Life Hacks: A Christmas Special (2025) - #1037

Merry Christmas from my living room in Newcastle. We’ve got one day to turn this around, so we’re doing our yearly mix of lessons, life hacks, and fails; tradition says Johnny kicks us off.

My biggest hack is the Waking Up app, specifically the Fundamentals series. Ten minutes a day flipped meditation from something I should do into part of my identity, and that shift changed how I relate to the present.

Identity leads the habits, not the other way around. When you see that your brain doles out the feelings you chase, you stop riding the desire–achievement–crash cycle and can generate ease without chasing the next hit.

It’s all internal. The brain is a prediction machine, which is why you step for a phantom stair or taste water thinking it’s lemonade; getting closer to the source helps. Also, there’s Jhana practice, which leans into joy rather than breath—curious what you think.

On retreat I did floodlight-style Vipassana, whereas Jhana is a laser on bliss; I haven’t cracked it but it’s compelling. Practical hack: book flights in Uber—your details are saved, booking is instant, you get credits, price freezes, and even refunds if fares drop.

Add Flighty to that stack. It auto-imports your trips, pushes gate changes before the boards, tracks baggage and connections, and lets friends follow your flights so you never hunt for an airport screen again.

For deep work, steal Tim Urban’s chess-clock method. Aim for four clean hours and flip the clock the moment you do anything else; the instant penalty exposes sneaky distractions and rewards honest time on task.

The breakthrough isn’t speed, it’s simply spending more uninterrupted time doing the thing.

App blockers weren’t enough, so Brick for iPhone won—an NFC tag in another room you must tap to unlock. That friction plus a pocket notebook shifts the whisper from phone to paper; I did once lose a cheap pad, so now I carry one I’ll protect.

I underestimated how much attribution error and cognitive dissonance drive people. We feel first, then rationalize, so it’s better to meet the feeling with warmth than to argue at the head level.

Emotions are bottom-up and have their own logic, so speak to that. Quick gear win: Owala bottles—great size, insulated, sip or swig spout, easy to carry, and cheaper and less clunky than some big-name rivals.

Meta-hack: give any new trick ninety days before you swear by it. We’ve contradicted ourselves over the years because time exposes second-order costs.

Henry’s mirror: a man lost the ability to form new memories and woke each day shocked at his older face; we all forget that we forget. Document more—photos and journaling—because when I look back, it’s the same themes repeating, which proves the spiral curriculum of life.

When a problem hits, list a few past events that rhyme, write the three best and worst moves you’d make now, then apply the best set today. Patterns repeat, so the solutions often still fit.

Emotions are feedback, not foes. Use them to adjust course instead of looping the same storm.

Years of journals showed me that goals rarely fix your baseline, but the traits you build chasing hard things compound. Set big targets anyway because they forge the character you want, which matters even more when you’re trying to lead by example.

That’s a way to play the game without being swallowed by it.

Goals are the wedge that gets you through the door; the win feels the same, but you’re different after. Milestones that once felt huge become footnotes as you grow.

Also, enjoy the simple, always-available goods—health, sun, friends—while moving toward your aims. Time is the scarce resource, so set life up to enjoy the passage of it.

My favorite lesson this year: some truths are unteachable until you live them. Money, fame, and follower counts won’t heal you; when you learn that the hard way, have compassion—you’re in good company.

If achieving a desire clears it from your system, great; it’s often easier to get the thing than to erase the craving for it.

On envy, only envy the war, not the highlight reel. If you don’t want the lawsuits, rewrites, and fires, drop the fantasy; problems never end, they just change shape.

Dad lesson: watching my child notice a bark, a bird, or a sound resets wonder and slows time. Ordinary things become astonishing again.

It’s been beautiful seeing that soften you this year.

This year felt very feelings-forward for all of us, and those first-time-again moments prove novelty is still everywhere when you look.

I’ve moved from head to heart: the mirror smiles when you smile. Choose useful beliefs and bring the energy you want reflected back.

Even the culture is shifting from grind to feeling. Stories can be wrong, so next year I want to keep the depth and return to more action from a steadier place.

Work hard, yes—just don’t mistake pain for progress.

I’ve worried that meditation or healing work might kill my ambition, but what really fades is the compulsion that came from dodging feelings like loneliness or not-enoughness.

If your engine runs on insecurity, that’s dirty fuel; hard work isn’t the enemy, the motive is.

When you hit a big target and the drive dips, it’s like finishing a game on hard and choosing a new run on an even tougher mode, not the same goal, but a fresh one that stretches you.

Arcs repeat in life and relationships, so I’ve gone into live shows because it’s different enough to feel new while still feeding the main story, and I periodize focus so I’m not juggling everything at once.

A big lesson this year is just because I can carry it doesn’t mean I should; public praise for grit can quietly wreck your private life, and the most capable person in the room still needs someone to ask how they really are.

If you’re the one people rely on, it feels risky to admit you’re struggling, which is why leaders need spaces where they can say, I don’t know.

Shackleton’s diary shows deep doubt behind a brave face, so you need a spouse, friends, or a therapist who can hold the mess while you keep the team steady.

Deep work is great, but deep sparring is underpriced; three to five hours each quarter with a few brilliant peers can add clarity that solo focus can’t.

You need sparring partners you respect who’ll throw bold takes on the table so everything can be picked apart without judgment.

History’s breakthroughs came from salons and circles, not lone geniuses, and building with others isn’t just more effective, it’s also more fun and less heavy.

Two perspective hacks that land for me are asking an AI to describe a Monday a century ago and asking what eight-year-old me would have loved today, which brings gratitude out of my head and into my body.

We stand on stacked systems, as Whitehead and that famous Jobs email point out, which frees us to operate at higher levels.

A few keepers I’ve nabbed this year: the inner boardroom to let each part of me speak, framing two-way-door choices as experiments, hojicha as a gentler coffee swap, and using voice notes as a cue to get outside.

Rapid-fire: snap a photo of your hotel key slip so you never forget your room, try Uber Black or XL with friends for a smoother ride, and take more walks while also allowing true stillness.

I’m big on a giant home whiteboard because writing a problem clearly solves half of it, and I’ve started randomly calling friends again instead of scheduling everything.

Careful with double-dialing, it can create false urgency and train people to ignore you when it actually matters.

Fair, my goal is spontaneity and better conversations, not gaming a pickup rate.

Label reversible choices as experiments, swap the word problem for puzzle, play with language the way Milton and Shakespeare did, and enjoy etymology rabbit holes like turkey not coming from Turkey.

I wish I could be there in person, but I’m glad I could still pull up a chair on the laptop.

That’s us—Merry Christmas from Newcastle where this all started eight years ago; eat well, rest, read a little, do a short review, and remember the days get lighter after the solstice, so give love to your family and keep it festive.