Hello and welcome to Happier, a podcast that gives you strategies and ideas for how to build happier habits into your daily life.

This week we'll talk about why you should plan a short trip and we'll get to talk to Bradley Tusk, a self-described fixer in startups and politics.

I'm Gretchen Rubin, a writer whose studies happiness, good habits and human nature. I'm a New York City and with me is my sister Elizabeth Kraft and Elizabeth we have planned many short trips to see each other.

That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer living in LA and yeah Gretchen's far back is when you were in college. We had short trips to see each other.

We'll talk about why those were so successful. But first we wanted to let people know we've had so much interest in our hashtag Happier Labor Day. People just want to talk about this and share their experiences and their insights and their questions.

If you want more Happier Labor Day you can listen to Side Hustle School, episode 610 and 611 and a list of your Happier and Hollywood episode 68 is all about Happier Labor Day and it's a fascinating discussion.

Yeah, we talked about does your career define you and should it and people have very strong opinions on those sides.

Yeah, and you and Sarah on opposite side so it was a great discussion.

Right. And Gretchen we also wanted to remind everybody to register to vote.

Yes, it's coming up.

Yeah, and rules are different in different states so you have to check your own state to see when the deadline is.

Yeah, and I'll post a link in the show notes if you want the link to where you can find out the rules for your state.

And now Elizabeth, we're are trying this at home. This week the tried this at home is to plan a short trip.

Yeah, Gretchen, I'm a big fan of short trips. I've discovered that in the last couple years.

Yeah, well, I was thinking about the short trip because when Eliza and I came out to Los Angeles over the summer, she remarked to me, she said, you know, it's funny.

It wasn't a long trip, but it felt like we'd really gotten away. It felt like kind of a big episode in our summer, even that was quite short.

And that remind me of what dad always says about visits that frequency is more important than duration.

And sometimes I think we think like, well, if I can't do it for five days or I can't have a week, it's not worth the hassle.

But really there is a lot of value in the short trip. And you know, Gretchen, sometimes you can only get away from one night.

Yeah, for instance, just last weekend, this happened.

Jack's class every year takes a trip together, the families, and we were going to El Capitan, which is a sort of a glamping place outside of Santa Barbara.

I assume everyone knows what glamping is. Basically it's camping, but you have cabins and showers and beds.

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