Your memory of an evening isn't a recording. It's a score, built from two points: the strongest moment and the last one. How long the thing went on barely counts.
The clean demonstration used pain. 287 patients rated a colonoscopy or kidney-stone treatment minute by minute, then rated the whole thing afterwards. Duration and remembered pain were almost unrelated, a correlation near zero. The remembered score sat close to the average of the worst minute and the final minute. Evidence: solid
Turning that round, planning a good ending on purpose, is the obvious move, and nobody has trialled it. Evidence: worth trying It costs nothing. Run the order of the evening so the thing you'd both pick comes last. Same for a trip. Same for a hard conversation: don't finish on the logistics.
Same theme: Holding a good moment
Holding a good moment
Ask how the day actually felt, once
Pick one ordinary stretch today, the commute, the kids' bedtime, an hour with mates. Afterwards, score how it felt while it was happening. Then score the day as you'd answer if asked. Compare. Once, not a log.
5 minEvidence: worth trying
Holding a good moment
Revisit one good memory a week
Once a week, pick one good moment from the last year. Two minutes back in it. Where you were, who was there, what it sounded like.
2 minEvidence: worth trying
Holding a good moment
Say it, then write it
Once a week, tell someone what they did for you. Then write the same thing down. One line, dated.
5 minEvidence: decent