Please note: These are my personal ramblings on my personal experiences. I am not a therapist or mental health professional, I just enjoy reading self-help books. Speak to a doctor or other licensed professional for mental health guidance rather than random people on the internet.

Asking for a friend: What does it mean when the algorithm starts showing you book recommendation videos featuring books to read if you’re feeling a bit lost about your next steps?

In completely unrelated news… I was recently reading Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laura Le Cunff (a neuroscientist) and she suggested conducting a life audit where you spend a day – or maybe a few days – recording what you do and how those activities make you feel. Think questions like:

• Did this activity drain you?
• Did this activity energize you?
• What did you dread?
• What were you looking forward to?
• Anything else you think is significant

To keep track of your day and how you felt about different activities, she recommended either physically writing down your notes or typing them out in your phone.

If you read that sentence and immediately thought it sounded like a lot of work, you’re not alone. I’ll confess when I started my audit, I didn’t write, or type, a single word. Instead, I focused on feelings. When I finished an activity, I would spend a few moments reflecting on how I felt. Did I feel better than when I started, or worse?

According to Le Cunff, the big idea is to then use your findings to start incorporating more of the things that excite and energize you and less of what doesn’t. Did you notice any interesting trends? In a way, this reminds me of the happiness boosters concept from Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment by Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D. How can you bring more happiness to your daily life?

There were some surprising findings from my life audit and some less surprising findings. In perhaps the least shocking news, my almost daily habit of laying on the couch after work and doomscrolling immediately zaps my energy and I lose the desire to do anything I had planned. Clearly, this is something that I should limit in my day (or better yet remove entirely).

Have you conducted a life audit?

Leave a comment below and share any of your recent life audit experiences!