15 Simple Things You Can Do Today That Will Make You Happier, Backed By Science

Happiness is something we think about a lot at Buffer.

It’s been part of our culture from the very beginning —  so much so that we even have slide decks from 2013 dedicated to it. While our values have evolved since then, the focus on cultivating happiness still runs through everything we do today.

No surprise, then, that we’ve spent time exploring what science can teach us about how to be happier. My main takeaway from what the research has revealed is that happiness doesn’t have to be a mysterious, far-off goal. Small, science-backed changes can genuinely make life feel a little lighter — starting today.

In this post, I’ve gathered 15 research-backed strategies on how to be happy — some surprising, most refreshingly simple. 

Think of it as a friendly guide for sprinkling a bit more joy, gratitude, and positivity into your day.

1. Exercise — even 10 minutes is enough

“Run it out” is one of my mottos. It’s amazing how, even when I don't feel like it  — in fact, especially when I don’t feel like it — getting out on a run helps me reset and feel better about whatever I’m struggling with. And it’s not just me; it’s science.

Research suggests that regular exercise in your daily life has positive effects, both on your physical and mental health, and can play a role in helping you find happiness.

Getting moving triggers the release of more happiness hormones, serotonin and dopamine. On top of that, exercise increases your heart rate, which in turn pumps more oxygen to your brain. A well-oxygenated brain is as great as it sounds — many studies have found that this can help improve cognition, and manage stress, anxiety, and depression, too.

In Shawn Achor's book, The Happiness Advantage, he cites a fascinating study in which three groups of patients treated their depression with either medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. The results of this study surprised me. Although all three groups experienced similar improvements in their levels of joy to begin with, the follow-up assessments proved to be radically different:

"The groups were then tested six months later to assess their relapse rate," Achor writes. "Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38% had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group were doing only slightly better, with a 31% relapse rate. The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9%."

Exercise can help you relax, increase your brain power, and improve your body image. A study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies, even when they saw no physical changes. Paired with a healthy diet, it can be incredibly powerful.

The best part is that you don’t need to commit to a miles-long run or strenuous HIIT class every day to have a happy life — just 10 minutes of movement a day has been proven to be enough to boost happiness levels, according to The Journal of Happiness Studies.

📝 Action step: Even a 10-minute walk around the block, a few stretches at your desk, or a quick set of squats counts. Just get your body moving and notice how your mood shifts.

2. Get enough sleep — you'll feel like you've won the lottery

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), sleep deprivation dramatically impairs memory and concentration, disrupts your metabolism, and increases levels of stress hormones. As a newish mom, I can certainly attest to this! 

Sleep is self-care, and an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, just as much as a healthy diet and exercise.

Beyond the severe physical consequences of getting enough (“People who chronically fail to get enough sleep may actually be cutting their lives short,” the APA says), you don't need me to tell you that a bad night's sleep can seriously impact your mood.

A study published in the journal Sleep, which analyzed the sleep patterns of 30,594 people over the age of 16 in the U.K. over a period of four years, found that insufficient or poor sleep worsened emotional states.

With the widely used General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a survey that helps determine health-related quality of life, they made some interesting comparisons with participants who got more and better Zzz:

“Changes on the GHQ are comparable with those seen in mental health professionals completing an eight-week program of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy designed to improve psychological well-being,” researchers write.

“They are also comparable with the average improvement in well-being shown by U.K. lottery winners two years after a medium-sized lottery win.” Read: Getting more sleep will boost your mood as much as winning the lottery. 

Of course, not everyone (especially new parents) can guarantee a good six to eight hours a night, so try to control what you can: less screen time before you go to bed, setting up a comfortable sleep environment, and choosing not to let Netflix compel you to watch the next episode. 

📝 Action step: Tonight, aim for one extra 20 to 30 minutes of rest. Dim the lights, silence notifications, and skip that last episode.

3. Move closer to work or work from home

Our commute to the office can have a powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that many people do this twice a day, five days a week, makes it unsurprising that its effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy.

Several studies have found that happiness and commute time are inversely proportional. As this paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health put it: “The longer the commute, the lower the satisfaction with work and life; the length of commuting can also cause damage to health, affecting physical health and causing inactivity.”

