Scientific Sources

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Below you will find at least one scientific source for each Solution Card in Choose Happiness @ Work. You may also find supplemental sources and information for each card. Please note you will find the short ‘because’ text for each solution here, but not the full description of the Solution. For that you will need to see the cards.

4-6-8 Breath

Slow breathing triggers a relaxation response, helping you manage stress for best brain function

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Antioxidant Snack

Snacks can help restore willpower. Also foods high in antioxidants – such as berries and dark chocolate – are especially good for your brain.

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Ask a Favor, Do a Favor

Doing favors for each other, especially when its reciprocal, helps build better relationships, which helps fuel happiness.

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Assume Positive Intent

Feeling more compassion boosts your happiness.

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Autonomy

Autonomy is one of the strongest motivators available. Having autonomy also lessens stress and improves mood.

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Batch Your Email

People that check email at specific times of day experience less stress throughout the day.

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Be a Sweetheart

being nice to each other is great for relationships, which are great for life-long happiness.

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Be Here Now

Those who focus more on the present are happier than those who spend more time in the past or future.

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Be Outstanding

Physical activity boosts blood flow and therefore boosts healthy, focus and mood.

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Best Possible Future

Doing this boosts your optimism, which increases your happiness, which makes this future more likely to come true.

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Bright Side

Positive attitude simply works to boost your mood. This does not mean denying the hardship, but it does mean also seeing the silver lining.

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Bust a Yoga Move

Yoga can provide exercise mindfulness, and flow, all of which are good for thriving at work.

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Call Your Calling

Those who view their jobs as a calling are happier and more engaged. what is your purpose? What’s the bigger impact of your work?

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Carpool

Carpooling to work turns your commute into a social experience, making it a happier time.

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Celebrate

Being there for each other in good times is a good way to build relationships. Celebrating boosts both mood and relationships.

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Choose From Three

When we choose from fewer options, we tend to be happier with the choice we make. Prevent excessive choice, which leads to stress and unhappiness.

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Collaboration and Delegation

Working together can deepen and improve relationships, and delegation can reduce stress and provide opportunities for others.

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Communicate

The MIT Human Dynamics Lab’s research shows the best teams communicate frequently and energetically. They face each other and gesture, for example.

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Community Table

Happiness is largely social. By eating with others, you relieve stress, boost mood, and improve brain function.

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Commuting Audio Book

Data suggests commuting is typically an unhappy and stressful time. Listening to something absorbing or uplifting helps to boost your mood.

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Company

Our relationships are a huge factor in our happiness. Working with others usually boosts our mood and effectiveness.

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Constructive Responding

One of the best ways to build quality relationships and happiness at the same time

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Courage to Fail

Failure happens when people are taking action, taking risks, learning, and growing. We can learn the most from our failures. This is key to achieving innovation.

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Courageous Conversation

The quality of our relationships has a huge effect on the experience of our working lives.

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Describe Progress

Progress toward clear and meaningful goals fuels happiness and engagement at work.

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Develop Strengths

Using and developing strengths boosts energy and engagement at work.

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Don’t Stress About Your Stress

Excess stress triggers the fight, flight, or freeze response, which can limit your brain’s ability to find solutions.

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Earn Trust

Trust is a primary driver of engagement.

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Emotional Intelligence

Studies suggest that people with higher emotional intelligence have improved job performance and leadership skills.

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Eye Contact

Emotions are largely transmitted through our eyes. Eye contact leads to better relationships and therefore more happiness.

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Fair Pay

While money can’t buy engagement at work, unfair compensation can lead to disengagement.

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Fake it Until You Make It

Many studies show that what you do with your face and body affects how you feel.

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Find the Meaning

Intrinsic goals bring more motivation and happiness than goals motivated by external factors.

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Flow Indicator

Flow fuels happiness and productivity, and you need about 20 minutes of uninterrupted work time to focused to get into flow.

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Flow

Flow produces happiness, and great results, by completely engaging people in their work.

