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.
Epiphany isn’t a lightning strike
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Hello Reader, We’re less than a week into the year, which means this is usually the moment when people start wondering why things don’t feel clear yet. That’s understandable—but it’s also a misunderstanding. An epiphany isn’t a sudden realization that changes everything. More often, it’s a quiet recognition of something that’s been asking for your attention for a while. Nothing new. Just newly noticed. There’s an important difference here. Realization feels dramatic. It arrives all at once and demands action. Recognition is slower. It works through remembering—through noticing patterns, tensions, and truths that were already present but not fully acknowledged. This is where resolutions tend to fall apart. Resolve works best when it’s rooted in recognition, not realization. When you try to commit before you’ve truly noticed what’s going on, effort turns brittle. When recognition comes first, resolve has something solid to stand on. So instead of asking what you should decide this year, try this: What feels obvious now that didn’t feel obvious a month ago? You don’t need to act on the answer yet. Just... notice it. Clarity rarely announces itself. It waits to be recognized. See you later, |
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, A few days ago, I had one of those sideways realizations—the kind that doesn’t arrive with a bang, but settles in and refuses to leave. It happened while I was thinking about LEGO. Not as a toy. Not as nostalgia. But as a system. LEGO works because it does something deceptively simple: it gives you structure without prescribing outcomes. There are pieces. Constraints. A logic to how things connect. But what you build—and how you build it—is up to you. That’s when it clicked:...
Hello Reader, Years ago—eons ago, it feels like now—I had a calendar made of bubble wrap. Every day was a bubble. At the end of the day, you popped it. Sometimes I’d pop it with satisfaction. Sometimes with relief. Sometimes with a little frustration that the day didn’t quite become what I hoped. But here’s the thing: once it was popped, it was done. No saving it. No hoarding it. No pretending it could be reused. Time... made tactile. Later on, that idea evolved into something more...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 48 | January 24, 2026 Hello Reader, There’s a moment in our relationship with time when efficiency stops being the problem. The systems work. The habits hold. The work gets done. And yet something feels thin. The question shifts from “How do I get more done?” to “What am I actually responsible for?” That’s where auteurship enters. An auteur takes responsibility not just for making the work, but for its intent, its shape, and the time it demands. Not...