Hello and welcome to your weekly dose of actionable (and occasionally provocative) things.
Eye-opening discovery from last week: the Tall option for Medium sweatpants.
Turns out the imperial system doesn’t perfectly fit my metric-born body.
I’m 179-180 cm and 69-72 kg (depending on who you ask).
So I’ve been stuck with two options:
Good fit, but too short - M
Perfect length, but weirdly baggy - L
For years, buying proper sweatpants has been a small, recurring annoyance. The kind that makes me wonder if you’re built incorrectly.
Then I did something radical - and I can’t even take credit for it.
I accidentally used the “tall” filter online.
Free shipping and free returns finally convinced me to risk it, because I love comfort, but not enough to pay $6.99 to learn a lesson.
And yes, you already guessed the result.
Medium fit. Proper length. No saggy diaper situation. No surprise ankle exposure.
The funniest part is I never considered myself tall - especially after meeting Jakub in person, who looks like he turned down the NBA contract because he didn’t want to be the reason they had to raise the hoop - so it never even occurred to me to try that filter.
I’ve spent years wearing sweatpants that were 90% right because I didn’t think I “counted” as tall.
So honestly, my whole life could be described by that gorgeous Rory Sutherland quote:
You are not thinking; you are merely being logical.
My new lesson: try things that don’t seem logical to me.
Enjoy the edition!
Table of Contents
Heads-up: If you’re reading this in Gmail (either in the browser or the app), you might not see the full content. Since our emails are packed with rich content, Gmail loves to clip them. You’ll see a small note at the bottom that says [Message clipped] View entire message. Just click that link - the rest of the content is waiting for you on our website.
Learn From My Mistakes
Short story of how I break life chaos into small, solvable problems - 3 min read.
I once spent an entire afternoon being quietly furious at a spreadsheet.
Not the numbers. The vibes.
A manager sent me a Google Sheet with one comment on my section:
“Needs work.”
No hello. No context. No emoji.
Just two words that came in hot like a parent saying, “We need to talk” while staring at the ceiling.
My brain hit “play” on the worst possible trailer.
Within ten seconds I had a full cinematic timeline:
They think I’m sloppy.
They regret hiring me.
They’re forwarding the sheet to leadership with the subject line: “Thoughts?”
I didn’t even have evidence.
I had vibes and childhood trauma. Same thing, basically.
So I responded the way a normal, stable adult responds.
I did not ask what they meant.
I went into spreadsheet monk mode.
Silent. Furious. Purposeful.
I started “fixing” everything like someone said “interesting” in that tone. You know the one.
New formulas. Cleaner labels. Pivot tables.
Conditional formatting so tasteful it deserved a museum (sponsored by free YouTube tutorials).
At one point I considered adding a tab called “README” with a short novel explaining my reasoning, including an appendix and a glossary for anyone who struggles with concepts like “columns.”
Finally, after hours of this internal hostage situation, I did something radical.
I asked, “Hey - when you say “needs work” - what part exactly?”
He replied in 30 seconds: “Oh, sorry. I meant the header names. The data is great. Can you just rename the columns so Finance doesn’t cry?”
That was it.
I had been spiraling over… column titles.
I wrote a tragedy in three acts and the antagonist was “a blank cell”.
Somewhere out there, a real problem was jealous of how much attention I gave this one.
The concept (for my future self)
When something is unclear, I don’t wait.
I fill the gap. Fast.
And my default fill is always dramatic:
“This is about me”
“This is bad”
“This is a rejection”
I act like uncertainty is a threat, so I rush to a conclusion just to feel stable.
Except the conclusion I pick is usually the worst one.
So here’s what I’m trying to remember: most of my suffering is just guesswork I took personally.
What I’m telling myself next time
When I feel that spike, I’m going to stop playing psychic.
Step 1: “This is unclear.”
Step 2: facts vs melodrama.
Fact: “Needs work”
Melodrama: “I’m about to be a bullet point on someone else’s agenda”
Step 3: one question: “Quick check - what specifically needs work?”
