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The Three Good Things exercise: a 5-minute nightly wins habit

Write three things that went well and why, each night for a week. What the Three Good Things research shows, where replication is mixed, and how to keep it specific.

The Three Good Things exercise asks you to write down three things that went well today and why they happened. Studies link it to higher happiness in many samples, though results on depression are mixed.

How to do it

Write three good things and one reason for each, every night for at least seven days. The protocol is short enough to finish in five minutes.1

  1. Pick three events from today. Small ones count.
  2. Write each one as a sentence.
  3. Add a line on why it happened.
  4. Keep a written record rather than only thinking about it.

Examples range from "a friend texted me back" to "I finished the draft". The "why" line is the part that trains attention toward causes you can repeat.

What the research shows

The original trial found improvements in happiness that lasted months. Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson tested several positive psychology exercises in a 2005 online study. Participants who wrote three good things each day for a week reported more happiness and fewer depressive symptoms, with effects reported at follow-ups up to six months.2

A related line of work is gratitude journaling. Emmons and McCullough (2003) ran three experiments. In the first, a weekly listing of things to be grateful for was linked to more positive and optimistic views of life, more exercise and fewer physical symptoms.3

What larger reviews say

Meta-analyses find modest, real effects of gratitude interventions on wellbeing. Davis and colleagues pooled gratitude studies in 2016 and paid attention to the quality of comparison groups.4

A 2023 systematic review reported higher gratitude, life satisfaction and positive mood among participants.5 A 2025 cross-cultural meta-analysis in PNAS examined effects on wellbeing across different countries and noted that methodological choices influenced the results.6

  • Strength of evidence: consistent for wellbeing.
  • Size of effect: modest.
  • Best fit: a small daily habit, not a cure.

Where replication is mixed

Not every replication found a drop in depressive symptoms. One study found the exercise tied to higher happiness but not to lower depression. A modified replication by Gander and colleagues in 2013 also did not observe a reduction in depressive symptoms.7

Journaling research in general shows the same pattern. A 2022 meta-analysis of 20 randomised trials found a small-to-moderate benefit for mental health measures, with high variation and method limits.8

Gratitude versus wins

Gratitude looks outward at what others or luck provided, while a win includes what you did. A win can be a finished task, a hard conversation or a day you showed up.

Teresa Amabile's research on work life found that, of all events people reported, making progress in meaningful work had the strongest positive effect on emotions and motivation.9 Logging wins builds a record of that progress.

Gratitude listWins list
FocusWhat you receivedWhat you did or what moved
Typical entry"A neighbour helped with the bins""I finished the tax forms"
Useful whenYou feel overlookedYou feel stuck or behind

Keep it specific and fresh

Specific entries beat generic ones, and repetition makes the habit stale.

  • Write "Sam covered my shift so I could see the dentist" instead of "family".
  • Avoid repeating the same entry for a week.
  • Add a cause every time.
  • Do it at the same point each evening, such as after brushing your teeth.
  • Skim last month's entries once a month.

The Wins box in Mandaboard

Mandaboard's Wins room is a place to keep these entries. Press ⌘3, then ⌘N, and type a win. It joins the Need Love deck, which shuffles your wins on demand. The All view lists every win like a diary.

The app does not claim to improve mood or treat depression. It stores the practice privately on your Mac. See The Wins box.

References

Footnotes

  1. Seligman, M. E. P., et al. Protocol as summarised in Three Good Things handout (Kendal), and Three Good Things exercise, Psychology.com. ↩

  2. 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. PDF. ↩

  3. 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. PubMed; full text. ↩

  4. Davis, D. E., et al. (2016). Thankful for the little things: A meta-analysis of gratitude interventions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 20–31. ResearchGate record. ↩

  5. The effects of gratitude interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023). PubMed Central. ↩

  6. A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures. PNAS (2025). Abstract. ↩

  7. Discussion of replications including Gander, Proyer, Ruch & Wyss (2013) in RIETI Discussion Paper 15-E-001 on whether the Three Good Things exercise makes people happier, PDF. ↩

  8. Sohal, M., Singh, P., Dhillon, B. S., & Gill, H. S. (2022). Efficacy of journaling in the management of mental illness. Family Medicine and Community Health, 10(1), e001154. PubMed Central. ↩

  9. Amabile, T. M., & Kramer, S. J. (2011). The Progress Principle. Harvard Business Review Press. HBS record; summary at progressprinciple.com. ↩

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