Experts reveal 9 lasting habits people in their 60s and 70s keep-and why these make them happier than younger, tech-focused generations.

The café was loud with steaming milk and Slack notifications chiming from half-open laptops.

At the corner table, a group of twenty-somethings hunched over their phones-scrolling, double-tapping, half-listening. Two tables away, an older couple in their seventies shared a slice of lemon cake and one newspaper, talking as if the rest of the room didn’t exist. No phones on the table. No rush. Just this unhurried bubble of attention.

The contrast was brutal and kind of beautiful. Same world, same Wi‑Fi, totally different way of inhabiting time. The younger crowd looked connected to everything and rooted nowhere. The older pair looked almost “offline,” yet their laughter filled the room.

Experts who study aging say this isn’t an accident. People in their 60s and 70s tend to keep a set of stubborn, almost old-fashioned habits-and those habits quietly make them happier than many tech-driven twenty-year-olds. The strange part? These “old” habits might be exactly what the future needs.

Nine quiet habits that beat the algorithm

Ask psychologists who work with people in their 60s and 70s, and a pattern appears. The happiest don’t chase the latest tech trend or productivity hack. They repeat the same small rituals, year after year: walking at the same hour, calling the same friend every Sunday, cooking the same family recipes. Tiny things that look boring on Instagram-and yet their faces light up when they talk about them.

These nine habits show up again and again in the research: unhurried conversation, handwritten notes, daily walks without headphones, structured volunteering, regular family rituals, simple hands-on hobbies, predictable bedtimes, gratitude routines, and phone-free social moments. Each one looks almost too basic. But stitched together, they create something rare today: a life with rhythm.

Psychologist Laura Carstensen at Stanford’s Longevity Center has spent decades studying older adults. Her work suggests that as people age, they naturally focus on what really matters: meaning, connection, emotional balance. “Older people are generally happier than younger people,” her team keeps finding-not because life got easier, but because their habits filter out noise. Tech-driven youth often have the opposite problem: their habits invite noise in all day long.

On a rainy Tuesday in Manchester, 72-year-old Roy follows his normal route along the canal. He doesn’t track his steps. He doesn’t post his walk on Strava. He nods to the same dog walkers, stops at the same bench, and sometimes brings half-stale bread for the ducks. His phone stays in his pocket unless his daughter calls.

When researchers ask older people about days like this, they rarely describe them as “productive.” They use words like peaceful, grounded, satisfying. A 2021 study from the University of British Columbia found that older adults who kept regular outdoor walking routines reported higher daily happiness than those who didn’t-even when the distance was short and the pace slow.

Compare that to a 26-year-old commuter: earbuds in, podcasts at 1.5x speed, flipping between email and Instagram on the escalator. The body is moving, but the mind is nowhere in particular. Clinical psychologist Erik Frazer says this fragmented attention creates a “low-grade anxiety hum” that never fully goes away. Physical movement is good, but screen-anchored movement doesn’t have the same calming effect as tech-free, repeated rituals.

At a deeper level, these nine habits have something in common: they create predictable anchors in a chaotic world. Routine isn’t glamorous. It doesn’t generate slick before-and-after photos. What it does, according to neuroscience, is lower the brain’s cognitive load. When you don’t constantly renegotiate when to sleep, what to eat, how to exercise, who to see, your mind stops burning energy on logistics.

For older adults, that freed-up energy often flows into presence: really listening during a conversation, noticing a neighbor’s mood shift, enjoying the quiet pleasure of stirring soup instead of doomscrolling during dinner. Younger people, saturated with choice and notifications, can feel like everything is urgent and nothing is quite real.

This is where happiness quietly diverges. Tech-driven youth often measure their days in tasks completed and content consumed. The happiest people in their 60s and 70s measure their days in moments that felt fully lived. That difference starts with habits that respect time instead of trying to crush it.

Old-school moves anyone can borrow

When you ask older adults what truly sustains them, you rarely hear about “mindset hacks.” You hear about regular phone calls, community events, simple crafts, slow mornings. One 68-year-old retired nurse described her secret plainly: “I don’t let my days get stolen before noon.” She wakes up, makes tea, reads a physical book or the local paper, then takes a short walk. Only after that does she look at her phone.

