I Tried Keeping an "Everyday Delights" Journal for a Month—It Changed the Way I See My Life

Ah, September. A month of resets, routines and reminders that it’s almost the end of the year. The ninth month, forever synonymous with the back-to-school feeling, serves as a jolting reminder of just how fast time is passing. I mean, how many times have you said ‘where has this year gone?’ already this month?

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m getting older, but the speed at which time passes has been bothering me more than usual. I’ve realised that, in many ways, I live my life in fast-forward - so focused on achieving the next goal that I skip from one major scene to the next, missing the small plotlines that happen in between. It’s how I frequently find myself arriving on Saturday without any recollection of what happened on Tuesday, how I got to September unsure what I did all summer, and how, at the ripe age of 27, I still feel 13.

I know others will relate. We live in a culture that rewards optimisation and efficiency; that celebrates being able to do things faster and in more automated ways. And that approach, though it might be effective for profit margins, can at times feel more like a computer programme than real life.

It’s why I was so intrigued by the concept of an everyday delights journal when I read about it in one of my favourite wellness newsletters, Daily Rituals. The idea is that, by noting down the small sensory moments that scratched your brain throughout the day, you can extract more awe, delight and curiosity from everyday life. It got me thinking: could this be a way of slowing time down and feeling more present for the entire movie of our lives?

Ahead, with the help of psychologists and authors working in the field of happiness, I investigate these everyday delights to find out whether paying attention to them could really make a difference to our wellbeing.

For more mental wellbeing tips, check out our guides to friction-maxxing, dopamine menus and why your friendships are a powerful tool for health. Plus, what happened when one writer opted out of optimisation for a month.

What Happened When I Spent a Month Writing Down the Little Things That Made Me Happy

What is an everyday delight?

In his new book, The Small Stuff: How To Live a More Gratifying Life, author Ian Bogost makes a case for the importance of savouring the small, sensory moments. These everyday delights, he tells me, could be “any kind of momentary experience that happens right now in your senses.” That means the noise of popcorn popping or the click of a light switch, the feel of the bedsheets on your bare feet or the weight of your coffee cup in your palm. These are all examples of everyday delights.

“It happens right now, always,” says Bogost. “These are immediate sensory connections that you can’t save up.”

Ironically, he says, it’s their supposed mundanity that defines them. “Intellectually they feel unimportant,” he says. “They are things that feel as though you need to move through them, as if they aren’t relevant to your goals.”

What are the benefits of noticing everyday delights?

Ever since the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment of 1970, instant gratification has had a bad rep. The study, which monitored preschoolers' ability to resist temptation, concluded that those who displayed greater self-control and willpower were healthier and more successful in later life.

The study became evidence of a wider cultural perspective: that things that provide immediate pleasure are indulgences or distractions from more important goal-driven activities. “Anything associated with sensory life has been classed as a practice we need to suppress,” confirms Bogost. “It’s viewed as this all-encompassing thing that you must refuse in order to be efficient and successful.”

The reality, though, is that paying attention to small everyday delights can have genuine psychological benefits. “We call this savouring,” says Professor Bruce Hood, Developmental Psychologist at the University of Bristol, when I ask him whether my journaling is doing any permanent good. He explains that “all experiences, good and bad, can be amplified by attentional focus. If we choose to focus on an experience, we process it more deeply and, therefore, get more from it.”

Research consistently backs this up. Savouring has been found to aid stress regulation, enhancing positive emotions and alleviating negative ones, and has even been connected to relief from symptoms of chronic pain, depression and anxiety.

Are there any risks to everyday delights journaling?

On the whole, paying attention to the small sensory delights of your day has very little downside. They’re free and don’t require you to add anything new to your, likely already busy, schedule. “You don’t have to change anything about your goal-driven, ambitious life in order to add gratification in,” explains Bogost. “The gratifying experiences are right in front of you. On the way to doing all the things you’re already doing, just notice them as they happen.”

Of course, if we indulge in the everyday delights at the expense of the things we have to do - like our jobs, caring for family members, or cleaning the house - the balance will be off. “You don’t need to gratification-max,” says Bogost. “It’s just spending a second longer in a sensory experience.”

I Kept an Everyday Delights Journal Every Day for a Month—And Can’t Believe How Much More Grounded I Feel

Weeks one and two

Before we dive in: some context about me. I’m notoriously Type A - a perfectionist, ambitious to a fault, organised (read: controlling) and a little anxious. Things often feel urgent when they aren’t, making me a prime candidate for an everyday delights journal. I regularly miss the small sensory moments of my day because I’m doing five things at once - replying to emails as I eat my breakfast, texting while on my morning walk or listening to a podcast whilst cooking. I’ll do anything to tick the to-do list off faster and get to the next major milestone.

It’s why the journal worked well for me from the start. If you’re naturally prone to noticing the small sensory pleasures around you, you might not need to write them down. But for me, the accountability of journaling made me pay more attention to what I like about these little moments in the day. In the first week alone, I racked up quite a list - some of which I’ll share with you here.

• Turning the pages of a paperback book
• The scent of nice perfume as someone walks past
• Hearing the pop of a newly unsealed jar
• Putting my bare feet in cold sheets
• Stroking my nails down my arm
• Spinning my rings round my finger

Sometimes, I could describe what I liked about these sensory interactions and other times, I couldn’t put my finger on it. They were just, somehow, delightful. What I do know is that spending a few seconds longer thinking about them as they happened, and later reflecting on them at the end of the day, made them feel even more delicious.

Weeks three and four

By week three, I was well into the groove of noticing the delights of my day. I didn’t always write them down - this wasn’t a strict journaling habit - and instead tended to just note them down when they really stuck out to me. I keep my journal and pen in my handbag, so rather than making it a nightly thing, I started jotting them down throughout the day.

The best part of all? Reading them to my friends. When you make these sensory habits social, they become even more fun. It’s a great conversation starter. Tell your friend what you love so much about the satisfying way a knife slices through a cake, and you’ll probably find they come back with something equally odd, sparking hours of conversation.

As I’ve discovered, the sensory delights of the world are endless, and noticing them takes nothing away from your day. I’m just as efficient, productive and ambitious as I was a month ago, but my life is peppered with more mini, random moments of happiness. It’s not life-changing, but it is life-enhancing.

Instead of living my life in giant, busy blocks of time, I now feel that it moves more like stepping stones, punctuated by pauses where I’m truly connected to myself and the world around me.

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