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.
After years, it's finished
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Hello Reader, I'll tell you something I don't usually lead with. I've spent a good part of this year building the launch for my next book with AI sitting beside me for most of it — drafting, sorting, thinking out loud. And somewhere in that stretch I caught myself doing the exact thing I warn other people about. I was moving fast. Producing. The output was real and the pace felt great. Then one afternoon I looked at a pile of finished work and realized a good portion of it answered questions nobody had asked: polished, efficient, and aimed at the wrong thing. AI hadn't led me there. It had just made it very easy to get there quickly. I mention it because it would be dishonest to talk about productiveness as though I've solved it. I haven't. The pull toward speed is strong even for someone who's built a body of work arguing against it. What's changed is that I catch it sooner now. I've learned to stop and ask whether the thing I'm rushing to finish is the thing worth finishing at all. That question is the spine of the book I've been building toward. It's called Productiveness, and after a long stretch of revisions, it's finally done. We're in launch mode now, heading toward this Fall. I'm not going to crowd your inbox with it between now and then. Instead, I've set up one place to follow along. If you want in, that's all it takes: Follow the launch at mikevardy.com/booklaunch No noise. Just updates for the people who want them, and nothing for the people who don't. The book took years. The urge to rush it never once made it better. — Mike P.S. Speaking of doing the wrong things faster: my Grand Productivity colleague Garland Coulson (Captain Time) is teaching a session on exactly that tomorrow — Tuesday, July 14 at 1 PM PT. Five common AI mistakes and how to stop making them. Click here to register. |
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.
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 2, Issue 23 | August 1, 2026 Hello Reader, I use AI all over the place. ClickUp Brain inside my work management. Recipes built from whatever I dictate is actually in the fridge. Conceptual drafts of emails like this one. But there's a version of that story I want to be careful not to tell: the one where AI does most of it and I tidy up at the end. That's not what happens. I bring the fodder (the idea, the angle, the why) and I shape it as I go. AI carries bulk....
Hello Reader, Most months don't end. They get interrupted by the next one. We sprint through the last few days, or we ignore them entirely. Then Monday shows up wearing a new month's name and we wonder why nothing feels different. A month deserves a close. Not a ceremony. A close. Ten minutes and three questions will do it. What actually moved this month? Not what kept you busy. Busy and moved are different ledgers. Name one or two things that are genuinely further along than they were on...
Hello Reader, I took two weeks off this summer. No livestream. Nothing humming along in the background. And when I sat back down, the first thing my brain offered me was a hole to dig out of. Then I caught the assumption underneath it. Falling behind means there was a race, and that I agreed to run it. I hadn't. I'd just stopped. Those are different things. One carries debt. The other doesn't. We collapse the two all the time. A vacation. An illness. A launch. A stretch where life mattered...