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"When a close friend has an intense interest or preoccupation, it often rubs off on me. For years, one friend was constantly bringing up what she called &amp;quot;the measurement problem&amp;quot; \u2014 the idea that measuring an activity or trait you value (or choosing not to measure it) changes the way you act on it. &amp;quot;If you don&amp;#039;t measure something, it&amp;#039;s easy to ignore it,&amp;quot; she explained. &amp;quot;And that can be a problem.&amp;quot; This idea struck me with such force that I made it one of my Secrets of Adulthood: &amp;quot;I manage what I measure.&amp;quot; If I want something to count in my life, it helps to figure out a way, literally, to count it. I have tangible proof of this: As part of my happiness projects, I keep a chart tracking all my resolutions; each day, I score myself on whether I&amp;#039;ve kept or broken them. I find that I&amp;#039;m far more likely to stick to a resolution when I set myself a task related to it \u2014 and when I measure whether I do that task. Admirable but vague resolutions like &amp;quot;Find more joy in life&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Stay in the moment&amp;quot; are tougher to measure \u2014 and to keep \u2014 than actionable ones like &amp;quot;Once a week, make plans with a friend&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t check e-mail when I&amp;#039;m spending time with my family.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s difficult to quantify from day to day whether I&amp;#039;m getting more joy out of life, but it&amp;#039;s easy to score myself on keeping a weekly date with a friend \u2014 and that date definitely boosts my happiness. With my workaholic tendencies, I&amp;#039;ve realized that if I don&amp;#039;t measure certain values, I neglect them. Resolutions like &amp;quot;Force myself to wander&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Schedule time for play&amp;quot; may seem paradoxical, but if I don&amp;#039;t put these goals on my calendar and score myself on my resolutions chart, I won&amp;#039;t act on them. Along the same lines, I realized not long ago that while I was enjoying plenty of relaxed time with my younger daughter, my older daughter&amp;#039;s schedule had become so busy that I wasn&amp;#039;t getting enough one-on-one time with her. That kind of connection is important to me, so to strengthen it, I resolved that we should &amp;quot;Go on weekly adventures.&amp;quot; These days, once a week, I meet her after school and we head off on an outing, like a walk along the river or a museum visit. It&amp;#039;s lovely to have an afternoon without distractions or nagging; one date a week may not sound like much, but it has made a big difference. Not everyone agrees about the value of measurement. I&amp;#039;ve had people tell me that measuring an activity stifles it or encourages us to focus on quantity rather than quality of experience. If you&amp;#039;re busy recording an experience, they argue, you can&amp;#039;t be immersed in it. Shouldn&amp;#039;t you enjoy the birthday party instead of pulling out your camera to photograph every scene? These are good points \u2014 we all want to have a deep level of engagement with people and experiences. But I believe that measurement, used wisely, helps us get there. How will you immerse yourself in the fun of the birthday party if you don&amp;#039;t set aside unstructured time in advance to dream up creative ideas for the celebration? How will you lose yourself in contemplation of the clouds if you don&amp;#039;t block off dedicated screen-free hours outdoors? Measurement allows me to make sure that what matters most to me doesn&amp;#039;t get pushed aside. Take reading. It&amp;#039;s my favorite thing to do \u2014 in fact, if I&amp;#039;m honest with myself, it&amp;#039;s one of the few activities I heartily enjoy. So for a long while, I assumed I&amp;#039;d always make time for it. But books kept dropping off the schedule until I added &amp;quot;Make time to read&amp;quot; to my resolutions chart. Now I plan for reading, and not just for work; I also block off time to read for fun \u2014 which includes rereading, reading at whim, and reading children&amp;#039;s literature. Playing the piano. Taking a bike ride. Planning that exotic dream vacation. Is there an activity you&amp;#039;d like to do more often (or something draining you&amp;#039;d like to do less)? If so, try this: Figure out a concrete way to measure and track it. By counting the things that count \u2014 and pushing yourself to find a way to count the things that seem as if they can&amp;#039;t be counted \u2014 you&amp;#039;re sure to make more room for what matters most. Next:   Merchant, the author of 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era, knows the (super)power of slowing down Gretchen Rubin: What&amp;#039;s a simple activity that consistently makes you happier? Nilofer Merchant: Drinking coffee from my Wonder Woman mug. My stepdaughter gave it to me a while ago as a joke. But it has become a bit of a ritual to use it. We are all wiser and stronger than we think \u2014 we are all Wonder Woman. GR: What gets in the way of your happiness? NM: Overcommitting. When I sleep too little, travel too much, and don&amp;#039;t eat well or exercise because I&amp;#039;ve said yes to too many meetings or projects, then I get tired, cranky, and lonely \u2014 and everything gets viewed through a tired, cranky, lonely lens. I get overcommitted easily by wanting to say yes (for fear the opportunity will never come again) when I really need to say &amp;quot;Not now&amp;quot; and have faith that the right things will be there when it&amp;#039;s the right time. GR: Do you have a happiness mantra or motto? NM: &amp;quot;If you are irritated by every rub, how will you get polished?&amp;quot; That&amp;#039;s from Rumi; it&amp;#039;s my way of saying that even this challenge or frustration could be helping me in ways I cannot yet see. GR: When you&amp;#039;re blue, what gives you a boost? NM: I keep a box full of notes, mementos of things I&amp;#039;ve accomplished, and movies that make me feel stronger, like G.I. Jane and Erin Brockovich. I call it my &amp;quot;break-glass&amp;quot; because I think, In case of disaster or fire, break glass. Going through this box gives me a boost. And the funny thing is that I always find notes about things I once dreamed of or struggled with that are now in my rearview mirror. It gives me perspective, which is usually the thing that is missing when I&amp;#039;m blue. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/advice/a19374/tracking-goals/>