A four-year study by scientists from the University of South Australia shows that eliminating travel time leads to better sleep, less stress, and stronger mental health over time. With extra hours back in their day, many people are rediscovering balance: cooking healthier meals, spending more time with family, and even fitting in leisure that boosts energy and mood. In other words, more time for many of the ways to be happier mentioned in this article. 

The Buffer team has been fully remote since its inception in 2010. While we briefly experimented with a San Francisco office to be closer to other startups, we’ve always been committed to being a 100% remote and distributed team because of the many benefits we’ve found, including a happier team, more flexibility, and increased productivity.

📝 Action step: If you can’t move or work from home, try reclaiming commute time. Start your day 15 minutes earlier for a calm coffee or meditate on your porch

4. Spend time with friends and family

Even short social interactions can give your mood a quick boost, even for introverts. No matter who the person or loved one is — a friend, family member, or even a trusted teammate — this kind of close-knit support group can help us navigate life's ups and downs a little better, studies have shown.

I love the way Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert explains it: “We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends, and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.”

Psychiatrist George Vaillant is the director of a decades-long study of the lives of 268 men, one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. In an interview in 2008, he was asked about what he'd learned from the men. Vaillant's response: "That the only thing that really matters in life is your relationships to other people."

He shared insights of the study with The Atlantic's Joshua Wolf Shenk on how the men's social connections and support group made a difference to their overall happiness:

“The men's relationships at age 47, he found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except defenses," Wolf Shenk writes. "Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93% of the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when younger."

📝 Action step: Send a quick text, schedule a 20-minute phone call, or have a coffee with someone you care about. 

5. Get outside somewhere greenish

Back in 1853, American naturalist and essayist Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal, “All nature is doing her best each moment to make us well — she exists for no other end. Do not resist her.”

It might not come as a surprise that you can find happiness in the great outdoors — but even the not-so-great outdoors can help, too. (Good news for those of us who spend most of our days at our desks, you don't need to spend hours in the sunshine to reap the benefits of good old-fashioned fresh air.)

A government-funded project in the U.K. has confirmed that Green Social Prescribing — connecting people with nature-based activities like gardening, conservation, and outdoor exercise — can significantly improve mental health and well-being. 

Reaching over 8,000 participants, the study found that people who started with below-average levels of happiness, life satisfaction, and mental health reported major improvements after joining. In fact, well-being scores often rose to meet or exceed national averages, with many participants describing the impact as equal to or even better than medication or traditional therapy.

If you're wondering how to be happier and have less than thirty minutes to spare, you’ll be pleased to know that spending time outdoors in a green space for just 20 minutes is enough to boost well-being and help manage stress, according to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research.

“Some people may go to the park and just enjoy nature," study co-author Hon Yuen told TIME. "It's not that they have to be rigorous in terms of exercise. You relax and reduce stress, and then you feel happier.”

If the idea of finding a space green enough to be considered 'nature' feels a bit far off, fear not — the study had participants visit urban parks in Birmingham, U.K., not Yosemite.

I’ve found that taking a breather and getting some fresh air outside (even for just a few minutes) in between tasks helps me come back to my desk more motivated and ready to tackle whatever’s next.

📝 Action step: Step outside for 10–20 minutes today. Breathe, notice nature, and let your mind reset.

6. Help others to help yourself

There are plenty of studies that show volunteering, random acts of kindness, or just giving someone else a compliment can boost your mood and teach you how to be happy.

In his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman explains that helping others can improve our own lives:

"We scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested."

If we go back to Shawn Achor's book, he says this about helping others: "When researchers interviewed more than 150 people about their recent purchases, they found that money spent on activities — such as concerts and group dinners out — brought far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches. Spending money on other people, called 'prosocial spending', also boosts happiness."

Giving time, rather than money, is an option too: volunteering could be particularly beneficial in helping you feel more positive. In a paper in the Journal of Happiness Studies, researchers examined data from nearly 70,000 subjects in the U.K. They found that people who had volunteered in the past year were more satisfied with their lives and rated their overall health as better.

They also discovered that volunteering more frequently meant greater benefits. Those who volunteered at least once a month reported better emotional well-being than those who helped out irregularly or not at all.

📝 Action step: Do one small kind thing today: hold a door, send a compliment, or help a coworker.

7. Practice smiling — it can alleviate pain

Fun fact: The simple act of smiling causes the body to release those feel-good hormones, dopamine and serotonin. So if you're looking up how to be happy, crack a smile.

