Hello Reader,

October always feels like a month in motion. The days quicken, the light shortens, and the world seems to collide with itself — baseball finishing, basketball and hockey beginning, football and soccer in full stride. It’s a season of noise and momentum.

And then November arrives. A quieter month. A slower breath. It starts with no — but I like to add a W.

For me, that turns it into NOWvember — a reminder to shift from what I need to do or ought to do toward what I want to do. The W changes everything. It adds willingness. It gives the month direction instead of defense.

When we stop trying to manage time and start managing our relationship with it, boundaries appear more naturally. We stop forcing the days to obey us and begin cooperating with them instead. That’s what the W really stands for: with.

Look

Banjoist Alison Brown and Steve Martin recently collaborated with Jackson Browne to write and perform “Dear Time.” It’s tender and reflective — a letter to the hours that shape us, full of humor, humility, and grace. Browne sings, “Dear time… you’ve given me / more than what you’ve taken,” and it’s hard not to feel that line settle in. The song isn’t about managing or conquering time — it’s about working with it, acknowledging the collaboration we never quite control.

That’s the spirit of NOWvember: moving with time, not against it. Accepting its pace, its gifts, and its gentle reminders that we’re only ever borrowing the moment we’re in. Watch the video here.

Listen

I love when my passions for comedy and philosophy collide — and this episode of Neal Brennan’s Blocks is a perfect example of that. Brennan sits down with Alain de Botton of The School of Life to talk about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, or like something’s wrong — and how he keeps moving despite those blocks.

It’s raw, funny, and surprisingly tender. A reminder that even when we understand the human condition intellectually, we still have to live it emotionally — one imperfect, present moment at a time. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Learn

Jess Whittlestone’s essay for Quartz, “The Cult of Productivity Is Preventing You from Being Productive,” is one of the most grounded takes I’ve read on what it actually means to use time rather than consume it.

She argues that productivity, stripped of presence, becomes hollow — that “worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living.” Instead, she suggests a third way: deliberateness. Being deliberate means deciding how you spend your time with awareness — neither endlessly producing nor simply drifting.

It’s a reminder that productivity and presence aren’t opposites at all. They’re partners. And when you approach time as something to work with instead of something to win, you start to feel both more productive and more alive. Read the essay here.

The Final Flicker

November begins with no but becomes something far more generous when you add a W. It turns refusal into readiness — a boundary into an opening.

You can’t own time, but you can move with it. You can meet it in the small, deliberate moments that remind you why you’re here.

This month, let your wants lead the way.
Let willingness replace resistance.
Let now become enough.

See you later,
Mike

P.S. If you’re ready to go beyond reflection and actually build a better relationship with your time, join me inside TimeCrafting Trust Premium. Members get full access to courses like TimeCrafting & ADHD and The Procrastination Course, along with workshops, Focus Fix sessions, and a community designed to help you practice what you read here. You don’t have to manage time alone — you can learn to move with it. Click here to learn more.

Thanks for reading. Your time is valuable, and I don’t take it for granted. In a world pulling us in all directions, thanks for choosing The Lantern.

Productivityist Productivity Services Inc. | 1411 Haultain Street, Victoria, BC V8R 2J6
​Unsubscribe · Preferences