walking on custard

Do More Things You Enjoy

Sounds obvious, but easily forgotten.

3 May 2017

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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Today, some Incredibly Obvious Advice Which I Always Forget.

You know those things you enjoy doing?

(Perhaps you don’t. For me, modern life often turns into a kind of repetitive drudgery where days blend into one another. Even so, there’s usually something at some point lately which brought some joy. It’s useful to notice “what’s been fun, joyful, enjoyable, good lately” every now and then.)

Here’s my suggestion: try and do more of those things you like.


Lately, I noticed that there were a few simple activities I had really enjoyed - meeting new people, live music, turning off social media - and I thought “I should probably do that more often”.

And instead of ignoring that thought and just carrying on with my standard routines, I’m making an effort to consciously include more of those things in my life.

Even if the net result is a single extra coffee, or conversation with a friend, or one piece of music I wouldn’t otherwise have listened to… even just one extra thing I enjoy means my life is slightly happier as a result.

In case you want to use this Incredibly Obvious Process, it’s this:

  1. Recognise things you like

  2. Do more of them

  3. That’s it.

Good luck!

Neil Hughes

Neil Hughes is the author of Walking on Custard & the Meaning of Life, a comical and useful guide to life with anxiety, and The Shop Before Life, a tale about a magical shop which sells human personality traits.

Along with writing more books, he spends his time on standup comedy, speaking about mental health, computer programming, public speaking and everything from music to video games to languages. He struggles to answer the question "so, what do you do?" and is worried that the honest answer is probably "procrastinate."

He would like it if you said hello.

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