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Five takeaways:

1. Opening with a reference to Tolstoy’s immortal opening to Anna Karenina, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” this piece argues that there are many ways to unhappiness– but that the successful journey to true happiness is rooted a single guiding principle- one’s relationships.
2. Research suggests that happier people tend to have common traits related to socialization, with very happy individuals engaging more often in social activities with relatives, neighbors, friends, and going to group experiences.
3. The quality of one’s relationships plays a significant role in happiness. Happier people cherish and nourish their close friendships, and their familial/romantic relationships.
4. The article then touches on family dynamics, with studies indicating that happier families follow a narrow but well-worn path to happiness: they focus on emotional warmth and strive for harmonious communication.
5. The path to happiness, Brooks argues, is not exclusively dependent on factors like net worth, family structure, or ideological views. Instead, true happiness requires a focus on allowing oneself to be loved, which can be achieved by consciously prioritizing and enhancing the quality of relationships.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Five takeaways:

• In the 1920s, Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik observed an odd thing. While dining out, she was impressed by the complex orders the wait staff was able to remember at one time. Yet, as soon as the bill was paid, the wait staff forgot completely what the orders were. This observation gave rise to the study of what would become known as the Zeigarnik Effect: our tendency to remember incomplete or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.
• The thought of Incomplete tasks divides your attention, splitting your focus and making it harder to concentrate on whatever you’re currently working on. The Zeigarnik Effect also lingers in our minds when we’re outside of work, allowing thoughts of unfinished work to seep into time meant for leisure or relaxation.
• The article provides some tactics for overcoming the Zeigarnik effect:
  1. Write Your Tasks Down: Reduce your memory’s habit of lingering on work…habitually write down tasks as they come to you using a digital task manager like Todoist.
  2. Have a System for Organizing and Regularly Reviewing your Tasks: Establish a systematic approach for going over your tasks to build trust in your task management system.
  3. Have an End of Work Shutdown Ritual: Before ending your workday, plan out the following day’s tasks. This can prevent lingering unfinished tasks from occupying your mind.
  4. Find a Small Way to Get Started: Overcome procrastination by identifying a small initial step to beginning work on a big or difficult task. Taking that first step can trigger your brain to continue.
  5. Don’t forget to look back at how far you’ve come: Be intentional in going over your list of completed tasks, possibly in a weekly review, allowing you to appreciate your achievements.

From Becky Kane for Todoist
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Five takeaways:

1. Psychologists generally define personality according to “Big Five” traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness toward others, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Consideration of one’s personality traits can predict vacation enjoyment, with “openness to experience” being a leading predictor of enjoyment.
2. One researcher makes the distinction between allocentricity, which he defines as comfort with novelty and adventurousness, vs psychocentricity, which describes those more prone to stick to routine and avoid uncertainty.
3. Scholars combine axes of allocentricity and psychocentricity to derive vacation personalities, which predict levels of stress on vacation.
4. Researchers group vacationers into four types: The Spontaneous Socializer (an adventurer who loves new people), the Gregarious Planner (extroverted but not spontaneous), the Surprise Avoider (an introvert who is not spontaneous), and the Lone Wanderer (the introvert who loves adventure but wants to do everything alone).
5. Consciousness of which type of vacation best fits your personality type can not only guarantee better trips – it can help you pick and choose experiences & create habits to make your life more enjoyable as a whole.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
Read the whole story.

Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Five takeaways:

1. Useful research has shown that connections forged among different groups of people—what social scientists call “bridging social capital”—reliably enhance peace, prosperity, and social progress. Yet, we often group with those most like us.
2. Diversity in a friend group can focus on any number of factors but can come down to cultivating a friend group with specific viewpoints, experiences, and perspectives.
3. Management researchers have long found that diversity of ideas and ideology leads to better, more creative business outcomes. There are similar outcomes for one’s social life.
4. Here are three tips for jumpstarting the diversity of perspective in your own social sphere:
   • Talk to strangers: While only talking to trusted friends may seem safe, strangers are often more than happy to share their perspectives, and to hear yours.
   • Become a social scientist: Be curious and solicit the views of others in a friendly way. Tactfully ask questions that may expose a healthy difference of opinion.
   • Celebrate heresy: A rewarding social circle will discuss ideas far outside their comfort zone, politically, philosophically, and morally without fear of recrimination.
5. Ideological and intellectual diversity will make social interaction much more thrilling.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
Read the whole story.

Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.