Three good things

Each night, write three things that went well and why — retraining attention toward the positive.

Why it works

The brain’s negativity bias weights bad events more heavily, so good ones pass unregistered. Deliberately recording three good things and their causes counteracts that bias and, by asking "why," practices the optimistic move of attributing good outcomes to stable, personal causes — gradually shifting the default scan of the day toward what’s working.

How to do it

1. Each evening, write three things that went well that day.
2. For each, briefly note why it happened — especially your own role in it.
3. Keep it up for at least a week or two; the effect builds with repetition.

Evidence

The "three good things" / gratitude-style intervention has randomized-trial support for increasing happiness and reducing depressive symptoms over follow-up periods, and appears in positive-psychology intervention meta-analyses. A daily-diary experiment on counting blessings found that regularly recording things one is grateful for raised well-being relative to recording hassles, isolating the gratitude-focus mechanism this practice relies on. (rct)

Effects are modest and dependent on continued practice; it complements rather than replaces treatment for clinical depression.

Sources

• Seligman et al. (2005), positive-psychology interventions (three good things), American Psychologist
• Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410–421.
• Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389.

Common mistake

Listing the same generic items mechanically. The benefit comes from genuinely noticing specific good moments and reflecting on their causes — not from autopilot box-ticking.