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Focus on the Positive

Focusing attention on the positive helps minimize the significant of negative emotions. Feed yourself positivity for best brain function.

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Forgive

Forgiving when we are ready allows us to move past pain and improve the quality of our relationships, and our well-being.

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Friends at Work

Science strongly suggests that social support is real, effective support. The right colleague can make a big positive difference in how you feel.

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Growth Mindset

A growth mindset–focusing on how you are improving–leads to greater resilience and success.

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Half Full

Seeing the glass as half full works to boost your mindset and mood. For example, at the midpoint of a project, focus on how much you have achieved.

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Hallway Chat

MIT’s Human Dynamics Lab found that the best teams communicated informally as well as formally.

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I Did It List

Progress fuels happiness, and writing an “I Did It” list helps you to visualize and celebrate the progress you have made so far.

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I feel…

Disagreements are often less damaging with this approach. Relationships can more easily improve when we start with how we feel.

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Identify the Next Step

When we are challenged by new or difficult goals, a lack of clarity on the next step can lead to stagnation.

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Just the Right Challenge

An ideal level of challenge is likely to lead to flow: being completely absorbed in the work and very happy doing it.

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Learn and Grow

Career growth opportunities are consistently a key driver of engagement at work.

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Listen and Respond

Feeling that our ideas are being heard and seriously considered at work is a major driver of being engaged.

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Listen to Nature Sounds

The nature sounds will drown out more distracting noise around you, making it easier to get into flow. Nature sounds tend to be less distracting than music.

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Manage Your Messaging

Instant notifications can take you out of flow, therefore reducing engagement, productivity, and happiness.

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Mastery Goals

Mastery goals are motivating and are resilient to setbacks.

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Mentoring

A mentor can share suggestions from a different perspective. You may be able to ask your mentor something that is hard to ask your boss.

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Midday Workout

Being physically active on break can boost mood and performance when you return to work.

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Mind Your Pressure

Some thrive under pressure from deadlines, for example, and others need to relax in order to thrive. Do you know what level of pressure brings out your best?

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Mindfulness

Mindfulness boosts health, focus, self-control, and happiness.

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Monitor Your Monitors

Focus leads to flow, which leads to happiness, which leads to productivity.

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Name It to Tame it

The parts of the brain that name unpleasant emotions are different from the parts of the brain that feel them. Naming helps ease emotional states.

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No Device Light at Night

White light at night signals your brain to not produce melatonin, making it harder to fall asleep.

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No Work in Bed!

When we sleep, we learn. We experience less stress. We need to sleep well to think well and be happy.

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Nurture Hope

Hope lifts both our mood and our ability to get things done.

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Outside Information

In studies in MIT’s Human Dynamics Lab, teams that discussed information from external sources created better ideas and plans.

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Pecha Kucha!

With only personal images and nothing about work, Pecha Kucha presentations build trust. Trust is a foundation of relationships and teamwork.

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Performance Preview

Previewing performance can be highly motivating. Once we describe accomplishments we could make, we are compelled to complete them.

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Plan a Vacation

Vacations are shown to boost health and productivity in the long run. They typically are pretty good for boosting happiness and lowering stress, too.

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Play Fair

We are wired to want fairness. When we get it, we relax and feel more satisfaction.

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Positive Goals

Such goals are more motivating and spur more success. For example, instead of saying “I want to multi-task less”, say “I want to get into flow more.”

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Post Puppy Pics

Studies show that a glance at your furry friend may lower stress and improve performance.

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Power Nap

Brief naps restore energy, reduce errors, and boost mood.

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Practice Positivity

Positivity lifts mood. Teams with high ratios of positive to negative comments have increased productivity.

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Prioritize People

Relationships are a huge factor in our happiness. By prioritizing people first, we gain happiness and better brain function.

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Prioritize Quality

Feeling that everyone is committed to doing quality work is a key driver of engagement. It leads to pride and satisfaction at work.

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Real, Clear Values

When values are clear, decisions are easier and more likely to be helpful. Values can add meaning to work.

