The Lantern is a thoughtfully curated weekly email from Mike Vardy designed to help you craft a better relationship with time. Each edition brings you insights, inspiration, and practical tools through a simple yet powerful framework: Look (a thought-provoking video or visual), Listen (a compelling podcast or audio insight), and Learn (a deep dive into a key concept, article, or book). Designed to inform, inspire, and illuminate, The Lantern helps you navigate time with clarity and intention—without the overwhelm.
I’m sick and tired of this…
I’m writing this at 12:26 in the morning. I’ve just finished writing several other pieces, spent time working on my Daily Theme tasks already, and I’m about to head off to bed after a really productive day.
That’s why I’m sick and tired of people saying that night owls aren’t productive.
Whether it’s imperative to align your body clock with the magic hours of sleep or night owls simply not existing, there is a stigma against night owls and their ability to not just be productive but to sustain productiveness throughout the day.
I’m a productive night owl. Have been for nearly all of my life. And I want to break that stigma and help night owls be just as productive as their early bird counterparts.
If you’re a night owl then reply to this email and let me know. I’d love to hear from you because I know I’m not the only one that’s sick and tired of this.
See you later,
Mike
P.S. I’ve already developed a short email series for night owls, so if you’d like to receive that just click here and you’ll be good to go.
The Lantern: A Weekly Guide to Navigating Time with Intention
The Lantern is a thoughtfully curated weekly email from Mike Vardy designed to help you craft a better relationship with time. Each edition brings you insights, inspiration, and practical tools through a simple yet powerful framework: Look (a thought-provoking video or visual), Listen (a compelling podcast or audio insight), and Learn (a deep dive into a key concept, article, or book). Designed to inform, inspire, and illuminate, The Lantern helps you navigate time with clarity and intention—without the overwhelm.
Hello Reader, This email is the third part in a short series that steps slightly outside my usual lane. I’m writing about the wage gap, payroll imbalance, and how we value work because it connects directly to the themes many of you know me for—time, attention, and productiveness. If something here resonates (or rubs you the wrong way), hit reply and tell me. Your feedback is shaping this series as I go. Inside most organizations, payroll is “the controllable.” When numbers don’t line up, the...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 29 | September 13, 2025 Hello Reader, The week started clunky. Technical headaches, email mishaps, the kind of friction that makes you wonder if everything is going to stay off-kilter. By Tuesday, things had begun to settle. Not perfect… but better. And by the time you read this, I’ll have shared an evening with friends, unwinding with conversation and laughter. The arc of those few days is a reminder of how perspective takes shape. Perspective isn’t...
Hello Reader, This isn’t the kind of territory I normally wade into, but I feel like it needs to be said. The way companies manage payroll—and the way pay gets distributed between executives and frontline workers—is deeply out of balance. You may have seen the headlines about strikes. The most recent that caught my eye was the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike. These are people who face customers every single day, manage the stresses of irregular hours and demanding environments, and carry...