work on your Ph.D. thesis. I know we have a lot of Ph. D listeners. Yeah, you could do a big work report. You could do a memoir of your life or a significant experience, or you could write a book for your child.
Gretchen
That’s right. Writing. I have something called Baby Journal that I kept for the first year. I’ve never actually shown it to Eliza, that maybe I should look at it and see if it’s if it’s suitable for anybody else to read but me. But I but I remember I did it with great satisfaction when she was under years old.
Gretchen
So the point of this is whether you choose to do it with 2 to 4 minutes or 24 minutes daily by the end of the year with just that consistent forward motion, you can really do great things.
Elizabeth
So what are we going to do, Gretch? What are you going to do for that?
Gretchen
I’m going to do a Five Senses journal because I do really worry that I get up in my head, I get stuck up there, and when I do the Five Senses Journal, I know from experience that it really helps me stay keyed into my environment and I love it so much and it actually kind of acts like a memoir because I can look at it and be remember like, that was a day when I was exploring downtown or whatever.
Gretchen
So I’m very excited to do a five Senses journal. Elizabeth, when I did a five Senses journal before, when I was working on Life in Five Senses, I just had this little DIY journal that I cobbled together, but now I’ve made like a really nice one, you know, that’ll be a keepsake and, you know, has a cover and everything, so it’ll be more fun to do it officially.
Gretchen
How about you? What are you going to do?
Elizabeth
I’m going to do a one sentence journal, which because I’ve always loved the idea of a one sentence journal. I’ve been such an advocate, I’ve recommended it to so many people that I have to admit to you, I’ve never actually done it.
Gretchen
Good.
Elizabeth
So I’m getting your One Sentence journal and I am going to do it this year. True to form, and I’m committing to the 2 to 4 minutes a day.
Gretchen
Yes. Yes, I am too, because we have a lot of the longer form in our lives.
Elizabeth
Yes.
Gretchen
Well, let us know if you do try this at home. Are you going to join the write 24 and 24 challenge? Are you going to do 2 to 4 or 24? Do you have another approach? If people have other ideas for how to do this, what to work toward, it would be fascinating to know. Let us know on Instagram, Threads.
Gretchen
Tik Tok, Facebook. Drop us an email at podcast@gretchenrubin.com or as always, you can go to the show notes. You can go to happiercast.com/461 and they’ll be links to all the journals and books and all the things that we talked about to get you fired up for Write 24 in 24.
Elizabeth
Yes. Coming up, we have fittingly a writing happiness hack. But first, this break.
[music]
Gretchen
Okay, Elizabeth happiness hack. You have a writing hack.
Elizabeth
Gretchen This comes from my writing partner, sarah. She is doing writing tips almost every day daily writing tips on threads at @sfain if you want to follow her. And I thought this was really a good one that I took to heart. So putting it toward this, if 24 minutes is a minimum or 2 to 4 is the minimum, that’s great.
Elizabeth
But and this is the tip. If you’re in the zone, you can keep going. Yes. So if you’re feeling it, don’t just stop, keep going. Yes. Well, this and that is that well.
Gretchen
This is sort of the point that you’re making earlier that often when you do just a little bit, it makes it easier to keep going. And having that energy to begin is often the hardest part. Yeah. So to remind you that 2 to 4 or 24 is the minimum, but you can do it as long as you want.
Gretchen
Yes. And now for more ideas for write 24 in 24. We have some know yourself better questions because it’s always easier. Do the things that make us happier, healthier, more productive and more creative If we approach our aims in the way that is right for us. But sometimes you don’t really know yourself. It’s why is it so hard to know ourselves?
Gretchen
This is a question I ask myself almost every day. So we have some Know yourself better questions, things for everybody to consider so that you can create a consistent writing routine in a way that works for you.
Elizabeth
Yes. And if one approach doesn’t work, you can try something else. But start with a plan. Unless you’re a rebel.
Gretchen
Yes. Yes. Research shows that the more concretely and specifically we plan, the more likely we are to stick to our resolutions. But it’s true. Rebels, you do you. You do it your way. Whatever it feels right to you, if you want to keep it unplanned and spontaneous, that’s great. If you want to commit to write, an elaborate writing ritual, of that is great too.
Gretchen
Rebels do Rebels. Okay, so here are some know yourself better questions to consider as you are planning to write 24 and 24. Here is a question that I think people don’t ask themselves often enough, which is when have you succeeded in the past? There are often clues. So for instance, if you did a lot of writing in college without much difficulty, think about it.
