Jeroen Sangers logo Jeroen Sangers

Looking forward to your vacation and making travel plans often makes you happier than the trip itself

People are often happier when planning a vacation than during the vacation itself. Research shows that people who are going on a trip are happier in the time before their vacation than people without travel plans. This is because they are looking forward to a good time. By planning a vacation, people can dream about new experiences. This makes them happy.

When people prepare for a vacation, they are busy choosing places to go and what they want to do there. They imagine how fun it will be. This preparation time makes people excited and happy. They look forward to getting away from their regular life and seeing new places.

After the vacation, people are often not happier than before, except if the vacation was very relaxing. There is usually no difference in how happy people are after their vacation compared to people who did not go away. This is because people quickly get used to their normal life. It seems that planning a vacation makes people the happiest, even if the vacation itself is sometimes less enjoyable than expected.

Well-rested people are more positive

People who sleep well are often more positive, and this is due to how sleep affects their brains. Research shows that sleep deprivation mainly affects the part of the brain that processes positive and neutral memories, the hippocampus. The part that remembers negative things, the amygdala, is less affected. As a result, people who do not get enough sleep have more difficulty retrieving positive memories, but negative memories remain well ingrained. This means that lack of sleep has a negative impact on their mood and how they see the world around them.

Walker conducted an experiment that clearly demonstrates this effect. In this study, sleep-deprived students had to remember a list of words. The results showed that these students could remember 81% of words with a negative meaning, such as “cancer,” but only 31% of words with a positive or neutral meaning, such as “sunshine” or “basket.” This difference in memory performance shows how sleep deprivation causes people to focus more on negative information, which can lead to a more pessimistic worldview and a less positive mood.

Many people notice that they feel happier and more positive after a good night’s sleep. This is because enough sleep helps the brain process positive and neutral memories well. This allows you to look at the world more optimistically and balanced. In short, getting enough sleep is very important for maintaining a good mood and seeing the world in a balanced way.

I still haven’t found any use for the desktop widgets in macOS. The only widget I would probably use, a “Now Playing” widget, is precisely the one widget Apple decided not to make.

Finished reading: Deep Work by Cal Newport 📚

Already a classic work, explaining a concept which is very needed in current times. I feel, however, that Cal emphasizes too much how good his particular way of working is and doesn’t give many alternative ways of doing deep work.

It looks we returned a week too early from the Netherlands. I would love to be able to skate on natural ice again. Look at those images: nos.nl/l/2504465

Having fun preparing a trip for my wife’s 50th birthday. Her wish is to wake up in a place she’s never been to and she will not believe her eyes when she does.

A minimalist traveling in company always ends up lugging around other people’s stuff.

I finally had a moment to follow Frank’s example and create my own Funkopop. It took a few versions (the AI kept giving me a beard) but this one is quite “me”.

A funkopop figure representing Jeroen Sangers next to its box