Anne-Laure Le Cunff ,
is actually someone who studied neuroscience and psychology. She did her PhD in neuroscience and psychology at King’s College London. She worked on digital health projects at Google. So actually, she was continuing her career at a tech giant quite successfully, but in 2019 she decided to take a different path.
After leaving Google, she founded a platform called Ness Labs. There, she writes about curiosity, productivity, and mental well-being, and also runs workshops. Right now, she’s the author of “Tiny Experiments” and touches the lives of thousands of people. Her weekly newsletter is followed by more than 120,000 people. Pretty inspiring journey, right?
Let’s get to what this book tells us;
Flexibility Instead of Rigid Goals
Tiny Experiments tells us how rigid goals and the pressure to succeed can harm us and slowly consume us inside. Rigid goals and success pressure open a window to how we can deal with them in a more flexible and more human way, it challenges our constant obsession with targets and suggests seeing uncertainty not as an enemy but as a space to discover new things.
For example, Amelia Earhart’s story… She didn’t have a specific career goal. She always wanted to try. Curiosity was her compass. For her, the journey was far more valuable than the destination.
The book actually stands up against our obsession with constant goal-chasing. It says:
Life is not a straight line.
Plans don’t have to be linear. The author also talks about her own Google experience. Even though she had a shiny career path ahead, she felt stuck, even burnt out. Because that path didn’t align with her inner compass.
The problem is not being ambitious. The problem is how we approach our goals. Rigid goals push us towards toxic productivity. The constant pressure to succeed, the fear of failure – in the end, people burn out.
So what do we put in place of these rigid plans?
Pacts: The Power of Small Steps
The book says: Instead of big, unreachable goals, let’s focus on small, manageable actions. These are called “pacts.”
A pact is actually a personal agreement. For example, “I will read a book for 15 minutes every day.” It’s small but sustainable. Because we should always ask ourselves: “Can I do this even on my worst day?”
Here’s what makes pacts beautiful:
- Purposeful: It should really excite you, it should carry you.
- Actionable: It should be small enough to start right away.
- Continuous: It should be repeatable and continue like a small habit.
- Trackable: At the end of the day, you should simply ask yourself: Did I do it? Did I not?
Pacts are not like habits. There’s no obsession with results. Even failure is a data point. Just trying is enough. And pacts take away that pressure of achieving something big.
Kronos and Kairos: How Do We Experience Time?
The book gives another beautiful example here. Kronos is how we see time in a classic sense – seconds, minutes, hours. The constant effort to do more, the stress of keeping up with time.
Kairos is focusing on the quality of time. Really being in the moment, really feeling the value of that moment. Productivity is not just about how many things you finished, but how that task made you feel.
Life happens in Kairos moments, my dear. Real quality lives there. It’s not in the moment when you finish the task, but in how you feel while doing it.
So, What About Procrastination?
Procrastination doesn’t have to be a sign of laziness. Instead of fighting it, we can look at it through the “Triple Check” method – checking if the task is appropriate (head), if it’s exciting (heart), and if it’s doable (hand). If a task doesn’t feel right, doesn’t spark any excitement, or feels overwhelming, this gives us clues to redesign the task or ask for support. Most of the time, it’s a signal of an inner misalignment.
Seeing procrastination not as an enemy but as a guide can turn it into a powerful tool for personal growth and a catalyst for deeper self-understanding.
So what are Head, Heart, and Hand?:
- Head: Is this task logical?
- Heart: Does this task excite me?
- Hand: Is this task doable?
If these three aren’t aligned, resistance shows up and procrastination starts.
But sometimes the problem isn’t us, but the system.
Like in the case of Nurse Amy. Amy constantly procrastinated at work and blamed herself, but the real problem was her workload. The system was giving her more than she could handle. Procrastination actually became her self-protection mechanism.
That’s why we shouldn’t read procrastination as an enemy but as a message. We should ask ourselves: “Why can’t I do this right now?”
We also need to let go of perfectionism a little. The book calls this intentional imperfection. Starting without waiting for everything to be perfect. Putting out something that is good enough and regularly coming back to it with the plus-minus-next method:
- What went well?
- What can be improved?
- What’s the next step?
This way, learning becomes continuous. Embracing imperfection opens up space for resilience, progress, and creativity.
Choosing progress over perfection. This kind of selective focus helps achieve sustainable success without burnout.
Collaborating With Uncertainty and Learning in Public
The book says: Don’t fight uncertainty, collaborate with it. Life’s flow isn’t clear anyway. Don’t go against it, go with it.
And there’s this idea of learning in public. That means sharing what you’re learning, experimenting, and even failing with others. Is it easy? Nope. It takes courage. But it has huge benefits:
- You get feedback.
- You connect with people like you.
- You meet new people.
- You develop side skills.
- You make a tangible contribution here and now.
So instead of trying to leave a grand legacy someday, look at how you can contribute to your surroundings right now. That’s what productivity is.
We should see life not as a strict roadmap but as a playground. A discovery journey filled with small experiments driven by curiosity.
Embracing uncertainty and imperfection. Seeing procrastination not as an enemy but as a signal. And sharing this whole journey with others.
Instead of the stress of huge crushing goals, noticing the power of small steps taken every day and the value of the moment you’re in.
Success doesn’t move in a straight line. Sometimes the most enriching paths are the most winding ones.
Conclusion
Stop planning life too tightly. See it as a playground. Tiny Experiments teaches us exactly that.
Has there been a topic lately that sparked a little doubt or a little fear inside you?
Instead of seeing it as a huge wall to overcome, turn it into a small, repeatable, curiosity-driven experiment.
And ask: What can I learn from this?
Maybe all we need is a small step and a little curiosity. 🌱
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