Gretchen
What was it like then and what are the elements of that time that you might think about in this time? And here are some other things that think about as you’re considering setting up your circumstances for yourself.
Elizabeth
So what method of writing you want to type into a document on your computer? Add an app to your phone, hand write in a journal, and use the page of a scratch pad. Gretch, as you always say, beautiful tools make work a joy, so you might want to indulge in a modest splurge if that makes writing more pleasurable.
Elizabeth
Maybe a nice pen or notebook.
Gretchen
Yeah. What time of day do you have the most energy? So think about are you a morning person or a night person? You want to maybe do it when you have energy and creativity at a high point? Also, are you going to use this exercise to set your priorities for the coming day or to reflect on the day that just passed or do original work?
Gretchen
You want to think about what time of day suits your temperament and suits your aim.
Elizabeth
Yeah, I like I think I want to do mine at like 9 p.m.. That always seems to be a time when I’m around and have free time. I can see from your face because you’re like, That’s way too late.
Gretchen
That’s you read my.
Elizabeth
Mind, work for me. Yes.
Gretchen
Yes. That would not be a good time for me. Okay. Yeah.
Elizabeth
And if you need accountability, get it. Obligers, we need accountability. And Gretchen, even upholders, questioners and sometimes rebels kind of benefit from accountability.
Gretchen
Yeah, you could join a writers group. You could find an accountability partner. You can do that in the Happier app. You can partner up with somebody you can also use. Don’t break the chain and other tools and have your app. You can take a class. There are many forms of accountability. Here’s one that I thought was really funny.
Gretchen
So a friend of mine was working on her daily writing and she told her son, You have your homework? And I have my homework, which is my daily writing. If I don’t do my homework on a particular day, you don’t have to do your homework. And so she felt obliged to write because otherwise her son wouldn’t do his homework.
Gretchen
And he was watching very carefully.
Elizabeth
High stakes.
Gretchen
I love that on here, because I do collect unconventional accountability measures because, you know, obligers, they come up with this, the most extraordinary thing. So here’s one from ancient history. According to the historian Plutarch in ancient Greece, the Athenian statesman, Demosthenes built an underground study where he practiced his speaking and exercised his voice. And to keep himself working, he shaved off one half of his head of hair so that he couldn’t go out in public.
Gretchen
So he had to stay and work.
Elizabeth
Wow, that’s bold. That’s intense. Do you benefit from Don’t break the chain? Many people, myself included, benefit from sticking to a chain. That’s one reason that our annual challenge works so well. Yeah, great. I use your don’t break the chain journal I use for go outside and also for Fryman. And although it was a spin on don’t break the chain.
Elizabeth
Yeah and then you also have the Happier app which I use for my scale for my word of the year. I recorded in the app every day and I’m going to continue to do that, by the way.
Gretchen
Yeah, especially if you like it too. It’s very satisfying to check that off so it can really help create a more consistent habit. Ask yourself, would a writing ritual help you focus? A ritual can often help to signal our brains that it’s time to enter into sort of a creative, focused, productive state. And I would love to hear people’s rituals around this.
Gretchen
Some examples are like, You might light a candle, walk around the block and think about what you want to write. You might play a particular kind of music or even a particular song. I’ve heard of people playing songs on loops over and over and over. For some people that works. Or maybe it’s just a genre of song, or you might go to a specific place, like a particular chair in your house or apartment or maybe a coffee shop.
Gretchen
I mean, I know Adam really loves to work in a coffee shop. Some people find I love to work in a library. You might go to a particular place for your for your minutes.
Elizabeth
Do you thrive on collaboration? I do, yeah. It can be exciting and fun to collaborate on a writing project. I mean, Sarah and I are now writing a novel together, and the most fun thing is for us to sit down and talk about the novel. What we want to have happen, what we want to change. Now that we’ve read pages, we both love collaborating and we’re people who are more likely to work when we’re collaborating, right?
Gretchen
There’s the accountability. It also makes it more fun, so you might consider whether you’d like to do write 24 and 24 with another person or a group. You can do it by yourself or you could make it into a thing that you’re sharing with other people. Another thing to think about sort of related to collaboration is social contagion, that we tend to pick up habits from other people.
Gretchen
So you might listen to podcasts about writing or you might talk to people about writing or join a group, because just the feeling that other, you know, on the podcast we try to create that feeling like, this is a thing that a lot of people are doing that helps us to be more consistent with our habits.