Smiling itself can induce positive emotions, but it's more effective when we back it up with positive thoughts, according to this study published in the Academy of Management Journal:

“Customer-service workers who fake smiles throughout the day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity. But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts — such as a tropical vacation or a child's recital — improve their mood and withdraw less.”

📝 Action step: Smile at yourself in the mirror or at a stranger for a few seconds. Pair it with one positive thought and feel the instant lift.

8. Plan a trip 

Get all you can out of your vacation by enjoying the planning, shopping, packing, and daydreaming months before the scheduled start date.

A study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life showed that the highest spike in joy came during the planning stage of a vacation as employees enjoyed a sense of anticipation, which boosted happiness for eight weeks. After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.

If you can't take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar — even if it's a month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a quick dose of happiness, remind yourself about it. 

📝 Action step: Pick a weekend activity, even a local one. Just jot it on the calendar and let yourself imagine and start planning.

9. Take time off and learn how to be happy away from work

Now that you’ve had fun planning your vacation, it’s time to actually take it. It turns out vacations aren’t just a quick mood boost while you’re sipping cocktails on the beach — they’re one of the best things you can do for your long-term well-being. A new review from the University of Georgia looked at 32 different studies and found that time off has a significant and lasting impact on how we feel, far stronger than past research suggested.

It doesn’t matter much whether you jet off somewhere new or stay home for a staycation. What really makes the difference is what you do with your time.

Interestingly, what you do on holiday matters: activities that encourage psychological detachment from work and physical activity were shown to deliver the biggest well-being gains. The researchers also found that employees who psychologically disengaged from work on their vacations saw the most improvement in their well-being.

Personally, I noticed this on my last holiday. I didn’t go far or even for very long, but the simple act of putting my laptop away and spending a few days outdoors made me feel genuinely recharged in a way that lingered long after I was back at my desk.

📝 Action step: Block one hour today for yourself — no work, no emails, no scrolling. Step outside, read, nap, or simply breathe.

10. Meditate — rewire your brain for happiness

Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, reducing anxiety, giving hope, and helping to keep you calm.

It turns out it's also useful for improving your happiness. A study by Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation.

After the course, they scanned participants again — and found that the parts of their brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank.

According to Shawn Achor, the practice can help you navigate tough times, find clarity, solve problems, and feel happier long-term:

“Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating, we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness.”

If sitting down to meditate feels a bit intimidating, the simple act of taking a few deep breaths can work wonders. A study in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience titled ‘How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life' found that deep breathing can reduce stress and increase emotional control.

Focusing on the breath is also a useful grounding practice in meditation and a great place to start.

📝 Action step: Try 2–5 minutes of mindful breathing right now. Focus on your breath, notice your thoughts, and gently return to the present.

11. Practice gratitude to increase both happiness and life satisfaction

Honestly, I think that practicing gratitude is probably the simplest happiness strategy on this list. A new meta-analysis of 145 studies, 28 countries, and nearly 25,000 participants found that even small gratitude practices consistently boost happiness. 

And the best part is that, even if you’re having a super busy week, you can be anywhere, at any time, and think of something for which you’re grateful to help shift your perspective and spark joy.

There are many ways to practice gratitude, from keeping a gratitude journal, thinking of positive things, sharing three good things that happen each day with a friend or your partner, and going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you.

In an experiment where some participants took note of things they were grateful for each day, their moods were improved just from this simple practice. Participants "exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the three studies, relative to the comparison groups," the authors of the study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology write.

"The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits."

Gratitude is still one of Buffer's core values and something Bufferoos try to practice in their day-to-day work. A simple way we express gratitude to our coworkers every day is through our ‘#culture-gratitude' channel in Slack, where we share when someone goes above and beyond in their work (which is pretty often).

Here's a recent message from Senior Brand and Community Manager Sabreen Haziq, about her manager, Hailley Griffis: 

📝 Action step: Write down one thing you’re grateful for today. That’s it. One small note can shift your mood.

12. Disconnect to reconnect 

Over one December break, I did a one-week social detox. No social media, no text messaging, no Googling, no phone. To be honest, the part I missed the most was Googling. (You mean I’ll have to tune into the news to find out the weather?!) I definitely felt more relaxed and less under pressure to respond and reply to messages and emails I couldn’t see. I also ended up reading multiple books during that week, which is one of my favorite hobbies, but it often gets sidelined by screen time. 

