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The Practice of Productiveness

You Can't Manage Time | The Lantern

Published about 12 hours ago • 2 min read

The Lantern

by Mike Vardy

Vol. 1, Issue 49 | January 31, 2026

Hello Reader,

I was talking with a friend recently when they said, “I just need to get better at managing my time.”

I didn’t interrupt, but I did eventually offer this: You can’t manage time. But you can manage your calendar.

Time moves whether we engage with it or not. It doesn’t respond to effort or intention. What does respond is our relationship with it—and the calendar is where that relationship shows up.

If time is on one side and you’re on the other, the calendar sits in the middle. It’s not time itself—it’s the mechanism. The place where intention becomes visible.

That’s why the calendar matters more than we tend to admit. It’s not just a container for meetings; it’s a declaration of what you’re willing to devote time to. The to-do list supports this, of course—but it doesn’t replace it.

The trouble starts when the calendar becomes too precise. When every block is assigned a specific output. When the day is treated like a machine to be optimized.

That’s when we drift from productiveness into mere productivity—from inhabiting a state of meaningful engagement to simply producing activity.

This is where time theming earns its keep.

Themes give direction without rigidity. They allow the calendar to guide rather than command. Instead of telling yourself exactly what must happen, you’re orienting yourself toward how you want to show up.

The calendar shouldn’t turn you into an automaton. It should help you stay human—present, responsive, and in relationship with time.

Look

Tempus Fugit—“time flies”—is etched into clocks and watch dials so often it starts to feel decorative, almost branded. This short video pauses on that phrase and its quiet implication: time moves whether we intervene or not. You can’t manage it—but you can notice it, relate to it, and choose how you show up as it passes. Watch it here.​

Listen

In this episode of the How to Age Up podcast, Becca Rashid and Ian Bogost question the stories we’ve been told about time, productivity, and worth. Instead of asking how to manage time better, they explore why we feel compelled to do so at all—and what it might look like to reclaim our relationship with time rather than trying to control it. Listen here.​

Learn

Today WWE presents its annual Royal Rumble event, which is built on a rule everyone knows—and almost no one truly trusts: every two minutes, someone new enters the ring. In wrestling, that elastic sense of timing has a name: Titan Time. I’ve always loved what that idea quietly reveals about how stories unfold, why rigid rules bend, and how time often matters less than what happens within it. So I wrote about it a few years back. Read it here.​

The Final Flicker

Time doesn’t need managing. You do.

The calendar isn’t a cage—it’s a conversation. And how you fill it says everything about the relationship you’re choosing to have with your days.

See you later,
Mike

P.S. I'm facilitating a workshop called The Strategic Journal: How Reflection Becomes a System for the Grand Productivity group on Tuesday February 10th and I'd love for you to join us. Click here to learn more about the session and to sign up.​

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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