This year, my wife and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. Around the same time, I read a blog post called “8 Traits of a Happy Marriage, According to a Couples Therapist.” I agree with all eight of the defining characteristics of long-lasting, happy marriages. I am particularly drawn to these…
I’ve written before about things I learned from Daniel Kahneman’s wonderfully interesting book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow". In a section on availability bias, Kahneman shared useful information for couples. Availability bias is the way we judge situations by relying on immediate examples that come mind. For example, as Kahneman points…
In the mid-1990s, I had the good fortune of participating in the Strategic Coach® program. Its quarterly, all-day sessions helped me focus on creating the life I wanted, personally and professionally. One of the first things I learned in the program was their time management system, the most important aspect…
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about Investing in Time Rather than Things, for Happiness after I read about a study showing that using money to buy yourself more time results in greater happiness than using money to buy things. It’s especially beneficial to invest in freeing…
This is a guest post by Ryan Snow. Screens are everywhere. You can’t make a call or even make your coffee without looking at a screen. After reading Kevin Kelly’s book, The Inevitable, where he writes about the future of screening, I decided to examine my own use of screens.…
In the past, I wrote about Being Present in a Smartphone World. On a related note, I read a piece in the New York Times where they reported on these survey results, which might not be very shocking: We check our phone an average of 47 times a day. Eighty-two…
As I have done for each of the past few years, here are the many ways I enjoyed the experiences of my year: places I visited, music and podcasts I listened to, books I read, what I watched on TV, and more. Reading I love reading and I love learning.…
I bought my first iPhone in 2011. I never had a Blackberry, a Palm Pilot, or anything similar—so that iPhone 3G was my first foray into the world of smartphones. I've upgraded it twice since, and now use an iPhone 6. I love my iPhone—just as so many people do.…
I’ve written a fair amount about why experiences are better than things. Two of my posts are here and here. I read a really good article about the same subject on Motherly. In the piece, Elizabeth Tenety gives a helpful list of experiences one can give as gifts, in this…
I recently read The Power of Having Fun, the brand-new book by Dave Crenshaw. I am a big believer in taking time off to make time for yourself and for your family. I've had the good fortune of having taken that time over most of the past 20 years. I…
This is a guest post by Aryeh Weinstein. I knew he was coming. He had called me earlier in the week and asked me if I could host him and his wife for dinner at our home. After calling the reference he gave me, I told him we’d be happy…
My next door neighbor invited me over a few months ago to check out his "Alexa" (the electronic device from Amazon you can ask to do things for you). I had only heard a bit about Alexa at that point. He showed me the way he uses it to control…