Mapping what makes me happy

Posted on April 23rd, 2009 by Sacha Chua

Thinking about what makes you happy is a good way to tweak your life so that you do more of the things that make you happier.

Here’s an incomplete, not-to-scale map of things that make me happy. I started by brainstorming lots of things, then moving them around in the Inkscape drawing program (it’s like magnetic poetry with an infinite refrigerator door!) until order emerged. Also, reading the book Back of the Napkin helped.

I’ve divided into things I do with other people and things I do with myself, and I’ll add more as other things occur to me.

What’s your happiness map? Here’s how you can figure it out:

Take a whole bunch of sticky notes, index cards, or other things you can write ideas on.
List all the things you do that you enjoy.
Move them around until an order makes sense. I sorted mine in order of increasing happiness, and then I grouped them by type.

More posts about: highlight, life, sketches // 2 Comments »

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/6148

Prapat

Hi Sacha,

Greeting from Thailand. I’ve been secretly following your blogs for a couple of weeks. You’re pretty amazing. ^__^ And I’ve learned many things from you. Today, I saw your sketch and started to wonder how you draw sketch in inkscrape? I don’t expect that you use mouse or do you? Are you using tablet like wacom?

And please continue to post nice blogs. I’m one of your fan now. :-)

Best wishes,
Prapat
http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua

Oh, thanks for reading and for reaching out! =)

I use the Cintiq 12WX so that I can see the screen while I’m drawing on it, and I really like using it. =D It took me a while to save up for the tablet, but it’s definitely been worth it!

On This Day...

2013: Emacs chat intro — It turns out to be lots of fun to talk to other people about Emacs. You pick up all sorts [...]
2012: Learning how to manage time — One of the things I really like about this business experiment is my new time flexibility. I work on a [...]
2011: Weekly review: Week ending April 22, 2011 — From last week’s plans Work [X] Work on more items for project C – Rails is so awesome! Wrote [...]
2010: Forgot my keys; automating memory — I left my keys at home this morning. They were hanging on a hook by the door, and I forgot [...]
2010: The problem with personal branding — One of the problems with personal branding is that we tell people that they’re damned if they do and damned [...]
2009: Drupal staging and deployment tips: It’s all code — As I talk to more and more developers about practices for working with Drupal, I get the idea that the [...]
2008: When I grow up, I’m going to present like Steve Jobs — Got this from Presentation Zen, one of my favorite resources on presentation skills: When I grow up, [...]
2008: blue horizon 2008: My first IBM keynote! — Aaron Kim, Bernie Michalik, Jennifer Nolan and I gave the keynote presentation at blue horizon 2008, the main conference for [...]
2006: Wireless at CHI — Hooray! Hooray! Geek conference with its priorities straight. Offers free wireless. Whee! On Technorati: CHI2006
2006: Found the CIBC — It’s near the convention center. Just go to the side opposite CHI, cross the street, and enter the Guy Favreau complex. [...]
2004: ISC stories: Elimination — I was 12 years old and bored out of my wits in the high school freshman computing class that Hagee Sarmago [...]
2004: Short story: SMOKED — “All right, kiddo, cough it up.” She shook her head, mouth clamped shut. Exasperated, he pinched her nose. When she gasped for breath, [...]
2004: Deployed scheduler — Suggestions: - Make changing the date easier when creating a new job. - Open job in new window? - Improve design - Deal with [...]
2004: Request tracker — My mom would like a way to keep track of tasks not covered by Job Orders. A request tracker would perfect [...]
2003: ARGH! Left my power cord! — Silly me. Well, I guess that means I’ll be working on the CS21A breakdown on the Mac and I’ll be sleeping [...]
2003: Up the Down Staircase — education — Apparently, Sir Olpoc also loves this book. =) I figured as much by the “Yo, teach!” quote on his website, but [...]
2003: Scrabble — Where is Sir Olpoc?
2003: Teaching was so much fun! — education — The spaghetti exercise was a big success, as it underscored real-life application of algorithmic thinking. Adding two numbers took a fair amount [...]

sacha chua living an awesome life