Then I default to “small and fixable,” because it’s more “rename the column” than “rethink your life.”
Assumptions feel like prep, but they’re just double suffering.
There are no stupid questions. Just expensive guesses.
Till next time.
The Curious Procrastinator relies on word of mouth!
If you’re enjoying our newsletter, please help us reach more readers by forwarding this letter to a friend.
Our favorite digital finds
Tools, apps, and services that actually deliver
This is basically a “one username to rule them all” service. One tag gets you a website, a real email address, and cloud storage. Linktree is officially optional.
You know all those words you “learned” and then immediately forgot? Wordwise lets you translate them, save them, and drill them with flashcards so they actually stick.
ClipBook is a clipboard history app for macOS. Instead of macOS remembering just the last thing you copied, ClipBook keeps a running history so you can grab stuff later.
Short & Sweet
Short articles worth your attention
10 ways to beat procrastination - 6 min read.
Consider this a polite roast of your avoidance habits, with remedies. Ten tactics, each simple enough to try immediately.
My biggest productivity mistake - 4 min read.
The lesson: open your to-do list before your laptop opens your day.
Save this for the next time your colleague says, “Hi,” and nothing else…
Add this to your shelf
If you're looking for something to read, this book's worth considering
Think of it as a cheat sheet for money, written in 1926, which is rude because it still works.
Feeling the vibe? Drop your email and we will deliver more weekly.
A Workspace I Envy
A handpicked desk setup that caught my eye this week
Can you believe this - it’s a student’s setup. It honestly made me wonder: if I had something even remotely like this back then, would I have been a better student…or just a student with premium-level avoidance?
Behind the Persona
A deep dive into the quirks, habits, and backstories that shape icons
Bruce Lee didn’t just train hard, he managed himself like a project. In 1958 he won the Hong Kong schools boxing tournament, then took the Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship the same year, which is an efficient way to annoy both fighters and dancers. He also built a personal library of 2,000-plus (often cited as 2,500) books, treating reading like R&D: philosophy next to nutrition next to fighting manuals, all feeding the next experiment. His default decision process was blunt: try it, measure what happens, keep the parts that work, ditch the parts that don’t, and go again.
Cool Facts About Bruce Lee
Deadline-First Goals: In Jan. 1969 he wrote “My Definite Chief Aim” with hard targets: world fame starting 1970, $10,000,000 “till the end of 1980,” and the real win - “inner harmony and happiness.”
Sleep Is Scheduled: His non-filming routine was basically calendar discipline: ~8 hours of sleep (11pm–7am), morning stretch + jog, then teaching/writing, plus a second workout later.
Work In Sprints: He didn’t run an 8-hour grind - he worked in a few concentrated blocks with breaks, then came back for another block (repeat until you are pleasantly cooked).
Calendar-Based Accountability: A hand-written May 14 - June 17, 1967 training calendar shows a grid-by-day system with specific work listed (jogging, forearm, stomach-waist, deep knee bends), done in black/red/blue pencil.
Portable Self-Coaching Cards: He wrote 7 affirmations on small note cards and carried them, treating mental habits like something you rehearse, not something you “have”.
Daily Repetition Loop: His Subconscious Mind affirmation is basically a protocol: hold a “clear and definite picture” of your major purpose and repeat it daily so it stays top-of-mind.
Decision Rule: Stop Predicting: In Tao of Jeet Kune Do he warns that “the great mistake is to anticipate the outcome” - decide a course, then stay present and execute instead of narrating your own doom.
Watch-worthy clips
One video that got us thinking, and we think you'll like it too
Getting on top of your to-do list isn’t hard - it’s impossible. Once you accept that, the pressure drops, and you can focus on the few things that actually make life feel rich.
Enjoying the newsletter? Please forward this issue to a friend who might enjoy it too 😊🙏🏻
It only takes 10 seconds. Making this one took us 9 hours…
If you are new here, what are you waiting for? ⬇️
