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.
Another room
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Hello Reader, A few weeks ago my daughter Grace sat me down in a studio in New York and asked me questions about Productiveness that nobody else has asked. That conversation has become the most-watched thing on my YouTube channel in months. It also made something hard to ignore. I've been slack on YouTube. For a long while, the only thing happening there was a Wednesday livestream. That changes tomorrow. Starting Friday, October 2, there's a new video on the channel every Friday at 8 AM Pacific. Here's what took me so long. Over the last couple of years I've sat through Podcast Movement and video summits, the message I kept hearing was: put your podcast on camera. I'm still not going to. A Productive Conversation stays audio, because audio goes with you on the walk, in the car, while you fold the laundry. It stays close. What settled it was a talk Rob Walch gave at Podcast Movement this year. He laid out what each medium asks of you. Audio rides along with your day. Video asks for your full attention, with nothing else going on. If I'm going to ask for that, I'd better make something worth giving it to. So the Friday videos are their own thing: thinking out loud about TimeCrafting and Productiveness. They're the questions I'm still working through, not a list of tips. Tomorrow's video is a reply to Grace. She asked a few things I didn't finish answering, and a viewer pulled one line out of our conversation that I keep turning over: "Data can change your rate, but it won't change your state." That's where I'm starting. One question before then. If Grace sat me down again, what should she ask? Hit reply. I'm keeping a list. See you later, P.S. One more date for your calendar: next Thursday, October 8, at 11 AM Pacific, I'm going live on YouTube with Tiago Forte to talk about how to actually learn from your life. Tap the link and hit "Notify me" so you don't miss it. |
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, There's an old story about Thomas More. A friend showed him a book he'd written, and More suggested he turn it into verse. The friend did. More looked it over and said something like, "Now it has rhyme. Before, it had neither rhyme nor reason." I can't say whether it happened exactly that way. But the phrase has lasted 500 years, and I have a guess about why. Rhyme is what feels right. Reason is what makes sense. More's joke works because we expect anything worth our time to...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 2, Issue 33 | October 17th, 2026 Hello Reader, A few weeks ago I took my son to see the Foo Fighters in Vancouver. It was his first stadium rock show. It was also one of the best I've ever been to, and I've been to a few. They played for three hours. Three hours is a long time to do almost anything. We had seats, but some people didn't have that luxury, and they stood through the whole thing. If you'd told me beforehand the set would run that long, some part of...
Hello Reader, Last week I left you with a question: if someone who watches you closely was asked what they've learned from you, what would you hope they'd say? And I suggested you write your answer down somewhere. This is the somewhere. In September of 1858, Leo Tolstoy wrote in his diary: "Decided that one must love and work, and that's it." The next day: "Tired, didn't love, and didn't work." Two lines. A whole day, held honestly — the intention and the miss. Most journaling fails because...