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 line that lingered...
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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 imagine it — as something we can store, own, or manipulate — then the strange reality is this: it still ends up controlling us. Deadlines. Schedules. The clock on the wall. The quiet pressure that tells us we’re behind, or running out. The problem isn’t time itself. The problem is our relationship with it. When that relationship is neglected, time becomes something that feels external and oppressive — a force acting on us rather than something we move with. It becomes something that dictates rather than something we collaborate with. But when we cultivate a relationship with time — when we shape our days with intention, rhythm, and reflection — the dynamic shifts. Time stops feeling like a controller. It starts feeling more like a companion. That subtle shift changes everything. Because while time may not exist in the way we often describe it, the way we engage with it absolutely does. And that engagement is something we can craft. P.S. If that idea resonates, that’s exactly what I help people explore inside Your Clockwise Week. It’s a simple way to step back from letting the clock dictate your days and instead design a week that moves with your energy, attention, and priorities. A few founder’s rate spots for just $29 are still available if you’d like to explore what your own clockwise week could look like. |
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. 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...
Hello Reader, When a company like Bending Spoons acquires another platform, something interesting happens. People start asking the same question: Is this still the tool I want to rely on? Sometimes the product improves, the direction shifts, or it slowly becomes something else entirely. That’s the nature of software. Tools change. Owners change. Pricing changes. Priorities change. Which is why it’s worth remembering something simple: The real system isn’t the app. It’s you. Apps are...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. II, Issue 2 | March 7, 2026 Hello Reader, Have you heard this line before? “Pressure makes diamonds.” It’s a line that can be heard everywhere. Locker rooms, keynote stages, motivational posts meant to remind us that hardship produces greatness. Except there’s one problem: Coal doesn’t become diamonds. Diamonds form deep in the Earth’s mantle, from pure carbon under extraordinary heat and pressure. Coal forms much closer to the surface from compressed plant...