A Harvard professor says most of us squander 5-minute opportunities to be happier every day

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• Don’t waste small pockets of free time by mindlessly checking email.
• Instead, consider chatting with a coworker, which might make you happier than you expect.
• That’s according to a Harvard Business School professor, who writes that we overestimate how long it will take to enjoy an experience.

Harvard Business Review’s recent cover story makes the case for prioritizing time over money, and making daily decisions accordingly. Unfortunately, writes Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans, most of us do just the opposite.

One of the most intriguing points in the article is this: “We overestimate the amount of time needed to enjoy an experience.” The result, according to Whillans? “We end up wasting small pockets of free time that we could use more effectively. Five minutes spent socializing with a colleague or 20 minutes on an elliptical machine often have more powerful mood benefits than we expect.”

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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