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.
When it finally makes the calendar
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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 do place on my calendar. They’re not just meetings with other people. They’re meetings with myself. Exercise is the clearest example. Like a lot of people, it’s easy for me to say I should exercise. It’s much harder to ensure it actually happens. Reading Procrastination Proof by Jon Acuff — and talking with Jon about it recently — reminded me that the things we delay are often the things that matter most over the long run. So I’ve started treating exercise the same way I treat a conversation with someone else. It earns a place on the calendar. Not because everything belongs there. In fact, the opposite is true. The fewer things that appear on my calendar, the more meaningful it becomes when something does. When a task moves from a list to the calendar, it stops being an intention. It becomes a promise. And sometimes the most important promises are the ones we make to ourselves. — Mike P.S. If you’ve been thinking about claiming a clearer structure for your week, there are only a few founder-rate spots left for Your Clockwise Week. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. |
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 6 | April 4, 2026 Hello Reader, I found it at Dollarama. The World According to Tom Hanks by Gavin Edwards, tucked in among the seasonal decor and reading glasses. For a bit more than a dollar — dollar stores don't exactly live up to their name these days — I walked out with something I didn't expect: a list of ten commandments distilled from the life of America's most decent human being. You can see all ten here. I've been sitting with the ninth one...
Hello Reader,I was lucky enough to spend time with my mom last week during a work trip. It was great to see her for the first time in a couple of years – and just a few days before her birthday. Today her birthday arrived. There’s something about that kind of time that feels different. Not slower, not faster, just… more noticeable. Like you can actually feel it passing instead of trying to manage it. Most days don’t feel like that. Most days feel like something to keep up with. Or get...
Hello Reader, Thanks to the TimeCrafting Trust Book Club, I’ve been spending time with Meditations again. Not reading it straight through, but returning to it—letting certain passages meet me where I am, rather than trying to extract something from it all at once. Three ideas have stayed with me. These three ideas don’t feel new. In fact, they feel familiar in a way that’s almost unsettling—like they’ve been quietly shaping how I think and work long before I could name them clearly. You don’t...