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The Practice of Productiveness

The Latest Start | The Lantern

Published 20 days ago • 1 min read

The Lantern

by Mike Vardy

Vol. 2, Issue 27 | September 5, 2026

Hello Reader,

The calendar is dragging its feet this year.

Labour Day always lands on the first Monday of September, and this year that Monday is the 7th. That is as late as it can possibly be. Summer got a two-day extension nobody asked for, and the long weekend that usually kicks off the "real" year is still sitting out there past this Saturday morning.

Because let's be honest about what Labour Day actually is. January 1st gets the fireworks, but September is when most of us feel the year begin. New schedules, new notebooks, new resolve. The first Monday of September is the start line we actually believe in.

This year, that start line drifted as far from the starting gun as the rules allow. And I noticed something because of it: my year already started. If you've been reading a while, you might remember me saying a year ago, almost to the day, that a year can start whenever you decide it begins. Mine started Tuesday, September 1st, when Productiveness went out into the world. I didn't plan it against the calendar quirk. But standing here on the far side of it, the lesson is hard to miss.

Start lines are agreements, not laws. Somebody drew them for reasons that had nothing to do with you: harvest seasons, school boards, a parade for workers in 1894. Useful markers, all of them. None of them binding.

Waiting for the sanctioned start feels responsible. Most of the time it's just deferral wearing the calendar as a costume. The thing you've been holding until "after the long weekend" doesn't know what day it is. It only knows whether you've begun.

So here's my suggestion for this in-between Saturday, with the official start still two days off: begin anyway. Quietly, small, before anyone fires a gun.

The Final Flicker

Labour Day can wait until the 7th this year. You don't have to.

See you later,
Mike

P.S. My year started with a book. Productiveness is about doing what matters on purpose, and it's out now.

Thanks for reading.

Your time is valuable, and I don’t take it for granted. In a world pulling us in all directions, thanks for choosing The Lantern.

Productivityist Productivity Services Inc. | 1411 Haultain Street, Victoria, BC V8R 2J6
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The Practice of Productiveness

Thoughts and practices for working with time—not against it.

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.

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