Blog Posts by Gretchen Rubin

Elsewhere, I've posted tips for how to cut out calories without really noticing. Along with those easy tips, I also follow some more draconian rules -- well, I usually follow them:

1. Don't eat bread from a restaurant bread basket.
2. Don't eat hors d'oeuvres.
3. Don't eat anything at a children's party.
4. Don't order dessert.
5. Don't eat cheese, except feta in salads.
6. Don't use salad dressing (instead of dressing, I put feta cheese and artificial sweetener on my salads-sounds horrible, but it tastes good).
7. Don't eat bagels.
8. Don't drink alcohol.
9. Don't drink juice.
10. Don't finish my entrée, or order an appetizer.
11. Don't eat things that come in crinkly one-serving packages.

You might thinking, "Life without cheese, without wine, without pigs-in-a-blanket? How joyless, how cramped, how bland! And a person who can put artificial sweetener on a salad is clearly insane."

All true. Here's why I follow these

Most people understand that it's a pain to be disorganized. Disorganized people spend a lot of time hunting for their keys; they have to order a replacement birth certificate; they know they must have a dozen hammers, because it's always been easier to buy a new one than to locate one in the house.

Often, however, people don't realize how disorganized they are -- and also what a demand it makes on their time and mood to be hunting for things. Outer order contributes to inner calm.

To see how organized you are at home, take this quiz. At a minimum, you should know exactly where to find these possessions, right this minute (assuming, of course, you own them-and for the most part, you should):

In marriage, or any partnership, chores are a huge source of conflict. How do you get your sweetheart to hold up his or her end, without nagging?

One of my best friends from college has a very radical solution: she and her husband don't assign. That's right. They never say, "Get me a diaper," "The trash needs to go out," etc. This only works because neither one of them is a slacker, but still - what a tactic! And they have three children!

This is something to strive for. But even if we can't reach that point, most of us could cut back on the nagging. Here are some strategies that have worked for me:

1. It's annoying to hear a hectoring voice, so suggest tasks without words. When my husband needs a prescription filled, he puts his empty medicine bottle on the bathroom counter. Then I know to get it re-filled.

2. If you need to voice a reminder, limit yourself to one word. Instead of barking out, "Now remember, I've told you a dozen times, stop off at the grocery

The folks at Blog Action Day were prescient in their choice of "Poverty" as this year's subject. The current economic situation will mean that people already living in poverty will suffer more, and that more people will face poverty.

For many people, however, the financial crisis won't push them into true poverty, but it will make them feel much poorer - and as a consequence, make them feel anxious and powerless.

If you're one of those people, there is a way that you can both help people living in poverty and help yourself feel happier: Give to other people.

One of the most important principles I've learned from my happiness research is that although we assume that we act because of the way we feel, often we feel because of the way we act.

Therefore, if you don't like the way you're feeling, take action in the opposite direction -- it sounds simplistic, but it's almost uncannily effective. If you're feeling poor, give something away. If you're feeling powerless, take

Everyone has a few tricks for beating the blues - things you do when you're feeling down to try to boost your mood. It turns out, however, that several of the most popular strategies don't actually work very well in the long term. Beware if you are tempted to try any of the following:

1. Comforting yourself with a "treat." Often, the things we choose as "treats" aren't good for us. The pleasure lasts a minute, but then feelings of guilt, loss of control, and other negative consequences just deepen the lousiness of the day. So when you find yourself thinking, "I'll feel better after I have a few beers…a pint of ice cream…a cigarette…a new pair of jeans," ask yourself - will it REALLY make you feel better? It might make you feel worse. In particular, beware of…

2. Letting yourself off the hook. I've found that I sometimes get a real happiness boost from giving something up, quitting something, or breaking a bad habit. For example, I feel very happy about having given up fake