The Happiness Project
The days are long, but the years are short.
Why read it
One ordinary morning on a city bus, a busy writer realizes she is letting her life slip by without appreciating it, and resolves to spend an entire year test-driving every piece of happiness advice she can find.
Rubin turns her year-long experiment into a practical, month-by-month guide, tackling energy, marriage, work, and mindfulness with resolutions she actually tries and tracks. It blends memoir, research, and hands-on self-improvement into an accessible manual for being happier in an ordinary life.
Published in 2009, the book grew out of Rubin's popular blog chronicling her happiness experiments. It became a runaway New York Times bestseller and launched Rubin's career as a leading voice on habits and happiness.
- 01
Happiness is a practice
The takeaway is that greater happiness comes from deliberate, testable changes, not grand transformation.
- 02
Personal commandments
Rubin's rules, like Be Gretchen, help align daily choices with one's true nature.
- 03
The month-by-month method
Breaking the year into themed resolutions makes big change manageable.
- 04
Small habits, big returns
Minor tweaks, from tidying to gratitude, compound into a noticeably better life.
Rubin's January focus on boosting energy by tackling clutter and getting more sleep.
Her resolution to Be Gretchen, learning to stop pretending to enjoy things she does not actually like.
