Three Good Things
Writing down three things that went well, and why, each night for a week raises wellbeing measurably for months.
- Evidence
- shaky
- Topic
- Mind
- Things to do
- 3
- Read
- 1 min
Real, but smaller and shakier than the story you have probably heard.
- Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, American Psychologist, 2005 — RCT, effects at 6 months
- Emmons & McCullough, 2003
Check it yourself: doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410
A correction to this entry
Downgraded from solid. White, Uttl & Holder (2019) re-analysed the positive-psychology intervention trials and found effects close to zero once small-study bias was corrected for. The exercise costs nothing and may still help you; the evidence is thinner than the original paper suggested.
Why it works
Attention is trained. The intervention works because during the day you start scanning for what will go on the list.
What to do about it
- Three specific things and the causal “why” for each. The why is what makes it work and what people skip.
- One week is enough to start; the participants who continued did so voluntarily because it worked.
- Keep it concrete and small. “The 6am call went well” beats “I'm grateful for my family”.
Where people go wrong
Generic gratitude lists, which become rote in about four days and do nothing.
Where this fits in your day
Shut down out loud. Three good things and why. One person you'll contact tomorrow.
Read next
- It Will Matter Less Than You ThinkWe badly overestimate how long any outcome — good or bad — will affect our happiness.solid
- Satisfice on Everything but the FewPeople who seek the best option end up with objectively better outcomes and feel worse about them.solid
- Exercise Is the Strongest Single InterventionNothing else improves mood, attention, memory and long-term cognition on as much evidence as regular aerobic exercise.proven
- Sleep Sets the Emotional BaselineOne night of deprivation raises amygdala reactivity to negative images by about 60% and weakens the prefrontal control over it.proven