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Remind Yourself Why

Thinking about the reasons behind a goal makes it more meaningful, helping motivate you to achieve that goal.

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Remove Roadblocks

Progress toward meaningful goals is a key source of engagement at work. If the roadblocks were easy to remove, they wouldn’t be roadblocks. Get or provide help.

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Ringing Meditation

Mindfulness boosts focus, self-control, health, and happiness.

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Rock to Work

Commuting to work is often a miserable time. Music is known to affect our mood powerfully. Drive happy to arrive happy and spread your good mood.

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Savor

Savoring of the past, present, and future is shown to boost happiness.

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Self-Review

Feedback is often challenging. Status issues can make you feel guarded before a word is said. Giving yourself feedback may be more effective.

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Seven a Day

Studies show a causal connection; eating fruits and vegetables–up to 7 servings a day–makes us happier as well as healthier.

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SMARTEST Goals

SMARTEST goals are even more motivating than SMART goals. Make goals Educational to identify what you can learn, Significant so you care about them, and Toward to align with the future you want.

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Smile

Smiling triggers, the brain to feel happier. It might feel silly at first, but for most of us, most of the time, it works.

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Specific Gratitude

Gratitude simply and powerfully affects happiness.

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Spend on Experiences

Research shows that money can make us happy if it’s spent well. Spending on experiences tends to bring happiness before, during, and after the event.

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Spend on People

Spending on others boosts mood and relationships.

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Spend On the Future

Money can make us happy, but only if we spend it correctly. Spending on the future boosts our mood with anticipation.

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Start with Recognitions

Recognitions create a high ratio of positive to negative comments. That leads to happier brains doing better work.

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Stomp The Stairs

A boost of exercise improves circulation, your cognitive function and your mood.

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Stop Thinking Ruts

Perseverating and thinking in ruts leads to unhappiness. Instead, try to get to the root of the issue, replace the thought with another, and/or talk with a friend.

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Strength Spotter

Appreciating and validating other people feels good. Using strengths boosts happiness and engagement.

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Stress is Energizing

In a Harvard study, those who viewed stress as helpful experienced less ill health effects from their stress.

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Super You

Research led by Amy Cuddy shows this stance increases testosterone and assertiveness and lowers cortisol and stress reactivity.

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Sure Thing!

Brains crave certainty. When the world behaves as the brain expects it to, we feel better. Surprises often cause stress.

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Take a Break Together

Breaks relax and re-energize us, allowing us to bring our best. Breaks are productivity enhancers! The best ones get us physical activity and real social contact.

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Take a Day Off

All of us–especially those most engaged at work–need true down time to be more effective.

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Take Responsibility

Acting with integrity prevents problems and helps us feel good about our work. Taking responsibility helps us retain our power and ability to improve situations.

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Turn Off Email Alert

Email can be compelling and distracting. Turning off notifications lets you focus.

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Use Strengths

Teams that use their strengths are more energetic, more productive, and have lower turnover. Strengths assessments and training can help reap these benefits.

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Visualization Micro-Break

Visualizations trigger relaxation and reduces stress, helping many of us get into a better space to do our best work.

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Walking Meditation

In studies, meditation is linked with better self-control, health, success, management, and happiness.

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Walking One-on-One

You will think more clearly, remember more of the meeting, ease stress, and boost happiness.

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Watering Hole

We are social creatures. Giving people a chance to connect gives relationships, and therefore happiness, a chance to develop.

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We

You are all literally in it together. Acting that way boosts mindset, motivation, and relationships.

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What’s Working Well

When you find what’s already working well, you aren’t speculating; you are finding what really works for your people. Good ideas can be spread around.

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When and Where Goals

Deciding in advance when and where you will do something sets you up to follow through. The time and location cue the behavior. This helps form new habits.

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With a Friend

Our relationships are a huge factor in our happiness. Working with others usually boosts our mood and effectiveness.

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Workout at Work

Exercise boosts health, brain function and mood–and dedicated space makes exercise more likely to happen.

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