I am thinking about this concept. Mine might not be just things that will make me happier, but at least things that are important to me (So by definition does that mean they will make me happy?)
I will post some here over th next couple of days.
Here’s my list so far, in no special order. I think I’m at 19, but I may add or change a couple
-Take at least 4 trips/vacations (3 already planned)
-Exercise at least 3 times per week, most weeks
-Call (or e-mail)an older friend/relative, or one I don’t speak with often, regularly
-Try multiple volunteer opportunities
-Try pickle ball or yoga
-Cook new foods
-Ride my bike regularly
-Think about joining a club, or participate in a couple of meet-up kids of things (hiking, biking, ???)
-Continue to declutter house
-Visit a new US city
-Try spin class again
-Figure out how to retrieve as many electronic photos from various little disks and old computers as possible
-Make a will
-Figure out what to do about existing financial planner
-Keep getting rid of clothes that haven’t been worn in a long time/are no longer needed
-Socialize with another couple monthly
-Start making a retirement location spreadsheet/list kind of thing
-Continue tracking all expenses (for retirement expense estimating)
-Commit to retirement date
I am breaking down 2020 to:
2 new friends
2 new activities
Doable I hope!
^^ I was just going to post this- that your list might be a “10 for 20” or “12 for 20”- the point is to have a list of things that are not currently being added to your life but that will up your life satisfaction - either for a moment, a day or for the long term!
If you go here you can download a pdf of a blank 20 for 20 list:
https://gretchenrubin.com/resources/
I would also recommend the podcast “Happier With Gretchen Rubin”
You can also look on Instagram for this hashtag to see what others are doing:
20for2020
AND, if you into walking or would like to start walking there is another initiative on the resources page for keeping track of how many days in 2020 you walk for 20 minutes!
Here’s my list. I like @abasket’s idea of leaving room to add a couple throughout the year.
- learn how to use my Instapot
- make overdue doctor appointments (eye/gyno/physical/etc.)
- get back to taking daily vitamins
- read 12 books on my list
- watch 12 movies on my list
- create and use a daily cleaning schedule
- find a new hairstyle
- monthly date night with husband
- create and use budget to better control spending
- create and use weekly menu plan to get back to healthier eating
- purchase a book on gratitude or a gratitude journal, and use it
- create education goals (take a class, teach myself something new, attend a lecture, etc.)
- do more cardio (find a walking or running group for accountability? in-home videos?)
- visit my mother more often
- use up gift cards
- work on scrapbook
- go through wardrobe, getting rid of what doesn't fit/fixing what needs repair/purchasing needed staples)
Ingrid Fetell Lee has a site I enjoy very much. https://www.aestheticsofjoy.com/ I like her posts about perspective; they’re helpful to me as I try to reset to a kinder default.
Here’s me tentative list (subject to change)
- Actually plan my Italy trip versus just say I’m going
- Try a new gym class/ walk more
- Make more vegetarian meals
- Improve my communication skills. People can’t read my mind/ don’t be a doormat
- Plan more trips
- Keep up my PT exercises
- Make monthly date with my local adult kids
- Spend more time with my sister who has Parkinson’s. Be more compassionate.
- Plan a trip with my two close friends
- Organize a family get together
- Keep track of what I read
- Make concrete plans for a Canada trip by March. Trip is late July. Confirm who is coming and what dates
13.plan and calendar family sailing trip to French Polynesia for 2021 - Organize my home desk once a month
- Try to waste less food
- Look into a hybrid plug in car
- Use Alaska companion ticket/ plus use Chase points
- Estate planning
- Work on establishing a meditation practice
- Make some use of the Bullet journal I bought and started in 2019
I may not get to 20, though I want to try.
- make a will
- call my mom weekly
- walk 30 minutes 5 days a week
- work on blankets for Project Linus 3 days a week
- shop at farmers markets
- can fresh produce for later use
- try cooking new foods at least 2x a month
- read an hour a day 4-5 times a week
- find a weekly volunteer gig
- go on a monthly movie date with my husband
- visit my D next fall, wherever she ends up in her residency
- go to D’s match day
- go to D’s med school graduation
- visit my parents and sisters each time for #13 and #14
- take a class, not sure what in. Maybe Spanish or cooking. Maybe something else. Probably in the fall. We are just a mile from the community college. I can combine my walks with the class and walk to get there.
I will have to think about if there is more.
One-offs are ok and recommended (by me)! Personally because this is a happiness list (and not resolutions) I prefer one-offs - like “bake a savory pie” rather than “bake a pie once a month” because then the stakes are higher and more “task/job” oriented - and harder to achieve - IMO!
I love lists. Here’s mine for 2020:
- Declutter - clothes
- Declutter - papers
- Finish a big (for me) cross stitch project
- Catalog yarn stash and get rid of 2/3rds
- Update will
- Buy a new computer
- Use airmiles to take a trip with my sister
- Help graduating daughter move out of college apartment and to new city for her first real job
- Get back to taking daily vitamins (thanks @taverngirl for the reminder!)
- Practice kindness daily
Will leave 10-20 TBD for now
My list is typed and active in my mind!!! A few are repeats worth relisting to me from 2019.
Meatless mondays! (H will not love this but doing it for ME)
New haircut!
Plan a road trip (california?)
Attend a concert i can dance to
Make better use of lunch hour
Grow something new (sweet potatoes)
Make a 2017 and 2018 photo book
Explore joining a book club
Run to next town and back! ( estimate 10 ish miiles)
See “142” (this is a reference to a # on the scale - but not framed for weight loss)
More evening reading, less cnn
Take two pottery classes
Make time to hang out leisurely at library(ies)
Complete a beach glass project!
