Spend a little on someone else

Once a month, a small amount you'd have spent on yourself goes on someone else. Lunch, a gift, a cause you'd back.

no timeEvidence: worth trying

The famous study handed people five or twenty dollars and told half to spend it on themselves, half on someone else. The give-away group felt better that evening. It's in every happiness book. Evidence: decent

The honest update: the original had forty-six people, and a careful repeat in 2022 didn't find the main effect, only a smaller one on a secondary measure. Probably true, not settled. Evidence: worth trying

Cheap enough to run on yourself. The trick is to make it something you'd notice giving up.

Source: Dunn, Aknin and Norton, 2008, Science; Kim et al., 2022, PLoS One (replication) (link)

Same theme: Money, spent right

Money, spent right
Book the experience, not the thing
Next time there's spare money: a trip, a match, a course, a meal with people. Not the gadget.
no timeEvidence: decent
Money, spent right
Buy back an hour
Pay someone to do the one weekly job you dread. Cleaning, ironing, the lawn, the tax return. Use the hour on a person.
no timeEvidence: decent
Money, spent right
Count the commute in the salary
Comparing two jobs, or two houses: price the commute. An extra hour a day is five hours a week, most of a working day gone.
no timeEvidence: decent