Prioritizing your joy can feel like an abstract assignment that, frankly, many of us don’t have time for. That’s why my favorite question to ask psychologists and mental health experts is, “How can we boost our happiness in just a few minutes, today?”

I’ve gotten some great responses. Giving someone a compliment can make you feel better, Yale University psychology professor Laurie Santos said. Anna Lembke, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic and author of “Dopamine Nation,” told me to delete an app that I wish I used less for 30 days.    

One of the answers I found most useful came from Vienna Pharaon, a therapist and author of “The Origins of You.” To boost your mood quickly, Pharaon suggests executing a task you’ve been avoiding.

"Addressing something you've been ignoring lightens the load and allows you to accomplish something that's been weighing you down," she says.

It doesn’t have to be a traditional chore, or one that requires you to overextend yourself. “Going to bed earlier, drinking more water, having a hard conversation, getting in a challenging workout, putting your phone down at night” all can count, Pharaon says. 

If you have a larger project that you can’t do quickly, break it up into smaller tasks you can tackle in five to 10 minutes. Deep cleaning your kitchen, for example, might take a couple hours, but you can probably empty out your fridge pretty fast. 

For me, advice like this makes pursuing a more joyful life seem less ambiguous and more doable.

CNBC