This will be short and sweet. After taking a semester of psychology and just generally being a human, I’ve learned something super important about happiness: it’s actually not that hard. To be fair, people are genetically predisposed to certain levels of happiness, and for better or worse it’s very difficult to change that range. However, it isn’t hard to ensure you stay on the upper bound of that range, and the Pareto principle applies here - by doing a few small things, you can get big benefits.

Get some sleep.

The most basic thing to do is to fix your sleep schedule. This first means getting enough sleep, which is about 7 hours or so, give or take. Blanket recommendations don’t apply to everyone, but you’re probably not as special as you think, so don’t try convincing yourself that you’re actually just fine on 4 hours of sleep.

Of course, quality matters on top of quantity. Caffeine hinders your ability to sleep, so don’t have it right before bed. You might prefer quiet to white noise or nature sounds, but it’s worth figuring out. Avoid artificial light before bed (especially if it’s a cooler color temperature), and make the room a little colder, around 65 degrees.

Exercise daily.

Exercise is a complete magic bullet in terms of health benefits - it makes your happier, it makes your more healthy, and it makes you look better. However, it’s probably the easiest thing to ignore (I certainly have throughout college so far, and am only now more devoted to it).

If you think you don’t have time, you’re kidding yourself. I’ve personally found that I’m far more productive on days that I do work out compared to days where I don’t. Harvard Business School agrees. So does the Brookings Institution. Stop viewing exercise as a waste of time, and start viewing it as an investment in it.

If you don’t like it, you haven’t looked hard enough. Running isn’t for everyone. Hitting the gym and being surrounded by people who are Bro Science Life but without the satire isn’t thrilling. However, you can try: swimming, basketball, soccer, football, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, tennis, raquetball, or biking. If you prefer solitude, just work out in your own room (dumbbells, exercise bands, and a medicine ball will probably set you back $60 total).

If you aren’t motivated enough, I probably can’t help you yet. I don’t really understand motivation enough to be confident enough in my ability to motivate someone via a blog post.

build a social support network.

This is more for avoiding stress/unhappiness than actively being happy, but it’s important to feel like there’s someone that you could talk to about whatever’s on your mind. This could be a parent or other family member, a friend, or a mentor. This could be a counselor or a therapist. In any case, it doesn’t really matter who it is, as long as you feel like you could tell them something.

be grateful.

Finally, showing and expressing gratitude is important (and not just for being a better human). I’ve started integrating gratitude into my pre-sleep routine and despite how corny this sounds, it really works. Apparently it’s best if you write it down into a physical “gratitude journal” of sorts.

Put the phone away.

It’s not that important. They’d call otherwise. Facebook isn’t making you happier. Instrgram is so fake there’s an entire subreddit devoted to calling it out. Twitter is a cesspool. Snapchat is a poor substitute for real, authentic communication.

That’s how I’m hacking my happiness. It doesn’t take all that much. If you’re wondering about the image, I took it in Hawaii some years back.