A few days ago I opened my inbox to find a dozen emails from worried friends. They all sounded a bit like this:

Hey, just saw this article about how trying to be happy is actually making people miserable. You should read it. Worried about how this will reflect on what you guys are doing with Happier.

Here’s the article everyone was sending me: The Problem With Happiness.

It talks about several studies in which researchers showed that trying to be happy is actually making people less happy. For example:

In one study, people were asked a number of questions about how much they value happiness and how much they believe it is important to work toward being happy. People putting the greatest emphasis on being happy reported 50% less frequent positive emotions, 35% less satisfaction about their life, and 75% more depressive symptoms than people that had their priorities elsewhere.

I might have surprised my worried friends when I wrote back to each of them to say that actually, I couldn’t agree with the article more. You see, we created Happier based on the idea that chasing some big nirvana state of happiness does absolutely nothing to make us happier — and sometimes, like researchers have shown, achieves the opposite.

Focusing on small happy moments in every day life and appreciating them, connecting with friends and people you care about, doing nice things for others, spending time with positive people — these are the behaviors that multiple studies have shown actually do make people happier, more positive and optimistic. At Happier, our mission is to inspire millions of people to do just that and hearing from so many of our users about how doing this makes them happier is more powerful than any research study I can imagine.

If you think you’re a multitasking hero, think again. When you switch away from what you’re doing to do something else – like say, answer an email during a meeting, which we’ve all done – you’re increasing the time it will take you to finish your primary activity by 25 percent.

Getting stuff done is an awesome feeling — it makes you happier. So here’s something to try this Monday:

Focus on doing just one thing at a time.

Don’t check your email while you’re working on something else. If you need to take a call step away from your computer. If you’re going out to grab coffee let yourself have a few minutes to just drink the coffee, not check email or talk on the phone at the same time. Give multitasking a break and see how you feel. It might turn out you get more done.

Here’s something really simple you can do to instantly be happier: Go see a friend. If you can’t see them in person, give them a call.

We probably don’t need to tell you that spending time with friends makes you happier but new research shows just how important that is:

…low social interaction has the equivalent lifespan impact as smoking 15 cigarettes daily, or being a raging alcoholic. Cutting yourself off from others is worse, even, than inactivity. And twice as bad as obesity.

Can you find a half hour to catch up with a friend for coffee today? If not, even making plans to see them can boost your (and probably their) happiness.