I’m Mike Vardy, and I help people build a better relationship with time — not by controlling it, but by working with it. Through my writing, courses, and community, I explore how intention and attention shape a more meaningful life — one rooted in the original idea of productiveness over productivity.
A small note of thanks, wherever you are today
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Hello Reader, Depending on where you live, today might be a holiday, a regular Thursday, or something in between. But it’s a day that tends to invite a little reflection — so here’s mine. Every so often, someone sends a genuinely kind email about something I’ve written, recorded, or shared. Not a quick comment. Not a reaction. A full email — one of your core communication tools — used to say something thoughtful. Those messages land differently. They feel like someone pausing for a moment, stepping inside, and saying, “What you made mattered.” I don’t take that lightly. I appreciate every comment and reply across the platforms, but those quiet emails… they stay with me. They arrive at exactly the right times. They remind me that this work reaches real people on real days. So if you’ve ever sent one... thank you. And if you’ve wanted to but haven’t yet — that intention still counts. Wherever you are today — celebrating, resting, working, or simply catching your breath — I’m grateful you’re here. See you later, P.S. If someone in your world has ever sent you a kind note — about your work, your presence, or something you created — today’s not a bad day to send a small one back. Those messages travel farther than we think. |
The Practice of Productiveness
I’m Mike Vardy, and I help people build a better relationship with time — not by controlling it, but by working with it. Through my writing, courses, and community, I explore how intention and attention shape a more meaningful life — one rooted in the original idea of productiveness over productivity.
Hello Reader, Every year as we slip toward the holidays, there’s this familiar pressure to get busy. To pack days full, to squeeze in more, to somehow keep pace with a season that seems to accelerate on its own. But lately I’ve been thinking less about busyness… and more about devotion. There’s a moment I wrote about recently that’s been echoing in my mind. It comes from a story Glenn Frey told about living above Jackson Browne during the early Eagles days: listening through the floorboards...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 39| November 22, 2025 Hello Reader, I was born into a moment of contrast. On the day I arrived, Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown sat at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 — a song about suspicion, jealousy, and shadows. Just a week later, the charts flipped, and the Hues Corporation’s Rock the Boat took over, ushering in one of disco’s first big splashes. From suspicion to celebration. From solitude to togetherness. From brooding to dancing. That cultural...
Hello Reader, I discovered Chris Dalla Riva the same way I discover a surprising number of meaningful things these days: by scrolling through TikTok. Not doom-scrolling, not distraction for distraction’s sake—just wandering through that unpredictable digital bazaar where brilliance and absurdity sit shoulder to shoulder. Depending on the hour, my feed swings between thoughtful essays, clever creators, and Sora-generated fever dreams of cats caterwauling at customers from behind fast-food...