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.
I'm side-eyeing World Productivity Day
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Hello Reader, There's a day for everything now, and on June 20 it's World Productivity Day — a day I found myself thinking out loud about during this month's Lantern Lyceum. I'll admit I went looking for something poetic in the date. I assumed it landed near the solstice on purpose: longest day of the year, most daylight we get, a tidy little nudge to make the most of it. Turns out... no. As far as I can tell, nobody's even sure where the day came from. What is clear is what it's for: getting more done, working smarter, wringing more output from your hours. A fine thing to want — and also, let's be honest, exactly the thing that serves whoever would like more output from you. So forgive me for pushing back a little on the one day built to celebrate it. Here's the distinction I keep circling. Productivity has quietly become a business word — output, efficiency, throughput. Productiveness is something more human: doing what actually matters, on purpose. They sound identical. They aren't. That's the heart of TimeCrafting. And it's the whole reason the Trust exists. So here's my counter-offer to the whole idea of World Productivity Day: between now and June 20, your first month inside TimeCrafting Trust is just $1. After the 20th, that offer (which is for new members only) is gone. Click here to join us for $1 When the day itself rolls around, maybe the most productive thing any of us can do is forget productivity entirely — and lean all the way into productiveness. See you later, P.S. Between now and the 20th, hit reply and tell me what productiveness looks like for you. I read every email that comes my way. |
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 I17 | June 20, 2026 Hello Reader, Earlier this month I posted a short video calling World Productivity Day paradoxical. A man named Kevin commented on Facebook, thoughtfully, and with some heat. His argument was economic: that productivity, in a capitalist context, is really just a sophisticated way of asking the poorest people to work harder so the wealthiest can accumulate more. And that the antidote is redistribution: returning more value to the...
Hello Reader, I'm sending this to you from somewhere over the Rockies. I've been in Boise the past week for Kit's Craft + Commerce conference. Fully immersed, mostly present, doing what needed to be done. My themed days kept me focused. My attention to what mattered most kept me grounded. But my horizontal themes? Mostly set aside. That's not failure. That's what a travel week looks like when you're doing it right. The point of TimeCrafting isn't to maintain perfect consistency regardless of...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 2, Issue 16 | June 13, 2026 Hello Reader, I found out recently that Shel Silverstein wrote several songs for Dr. Hook's first two albums. Most people know Silverstein through Where the Sidewalk Ends, or maybe "A Boy Named Sue" for Johnny Cash. But "Cover of the Rolling Stone"? "Sylvia's Mother"? That was him too. The first instinct is to say that doesn't fit. Which is exactly the wrong instinct. It fits perfectly — it just requires you to look at the right...