Make a will <3
Get a spring pedicure
Make a savory pie, from scratch!
Explore bread baking
Complete health care visits: eye,pap
Refresh bedroom/kitchen
2020 Inspirational word: “lighten up”
I never make resolutions but, based on the “uneasy and down” thread, I do plan to find ways to be happier and come to (better) terms with aging.
<<<I may not get to 20, though I want to try.
- make a will
- call my mom weekly
- walk 30 minutes 5 days a week
- work on blankets for Project Linus 3 days a week
- shop at farmers markets
- can fresh produce for later use
- try cooking new foods at least 2x a month
- read an hour a day 4-5 times a week
- find a weekly volunteer gig
- go on a monthly movie date with my husband
- visit my D next fall, wherever she ends up in her residency
- go to D’s match day
- go to D’s med school graduation
- visit my parents and sisters each time for #13 and #14
- take a class, not sure what in. Maybe Spanish or cooking. Maybe something else. Probably in the fall. We are just a mile from the community college. I can combine my walks with the class and walk to get there.
I will have to think about if there is more.>>
I am now adding a few that have been on my mind, just not at the moment I wrote the above.
- dental and vision appointments
- I want to hit my step count goal more often than not, even on the days I don’t take walks to be walking. I will feel more productive and less bored if I am up moving more.
- make a fruit smoothie most days in my new Nutribullet
- try reading books through listening via libro.fm. It is a way to listen through my phone and I picked a local, independent bookstore that will benefit from the books I buy. I can listen while I walk. I am not used to reading books this way, though it will make me happy to support an independent book store and move more at the same time.
- Go on a vacation with my husband that does not involve seeing family or going to a work related conference at the same time. Probably in the late summer or fall.
Here goes. Some of this is stuff I’ve needed to do for so long and am hoping that writing it down and putting it out in the world will make it happen, like getting a will.
Get own PayPal account
Get Venmo account
Do a will
Drink less Diet Coke
Write more
Walk more on days I don’t work out
Lose weight
Start with new dentist
Get new glasses
Figure out whether it’s my year for mammogram/pap smear
Read five books
Work to elect candidates I support
Open 529 for Michael
Get better handle on how we spend our money
Continue to further declutter bedroom
Continue to declutter office
Use up old gift cards
Paint boys’ bathroom
Plant spring flowers
Get mantle for fireplace
So I’ve finally got at least the first draft of a list:
- Continue taking Chinese ink brush class once a week in NYC
- Go to a museum after class since I never do any work when I get home anyway
- Paint regular watercolor once a week – minimum 3x3 (good Instagram size)
- See 1 movie a month – preferable a new release
- Read 50 books
- Say no to doing any legalization architectural work
- Say no to potential clients I don’t like on the phone
- Exercise 3x a week and find a tracking system that works for me
- Speaking of tracking, make my Bullet Journal work better
- Eat vegetarian on weekdays
- Track food for one month
- Start a book club with two old friends who were PTA presidents with me
- Or at least play board games with them (see them every other month minimum)
- Update will, now that we finally know what our assets are
- Set up a “When did I last ___?” page in Bullet journal, for chores, doctor appointments, car stuff etc.
- Hike at least every other week if weather is over 40 degrees and it is not raining.
- Have a wine tasting party
- Work on expanding friendship group, probably by getting to know people I like in the neighborhood better
- Get a mini-split AC system
- Put a water feature in my garden so I can qualify for a Certified Wildlife Habitat® sign
This is a great thread, I’ll throw my “hopeful I’ll do these” list out there:
- Stop letting my phone run my life.
- Read more books.
- Go back to the gym.
- Work on writing my book that I started.
- Finally (after 8 months of undiagnosed but finally diagnosed stomach problems) get my health back.
- Go hiking.
- 20 bags in 20 days declutter.
- Get my house as close as possible to be ready to sell so we can downsize.
- Get back to photography.
- Go get facials with those unused gift cards sitting in the drawer.
- Work on my relationship with my husband.
- Stop trying to understand why people argue on Facebook.
- Find that fulfilling volunteer work that I have been craving.
- Assistant direct another community theatre play.
- Find a tasty dairy free cheese (is that possible?)
- Find a good recipe for Gluten Free bread and make it.
- Run.
- Go to church more often.
- Help as many people as possible.
- Stop the negative thoughts that creep in.
I recommend if you keep a calendar to schedule in a monthly or quarterly check on your list so you can be reminded of your happiness tasks and continue to move forward on them. 
A lot of what I see on those lists is what would not pass muster of performance goal setting in the corporate world because it is not measurable. For example, “Run a 5k” or “Read a book a month” is easily quantifiable, so it is easy to keep yourself accountable. Things like “Work on my relationship” could mean anything, so the goal setter can be setting her or himself for failure… I am not saying that one can’t set such big goals; I am saying that each one of such broad goals needs to have sub-bullets that are easily measurable (like "Have a date night second Saturday of every month).
^^^ I don’t disagree with this! I do personally avoid the more vague tasks. I found as I ended 2019 while I may not have completed a task (“read 19 books” but I only read 12) I made measurable progress and could be satisfied with that and got that “ping” of happiness adrenaline. That’s what it is about for me.
But I also subscribe to the “it’s your game to play” motto so avoid setting too many rules for others who need to make their list their own happiness bible.
And by the way, I signed up for two pottery classes this morning! One happiness task in motion.