Elizabeth
And do you want to upgrade your tools or your surroundings? Right? So this goes to beautiful tools, make work a pleasure.
Gretchen
Well, this is one of the things writing Life in Five Senses really showed me our sensory environment can really make working easier or harder. And we’re all different. We all have to figure it out. So do you want to write in silence? Is your desk chair comfortable? Do you want to have a better pen? Would you feel energized if you had a plant on your desk?
Gretchen
Indulge in a modest splurge? If it’s something that is going to make it easier to keep a consistent habit.
Elizabeth
And that Gretsch people could use your muse machine if they get stuck. I love your muse machine. It’s my favorite thing. Explain what.
Gretchen
Okay, so for creative prompts, I had this list going in my computer of just like these mysterious prompts to help spark creative thinking. And now it’s turned into an actual deck where you can choose a card and it will give you a prompt to think about. And I must say, I love this. I will post a link to it.
Gretchen
I love my muse machine. I use it myself. I use the muse machine to give it the name Muse machine because I couldn’t think of a good name. But there are other ways to boost creativity, other tools and props and things. Again, we can all learn from each other. If you have some great strategy to get those creative juices flowing, send it along.
Elizabeth
And then it can you make it easier to do your writing. And that is employing the strategy of convenience, Gretch. This is one of your go to yes for how to get things. Yes.
Gretchen
Of the 21 strategies for habit change that I talk about in Better Than Before, I have to say this is one of the most universal just about everyone. I think everybody is influenced by convenience, so keep your materials handy. Don’t have it be something that you really have to unpack or you have to go to some distant corner of your house or something.
Gretchen
You want to make it very convenient to help yourself stick to it, because research shows that we are really swayed by convenience to kind of a hilarious degree. And then finally, can you tap into your tendency? We’ve talked about the tendencies throughout, but if you’re an upholder, a questioner, an obliger, or rebel, that is really going to influence how you might set up your habit or even think about the habit to yourself in a way that’s going to help you follow the challenge throughout the year.
Gretchen
So again, if you don’t know what you are, I’ll post a link to the quiz, or you can just go to gretchenrubin.com/quiz. But this is again, this idea of when you know yourself, you can set yourself up for success because what works for someone else isn’t going to work for you. Elizabeth You deciding to do it 9 p.m. is a great thing for you.
Gretchen
You need accountability. Works for you. Yeah, we all need to suit ourselves.
Elizabeth
Yeah. So I cannot wait to hear what everyone’s doing. Yes, this will be a discussion all year long. I’m sure we’ll be talking about this and having hacks and tips.
Gretchen
Resources.
Elizabeth
Yourself better. So this is going to be big. This is going to get a lot of people’s juices flowing.
Gretchen
The best time to start Write 24 in 24 is January 1st, 2024. But the second best time is now. So whenever you feel like starting, it’s the right time, it’s the best time, so you will never be behind you can start whenever you are.
Elizabeth
Coming up, Gretchen gives herself a listening demerit, but first this break.
[music]
Okay, Gretch. We are back with demerits and gold stars and you’re up this week with a happiness demerit.
Gretchen
Yet my daughter Eliza was telling me about something that was annoying her at work. I listen, but I didn’t really acknowledge it. I realized later after the conversation was over that I hadn’t really acknowledged the reality of her feelings, pressed her to like, Well, tell me more, and how did that make you feel and all that? And you know, if her Life in Five Senses I wrote my listening manifesto with all of them.
Gretchen
I’m going to, you know, work on my listening. I’m going to be a better listener. And so in the moment, I just dropped the ball. Later, I did think and realized, okay, I should have done better. But by then, you know, it was too late. So I did say to her, Hey, I’m really sorry. I feel like I didn’t really tune into you the way that I wish I had.
Gretchen
And she was very nice about it. But again, I’m giving myself this demerit to remind myself of Stay in the moment, Listen, acknowledge the reality of people’s feelings, allow awkward pauses to fall, let people take their time. I want to do a better job next time with, Eliza and with everybody in my life.
Elizabeth
Yes, listening is important and can be quite difficult, quite challenging.
Gretchen
How about your gold star?
Elizabeth
Well, I am giving a gold star to Adam today. This is a gold star. It’s a bit late, Gretchen, but better late than.
Gretchen
It’s never too late.
Elizabeth
For gold, you know? Too late for Gold Star.
Gretchen
Go back years. We’ll take them.
