Happiness researcher: This mental hack can turn your everyday routine into a source of ‘joy and satisfaction'

You may think that you have to go on an extravagant vacation, or at least wait until the workweek is over, to feel true happiness and satisfaction in life. In reality, you can find joy in your everyday routine, says author and behavioral decision making expert Cassie Holmes.

One in four Americans go through bouts of boredom with their routines, according to a recent Talker survey of 2,000 U.S. residents. To combat that, Holmes tells herself a simple phrase in moments when she catches herself feeling uninterested: "Count your times left."

Holmes, for example, has been taking her daughter on coffee dates since she was four years old, she recently told the "Everyday Better with Leah Smart" podcast. Five years later, the hang-out sessions can feel more like a chore.

"Now she's nine, so we've gone on a lot of coffee dates in the past," Holmes said. "But then I was like, 'Okay, how many coffee dates do we have ahead of us?'"

Instead of being annoyed about the recurring hangouts, she started counting how many opportunities she had left to enjoy before her daughter ages out of the bonding time.

"In just a couple of years, she's going to want to go to the coffee shop with her friends instead of me," said Holmes, who researches time and happiness, and is a bestselling author. "So it's going to become less frequent. Then she's going off to college … going to go live [in New York.]"

Calculating how much time she had left helped her find "joy and satisfaction" in more mundane tasks.

'Time is the most valuable resource we have'

Along with helping you find happiness, Holmes said the quick exercise prompts her to pay closer attention to how her time is spent. She no longer scrolls through the coffee dates with her daughter — instead, she seeks conversation and connection, which is much more important.

It's crucial for you to do the same if you want to avoid feeling regretful down the line, according to psychologist Michael Gervais. 

"Time is the most valuable resource we have," Gervais wrote for CNBC Make It last year. "In the daily grind, it's easy to fall out of alignment with what is most important to you. But living with an awareness of our own mortality fundamentally changes what we value and how we choose to use our time."

"Fully embracing the fact that we are not going to live forever brings our values into sharp focus," he added. "Once you recognize that time is the most precious of all commodities, there will no longer be a disconnect between the choices you want to make and the choices you actually make."

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