Welcome back to the 1st Law Newsletter.

Lately I have been in a bit if a funk… just not feeling motivated to work on my projects. A better man would say I’ve already lost if I am relying on motivation—discipline is the key. But what if it were easy? What is working on my projects was something I craved? Read on to find out how it can be…

Addiction hacking

I came across an interesting idea last week: addiction hacking. That is, consciously choosing your addictions to be things that benefit you in the long run. E.g. working on passion projects, improving your health, learning new skills or increasing your income.

The difference between a habit and an addition is simple. A habit is something that increases your dopamine above your baseline/ homeostasis—e.g. reading before bed, or having a shower in the morning. An addiction is something that will raise you to homeostasis, meaning without it, you feel low/ off—e.g. a daily coffee drinker will feel off if they go one morning without it.

The hack is to choose your addictions to be beneficial things. But how do you create addictions? Three steps: the cue/ trigger, the routine, and the reward.

An easy example is the gym. For me, the cue is finishing work (for others it is taking pre-workout/ caffeine), the routine is working out, and the reward is the pump. In order to hack your addictions, intentionally pick a trigger, routine, and reward. Have the discipline to do them a few times to ingrain it in your lifestyle, then it should become second nature.

I am trying to become addicted to deep work. My trigger/ cue is turning all the lights off in my room to eliminate distractions and starting a timer, the routine is working with singular focus until the timer goes off, and the reward… idk yet. Today my reward is going to be a coffee and some time on my phone, but I want to choose something that is wholesome and easy to do anywhere.

Have you intentionally gotten yourself addicted to activities before? IOr perhaps unintentionally? I would love to hear about your cues, routines, and rewards for inspiration.

Quote to go

What is money? What is it that we spend large chunks of our lives chasing? The more I learn about money, how it is created, and how money flows in society, the more I realize how rigged the ‘game’ is. I need money to work for me, not the other way around.

Thanks for reading!

Lucas