Science backs up this kind of digital break, too. One study found that participants who restricted their digital media reported a range of benefits compared with controls, including higher life satisfaction, mindfulness, autonomy, competence, and self-esteem, as well as reduced loneliness and stress.

I should note, though, that my digital detox didn’t exactly make my family and friends happy. I forgot to tell them I was going offline, and they spent the week contacting my husband to make sure I was OK.

I’ve tried to bring some level of digital detoxing into my daily life, like staying off my phone in the evening and early mornings. The great thing about using a social media scheduling tool like Buffer is that you don’t actually have to go onto your socials and risk ending up in a scroll hole because you can schedule your content in advance. 

📝 Action step: Pick one short stretch of screen-free time. Read, step outside, or just breathe.

Meilyna Poh, Buffer’s Senior Customer Advocate, was recently intentional about not checking Slack while on vacation:

13. Invest in your relationships 

Earlier, we talked about the quick boost you get from spending time with friends and family. Beyond that, real, lasting happiness comes from deepening and investing in our relationships over time. It’s not about how many people we know, but how safe and truly connected we feel to family, friends, and our communities. 

I don’t know about you, but I certainly trust research that’s been going on for 87 years. In 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development embarked on the world’s longest scientific study of happiness. Three generations, eight decades, and thousands of participants later, the study’s number one takeaway is that good relationships make us happier, healthier, and lead to living longer. 

Current study directors Dr. Robert Waldinger and Dr. Marc Schulz included the study’s updated research in a book called The Good Life (2023). Here’s Robert on the TED stage, sharing three important lessons he learned from the study.

📝 Action step: Pick one relationship and invest a little time this week. Ask “How are you doing?” and really listen, or do something thoughtful to show you care.

14. Stay in the moment 

Using an app, Harvard researcher Matt Killingsworth tracked the daily experiences of more than 15,000 people across 80 countries, asking them at random moments how happy they felt, what they were doing, and whether their mind was on the task at hand or somewhere else entirely.

Here’s what I found super interesting: People reported being happiest when they were fully present in the moment, even if the activity itself wasn’t particularly enjoyable. On the flip side, when their minds wandered (which, as it turns out, happens almost half the day), their happiness levels dropped. 

Even daydreaming about pleasant things didn’t compare to the simple act of being present.

This echoes decades of research in psychology. Known as ‘The Father of Flow’, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described getting into a flow state, where you’re completely absorbed in what you’re doing, as a key ingredient to happiness. Killingsworth’s data backs this up: attention matters more than circumstance.

It’s a hopeful reminder that we don’t need perfect conditions to feel happier. We don’t need to wait for the weekend, the raise, or the next big milestone. We already hold one of the most powerful levers for happiness — our attention. By bringing it back to the present, we give ourselves a better shot at joy, no matter what’s happening around us.

📝 Action step: Choose one task today and fully immerse yourself — no multitasking, no distractions. Even five minutes of focused presence can boost contentment.

15. Tailor this list for YOUR best advice 

In an article for Psychology Today, Paula Davis J.D., M.A.P.P (who has a Master's degree in positive psychology) writes that when it comes to joy-boosting activities, one size does not fit all.

What works for some happy people might not work for others.

“You tailor your workout to your specific fitness goals — happy people do the same thing with their emotional goals,” she says. “Some strategies that are known to promote happiness are just too corny for me, but the ones that work best allow me to practice acts of kindness, express gratitude, and become fully engaged.”

📝 Action step: Pick one tip from this list that feels easiest and do that today. You don’t need to do everything — small wins add up.

What makes you happy?

Take a moment to think of a time when you felt truly happy. Were you alone or with others? Who were you with, and what were you doing? I’ll bet my own happiness that the moment involved one of the science-backed ways to boost joy that we’ve talked about in this article.

The most recent memory that comes to mind for me was sitting outside in the sun at a festival with friends, eating bites of a noodle bowl in between running after my daughter. Simple, hardly life-changing, but just so lekker — an Afrikaans word that captures the feeling far better than any English word I know.

My little challenge to you is to make time for more of these small, joyful moments. No pressure, no perfect plan — just a few bites of happiness sprinkled into your day.

More self-improvement resources 

• I’ve Tried 50+ Productivity Tools — Here are My Top 9
• The AI Mindset Shift: How I Use AI Every Day