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.
Sustain. Maintain.
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Hello Reader, Yesterday I noticed something about the jade plant on my study's deep window sill. It’s been in the same pot for a long time. I water it on a steady cadence. I make sure it gets light. And yet—it looks exactly the same. No new leaves. No visible growth. Just… alive. It struck me that this is exactly what this week is for. With Christmas only a few days away, and the calendar folding in on itself, this isn’t a week for expansion. It’s not a week for reinvention or big pushes or “getting ahead.” It’s a week to sustain and maintain. To keep the important things watered. To resist the urge to repot your life right now. To let growth wait until the season supports it. If things feel quiet—or even still—that’s not a problem to solve. It’s a signal to care without urgency. Sometimes the most meaningful work is simply making sure what matters is still here when the next season begins. See you later, P.S. If you want something gentle to begin after the holidays, The 12 Days of TimeCrafting starts on December 26—one small, intentional practice per day to help you move from maintenance into momentum. It’s available now if you’d like it ready. |
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, One of the ideas that stuck with me years ago from Getting Things Done by David Allen is simple: if something goes on your calendar, it’s a commitment. Not a suggestion. Not a possibility. A commitment. That’s why GTD (David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology) encourages us to reserve the calendar primarily for appointments — things that must happen at a specific time. Most tasks belong somewhere else. But over the years I’ve noticed something about the handful of things I...
Hello Reader, I watched One Battle After Another the day that it won the Oscar for Best Picture, and one line has stayed with me ever since. “Time doesn’t exist, yet it controls us anyway.” In the film, the resistance uses it as a code phrase. That alone is interesting — a sentence about time acting as a kind of signal between people trying to move freely within a system that seeks to control them. But the line stuck with me for another reason. If time doesn’t exist in the way we often...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. II, Issue 3 | March 14, 2026 Hello Reader, For years we’ve been told the same story about technology: Each new tool promises the same thing: This will save you time. Email was supposed to do it. Smartphones were supposed to do it. Productivity apps were supposed to do it. Now the promise belongs to AI. But a recent study from researchers at UC Berkeley Haas found something curious after observing a technology company for eight months: Generative AI wasn’t...