Experts call this a “protected morning window.” It doesn’t have to be long-15 to 30 minutes where you don’t open any app designed to hook your attention. For many older people, this happens naturally because they grew up without screens. For younger, more wired generations, it can feel like going against gravity. Yet that first offline block sets a tone: I own my day before the world starts asking things from me.

The classic mistake younger people make is going all-or-nothing. They read about a “digital detox” and announce they’ll stop checking social media entirely. That lasts three days, maybe a week. Then they rebound into full-on binge scrolling and feel worse. Let’s be honest: almost no one actually does that every day.

Older adults often take the opposite route: small, loyal boundaries. Wednesday nights are for choir-no phones during rehearsal. Sunday lunch is for family-devices go in a bowl by the door. 10 p.m. is lights out, even if the series isn’t finished. These lines in the sand aren’t dramatic. They’re consistent. And consistency is what rewires anxiety into calm.

Gerontologist Dr. Marc Agronin says something striking about his happiest patients:

“They don’t see most of their habits as ‘self-care.’ They just see them as the way humans are meant to live together-slowly, repeatedly, with other people in the room.”

That “with other people in the room” part is huge. Loneliness is one of the biggest predictors of depression in any age group. The routines of older generations quietly push back against it:

• Weekly rituals: market day, church, yoga, the same café at the same hour
  
• Shared hobbies: gardening clubs, book circles, choir, bridge nights
  
• Micro check-ins: short chats with neighbors, shopkeepers, bus drivers
  

We’ve all lived that moment when a five-minute chat with a stranger or neighbor felt more nourishing than an hour on TikTok. Older generations just refuse to treat those small interactions as optional extras. For them, they’re infrastructure-as vital as good Wi‑Fi is for everyone else.

A future that feels intentionally older

Look closely, and these nine timeless habits aren’t really about age. They’re about choosing depth over constant stimulation. Experts in longevity believe younger people could radically change their mental health by “importing” a few of these moves: regular tech-free walks, recurring social plans, phone-free meals, protected mornings, simple hands-on hobbies, familiar sleep routines, scheduled volunteering, gratitude moments, and slow, face-to-face conversations.

None of that looks revolutionary on a screen. Yet these are the behaviors that show up again and again in studies on well-being later in life. They lower stress hormones, deepen social ties, and give meaning to days that would otherwise blur together. For people in their 60s and 70s, they’re the quiet scaffolding that holds up joy.

The question isn’t whether youth can learn from age. It’s whether we’re willing to copy habits that look “uncool” while the world is still applauding speed and novelty. The tech-driven life isn’t going away-but your relationship to it can change. You can let the algorithm run your attention. Or you can do the more rebellious thing: live a little more like your happiest elders, on purpose.

Key point	Detail	Why it matters to the reader
Simple daily rituals	Walking, reading, eating at set times without screens	Reduces stress and gives the day a reassuring structure
Recurring social time	Weekly coffees, clubs, regular calls	Fights loneliness and increases a sense of belonging
Boundaries with technology	Protected mornings, phone-free meals, a set time to turn off screens	Frees up mental space and improves mood and sleep

FAQ

• What are the “nine habits” older people tend to keep? Things like regular walks, protected mornings, phone-free meals, recurring social plans, volunteering, simple hobbies, handwritten notes, gratitude practices, and consistent sleep routines.
  
• Are older adults really happier than younger people? Several large studies suggest yes: on average, people in their 60s and 70s report higher life satisfaction and emotional stability than people in their 20s and 30s.
  
• Do I have to give up social media to feel better? No. The point is not zero screens, but conscious boundaries: short offline windows, tech-free rituals, and fewer split-attention moments.
  
• How can I start if my life already feels overloaded? Pick one micro-habit: a 10-minute walk without your phone, or one meal per day with no screens. Keep it small and repeat it until it feels normal.
  
• Isn’t this just nostalgia for a world that no longer exists? Not really. These habits worked before smartphones and they still work now because they’re based on how our brains and emotions function, not on any particular era.