Happiness islands are the small dollops of time — the special, glorious times — when we’re happiest.

Think back to the last time you were really happy, then the times before that.

What did these times, or some of them, have in common? Were you in a special place, with a particular person, or pursuing a similar sort of activity? Are there some common themes?

How can you multiply your time spent on happiness islands? If you figure out that your happiness islands make up 20 percent of your time, how could you take that to 40, 60, or 80 percent?

If 80 percent of your time leads to only 20 percent of your happiness, can you cut those activities, freeing up time for things that make you happy?

Luckily, there are always many activities that give us a poor return on happiness for the time spent. Surveys of people watching television, for example, show that very few say they are happy after watching hours of TV. Typically, they feel mildly depressed. If watching television makes you happy, do more of it; but otherwise, stop!

What other things that have a poor happiness return could you quit doing? What do you do out of a sense of duty? If there’s little pleasure in the duty, how much good are you doing? If you were happy, your happiness would overflow into the lives of those around you. Time spent being miserable is antisocial.

Ask yourself,

if most of my time

doesn’t make me happy,

how can I

spend less time on these activities?