The Happier™ app is a revolutionary new tool that offers concrete, actionable steps to help you build a happier life.

The groundbreaking Happier app puts transformation within reach, by taking happiness from the abstract to the concrete. How? Habits. Research shows that around 40 percent of behavior is repeated daily, so when we change our habits, we change our lives.

The Happier app provides personalized strategies to help you become happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative—starting today.

About the Happier app

Practical

Explore fun and easy-to-use features designed to help you track your habits and make progress every day.

Personalized

There is no one-size-fits-all solution—get tools recommended for you based on happiness expert Gretchen Rubin’s research- and observation-based principles.

Flexible

These tools aren’t limited to a single behavior like meditation or counting calories—they can be used for any habit you want to work on.

Growing

Discover new insights and prompts every day to continue learning about yourself and making progress toward your aims.

The Nine Aim Categories

Through Gretchen Rubin’s years of research, we’ve learned that the habits people most often want to cultivate fall into nine areas—which you see here. To help people get started, we offer up these categories to begin setting up their aim. People are setting up such interesting, genius aims for themselves. So we also use these categories as a way to crowdsource and share ideas across the Happiness Project channels and community to learn from each other.

Energy: Exercise & Sleep

AIM IDEAS

• Go to bed at a particular time every evening
• Go for a daily walk
• Exercise at least 4 times each week
• Read for 30 minutes before bed
• No caffeine after a certain time

Relationships: Connect & Deepen

AIM IDEAS

• Read to kids every evening
• Start a group to discuss a different podcast each month
• Schedule a weekly call with parents
• Plan Friday date nights

Purpose: Reflect, Identify, Engage

AIM IDEAS

• Keep a daily journal
• Meditate every morning
• Start each morning with a spiritual reading
• Compost or eliminate single-use plastics

Recharging: Relax & Rest

AIM IDEAS

• Read 20 minutes a day
• Schedule breaks throughout the day
• Play guitar for 30 minutes each day
• Attend a weekly yoga class
• Take a daily nap

Creativity: Learn, Practice, Play

AIM IDEAS

• Take an art class
• Explore a new neighborhood every Saturday
• Knit whenever watching TV
• Every Sunday, watch a classic movie
• Attend two live performances a month

Order: Clear & Organize

AIM IDEAS

• Make your bed every morning
• Spend 10 minutes tidying up before bed
• Follow the “one-minute rule.”
• Each month, donate items you don’t need or use anymore
• Participate in a “buy nothing” month

Mindful Consumption: Eating, Drinking, Spending, Scrolling

AIM IDEAS

• Take medication daily, before first cup of coffee
• Limit social media to 30 minutes per day
• Plan meals for the week
• Track spending for a month
• Swap afternoon coffee for green tea
• Limit alcoholic beverages to the weekend

Mindful Investment: Save, Support, Experience

AIM IDEAS

• Donate each month to a cause you care about
• Invest in equipment to make exercise more convenient
• Save a certain amount each month toward travel
• Spend at least 3 hours per week in nature

Productivity: Focus, Work, Progress

AIM IDEAS

• Write “morning pages” every day
• Hold a particular day of the week as a meeting-free day
• Sign up for a language-learning app and do the exercises suggested
• Turn off the internet for two hours each afternoon

Discover your Tendency

We start in the app with The Four Tendencies Quiz, which helps clarify how you respond to outer and inner expectations. Based on your Tendency, the app can recommend the right tools that make it more likely for you to achieve your aims.

The Tendencies are:

Obligers who readily meet outer expectations but struggle with expectations they put on themselves.

Upholders who rely on structure to hit their goals.

Rebels who resist expectations so need some reframing when they want to accomplish an aim.

Questioners who want to know the "why" from outside expectations before being able to achieve their aim.

Decide what habits you want to work on

To change a habit, we must do it in the way that’s right for us. Often, people fail to master a habit because they’re using an approach that, sure, works well for a co-worker or sweetheart—but not for them.

Whether you have big goals like writing a novel or training for a marathon, or want to improve foundational habits like eating and sleeping better, the key is to identify the specific changes that will make you happier.

Find the tools that work for you

The Happier app uses Gretchen Rubin’s “Four Tendencies” personality framework to suggest habit-tracking tools for each individual’s Tendency. By identifying whether you are an Obliger, Questioner, Upholder, or Rebel based on how you respond to inner and outer expectations, the app is able to make tailored recommendations from its menu of tools. You can also use multiple tools to support the same aim, or change it up if it’s not working.

Learn more and make progress

Explore helpful tips and hacks, thought-provoking quotations, and insightful self-knowledge questions to reinforce your daily habits and discover new strategies.

Spin the wheel for a quick boost

Want to feel happier in five minutes or less? Get daily prompts to boost your mood, clear clutter, flex your creative muscles, give you a sense of accomplishment, and have some fun.

Why the Happier app is different

Get personalized recommendations, not a one-size-fits-all solution—different tools work for different people.

Have the flexibility to experiment with different tools and find what works for you.

Track any habits you choose, rather than be limited to a single, app-specific aim.

It’s more than just a habit tracker—explore a library of habit-formation tips and happiness-boosting insights to gain self-knowledge and strategies.

Based on the work of renowned happiness and habit-formation expert Gretchen Rubin.

How to set up your first aim

Select an aim category.

Start a new aim from your Home screen or Toolkit in the app. You can add multiple aims, but keep it manageable. Choose an area where you’d like to make progress. Not sure where to start? Foundational habits like sleeping, moving, and decluttering can make a big difference in your happiness, and they make other habits easier to maintain.

Write your aim.

Craft your aim as a concrete, measurable action. For example, if your “Energy” aim is to get better sleep, resolve to “Go to bed at 10 pm every night” or “Turn off my phone one hour before bed,” not “Get more sleep.”

Select the frequency of your aim.

Habits form when they’re repeated consistently. Choose whether you want to track your aim daily, weekly, or monthly. Turn on notifications to get helpful reminders.

Choose a habit-tracking tool.

We’ll recommend the most effective tool for you based on your Tendency. Or, if another tool works better for you or your aim, you can select it from the menu.

Aim example based on your Tendency

AIM

Daily Walk

TENDENCY

Obliger

RECOMMENDED TOOL

Accountability Partner

Obligers require external accountability to achieve their aims. We recommend the “Accountability Partners” tool for your aim to take a daily walk—an Obliger is more likely to be successful when they're checking in with a friend.

AIM

Daily Walk

TENDENCY

Upholder

RECOMMENDED TOOL

Don't Break the Chain

Upholders thrive with routines—if it’s on the schedule, it’ll happen. That’s why checking off their walk each day with the “Don’t Break the Chain” tool works for them.

AIM

Daily Walk

TENDENCY

Rebel

RECOMMENDED TOOL

Photo Log

Rebels place great value on being true to themselves; they can embrace a habit if they tie it to an identity they’d like to cultivate. The “Photo Log” tool is a great way for them to express their identity (like “active” or “nature-lover”) while still offering flexibility.

AIM

Daily Walk

TENDENCY

Questioner

RECOMMENDED TOOL

One-Sentence Journal

Questioners want to know exactly what they’re doing, and why. The “One-Sentence Journal” tool allows them to keep a written record of their aim so they can see their progress over time.

Thank you for your consideration!