Hi Reader,

My next edit is late.

Not dramatically late. Not crisis late. But late enough that I noticed, felt the familiar tightening, and started doing what I always do: blaming my planning.

“I should have estimated better.” “I should have blocked more time.” “I should have known.”

Then I caught myself. Because the problem isn’t my planning. The problem is that I’m trying to estimate something that can’t be estimated.

Frying vs. Catching

Some work is frying a fish. You know the steps. You know the time. Heat the pan, season the fillet, four minutes per side. Done.

Some work is catching a fish. You can control where you cast, how long you sit there, what bait you use. But you cannot control when the fish bites.

Editing a book is catching. You sit with a chapter. You read it again. Something’s off but you can’t name it yet. You rewrite a paragraph. Better—but now the next paragraph doesn’t connect. You walk away. You come back. And then, on the third pass, you see it.

You can’t schedule that.

Mini Insight

Most productivity systems—including mine—are built for frying. Known steps, estimable time, clear output. Block the time, do the work, check the box.

But a huge portion of the work that actually matters is catching. Writing. Problem-solving. Designing. Diagnosing what’s wrong. Building something that doesn’t exist yet.

When we treat catching work like frying work, we set a deadline, miss it, and conclude we planned badly. We didn’t plan badly. We applied the wrong model.

The Two Rules

For frying work: estimate, schedule, execute. Your system handles this.

For catching work: two different rules.

1. Time-box the effort, not the outcome. Don’t say “I’ll finish chapter 5.” Say “I’ll edit for 90 minutes.” You control the input. You don’t control when the fish bites.
2. Protect the floor. When catching work runs long—and it will—it starts eating everything else. Your inbox. Your commitments. Your sleep. Set a floor: the minimum version of everything else still runs, no matter how deep the catch goes.

That’s it. Box the input. Protect the floor.

Try-This-Now (≤5 minutes)

1. Look at your current task list or commitments.
2. Mark each one: F (frying—you know the steps and the time) or C (catching—discovery, creative, unknown duration).
3. For every C, ask: am I estimating this like it’s an F? Am I setting a deadline on a discovery?
4. For one C item, replace the deadline with a time-box. “90 minutes on Tuesday. Whatever happens, happens.”

Stop—this counts.

Your Pattern Tweak

Each type handles catching work differently:

• Architect: Plans the catch like a fry. Needs a time-box, not a timeline.
• Surfer: Waits to feel ready. Sit down anyway—the fish doesn’t care about your mood.
• Keeper: Catching breaks the routine. Give it a recurring slot with unpredictable content.
• Pilot: Promises a catch by Friday. Commit to hours, not output.

(Don’t know your type? Reply “quiz” and I’ll send you the link.)

Living Profit (why this matters)

• Energy: Shame from “I’m behind” drains more energy than the actual work. Name it as a catch and the shame evaporates. You’re not behind. You’re fishing.
• Relationships: When catching work bleeds into everything, the people around you pay for it. Protect the floor and you protect them.
• Income & Opportunities: The most valuable work you do is almost certainly catching, not frying. Learning to hold it properly is a career skill.

Excelsior,

Pierre/​
Founder, Curio Chat Academy

P.S.: This newsletter is late too. I was going to write about something else. But I was sitting with my edit at 11pm, frustrated, and realized I was doing the exact thing I teach people not to do—shaming myself for missing an estimate on work that was never estimable. So I wrote about that instead. Some weeks the newsletter is a fry. This week it was a catch.