Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

To live in Kairos time, we need to shift the focus from what we do with our time to how we experience each moment—what you might call mindful productivity. It’s a simple idea, that making the most of our time isn’t about doing more but about being more: more present, more engaged, and more attuned to the quality of our experiences.

Kairos moments, like pêche à pied, are what I call magic windows: those periods of creative flow that often occur when we are immersed in activities that capture our full attention, when we spend time with loved ones, or when we are engaged in self-reflection. If you’ve ever felt like an instant was suspended in time, as if your sphere of conscious

The Greeks valued this qualitative view deeply, so much so that they had a second word for time: Kairos. Kairos expresses the quality, not the quantity, of time. It recognizes that each moment is unique, with a unique purpose, rather than a fixed unit to be mechanically allocated. Sometimes the Greeks used the word Kairos even more specifically, as

Let’s be honest: Nobody really wants to live a productive life. We want to express ourselves, connect with others, and explore the world. Productivity is just a means to those ends; it should certainly not come at the expense of actually living life.

When you’re ready, take a couple of minutes to write down your pact: I will [action] for [duration].

personal and professional growth: Get early feedback. Sharing your work in public ensures that what you are working on answering an actual need and allows you to take a more iterative approach. Increase your creativity. By publishing your work in progress, you will increase the likelihood that you will connect the dots between your ideas and other

Learning in public unlocks powerful mechanisms to support your

To do all this, you’ll need to become comfortable saying I don’t know and asking others for input. Ultimately, learning in public strengthens your thinking by exposing your ideas to diverse perspectives early on. This can save you precious time and money. It also builds public trust and engagement by letting your stakeholders—whether colleagues or

Growth often comes from struggle, frustration, confusion—but we usually keep those moments private for fear of being exposed as a “fraud.” We worry that others will judge us as unqualified despite these being common experiences in the learning process. Learning in public is the opposite of pretending you have everything figured out. Instead, share