Elizabeth
This is a gold star for Adam for cleaning the backyard the day before thanksgiving instead of on thanksgiving. Okay, so let me explain. You know, we hosted Thanksgiving was a big deal. Adam’s way of doing things, it’s his way is that he likes to sort of be last minute. He doesn’t want to, you know, like I take the glasses out for Thanksgiving being the day before, for instance.
Elizabeth
He thinks I should take them out the day of. But this year, he took it upon himself to go and clean the entire backyard. And this is like 6 hours of very manual, hard labor. I mean, this is brushing off all the cushions, sweeping all the leaves. I mean, it’s a lot of work. And he got it all done the day before because we were having people come over at 1 p.m., which is pretty early.
Elizabeth
Yeah. So I was so much more relaxed, Gretchen, because that was done and I didn’t have to nag him. He just went out and did it and I don’t know what made him do it, but I am very grateful that he did. It really made me more relaxed.
Gretchen
Well, in our family we talk about Hostess neurosis, which all of us kind of suffer from. Do you think that after all these years he’s like, okay, I can reduce the hostess neurosis level if I do this?
Elizabeth
Or I think he must have.
Gretchen
Yeah, well done.
Elizabeth
Yeah. I don’t want to I don’t want to question that. I just.
Gretchen
Yes, just enjoy. Just enjoy. Yes. Excellent. Well, gold star to Adam and Gold Star to you for hosting. The resource for this week is you can join the Write 24 in 24 challenge in the Happier app, which I mentioned. If you’re already using the app, great. When you open up your home page, you’ll see the challenge feature there.
Gretchen
You can just tap to get started and follow the prompts to tailor the challenge to you however you want to do it. And if you’re not using the app, you can download the app for free in the App Store or Google Play. You can use that for free. And if you want to learn more about the app and the challenge, go to thehappierapp.com.
Gretchen
And of course I’ll link to it. Elizabeth, What are we reading.
Elizabeth
Instead of what we’re reading, let’s share some of our favorite books about writing.
Gretchen
Let’s get people fired up.
Elizabeth
One that we both absolutely love. Stephen King’s On writing.
Gretchen
So good Also So, so, so good. Anne Lamott Bird by Bird.
Elizabeth
We love Danny Shapiro’s book, Still Writing.
Gretchen
And we must say she’s a friend of both of ours is great book, even if you don’t know her. I love a book that you said that you had not read. It’s a it’s a especially good for nonfiction. It’s William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, I’ve read that like four times.
Elizabeth
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. We mentioned it earlier. It’s very good if you want to get inspired to be creative.
Gretchen
Octavia Butler wrote an essay called Führer Scribendi in the collection, which is great, called Blood Child and Other Stories. And I finally looked up, What is führer scribendi Mean? And it turns out it means writing frenzy in Latin. That’ll get you going.
Elizabeth
Yeah. And then finally, Gretch, I love Ann Patchett’s essay, The Getaway Car in her collection. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.
Gretchen
So good, so good. And that’s it for this episode of Happier. Remember to try this at home. Join us for the annual challenge. Write 24 in 24 you could do 2 to 4 minutes. You can do 24 minutes, whatever you want to do. There is no right way. There is no wrong way. Let us know if you’re planning to join us and what you have in mind.
Elizabeth
Thank you to our executive producer, Chuck Reed, and everyone at Cadence 13. Get in touch. Gretchen’s on Instagram, Tik Tok and Threads at Gretchen Rubin and I’m on Instagram and Threads at Liz Craft. Our email address is podcast@gretchenrubin.com.
Gretchen
And if you like this show or if you have a friend who you think would be interested in joining, write 24 in 24, please let them know, email them a link to the show, or follow us, write us, review us. Wherever you listen to your podcast. It really helps people to discover the show.
Elizabeth
Until next week, I’m Elizabeth Craft.
Gretchen
And I’m Gretchen Rubin. Thanks for joining us. Onward and upward. Okay, so here’s a question for you. You’re going to keep your one sentence journal. Are you going to keep it in a journal or are you going to keep it in the app?
Elizabeth
No, in the journal. I love the journal.
Gretchen
And are you going to have a special pen? We’re both left handed. So I think sometimes nice pens make a mess for us. Do you have like your favorite kind of pen?
Elizabeth
I had not thought about that, but, you know, Mindy sent me some pens last year for my birthday, so maybe I’ll use one of the Mindy Pens.
Gretchen
Good. Well, that would make it a very happy experience.
[music]
From the Onward Project.