The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 4 | March 22, 2025 Hello Reader, March is weird. Not quite winter, not quite spring. Some days, the world feels new and full of possibility. Other days, it’s cold and uninviting. Change is happening, but it’s not immediate—it’s gradual, unpredictable, and sometimes messy. I remember one year when I was waiting for a big shift in my life. I had put in the work. I knew the transition was coming. But I was stuck in the middle—the limbo where nothing is...
12 days ago • 2 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 3 | March 15, 2025 Hello Reader, Starting something new always feels exciting. A new project. A fresh habit. A commitment to change. You’re energized, focused, and convinced this time will be different. And then? The enthusiasm... fades. This is where most people quit—not because their goal was impossible, but because they expected motivation to carry them the whole way. And when it doesn’t? It feels like failure. But here’s the truth: This moment—right...
19 days ago • 2 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 2 | March 8, 2025 Hello Reader, This weekend, you “lose” an hour. Or at least, that’s how it feels. Daylight Savings forces an adjustment overnight. One day, your routine makes sense. The next, your body is confused, your sleep is off, and the rhythms you counted on feel disrupted. Sound familiar? It’s not just about the clocks—it’s about how we experience time. How often do we force ourselves into someone else’s rhythm? A work schedule that doesn’t...
26 days ago • 2 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 1 | March 1, 2025 Hello Reader, You’ve probably been here before... The calendar year starts, and you make plans. You set goals. You even build routines that feel solid. But somehow, it still doesn’t feel like the year has fully started. That’s because January is a test. February is a warm-up. March? That’s the real beginning. Think about it—January forces you into action before you’ve even processed the past year. February is short, still a bit...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, David Allen’s quote, “You can do anything but you can’t do everything” is popular in productivity circles…. but it’s misunderstood. He’s not saying you can’t do everything you want to do, just that you can’t do it all at once. Not to mention that “everything” can mean something to one person and something else to another (and another). So how do you actually do everything? Well, if you actually want to do everything, then I’ve put together a 7 step process that you can follow...
11 months ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, As you continue to refine your productivity practices, I want to introduce a concept that might transform the way you think about your workday: Tolerance. Often, we equate tolerance with enduring less-than-ideal circumstances, but when applied to productivity, it offers a powerful framework for dealing with the natural variability in our work performance and planning accuracy. Tolerance in productivity involves acknowledging and planning for the natural discrepancies in both the...
11 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I hope this message finds you well. Today, I want to explore a concept that goes beyond traditional ideas of productivity. It’s about reaching the quintessence in our tasks, projects, and overall approach to being productive. Quintessence, a term rich in history and meaning, originated from the medieval Latin ‘quintessentia’, which itself descends from the Latin ‘quinta essentia’, meaning “fifth essence”. Historically, this concept was pivotal in ancient and medieval philosophy,...
11 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Did you know that we’re smack dab in the middle of National Procrastination Week as I send you this? Indeed, this week serves as a timely reminder that none of us are immune to the allure of procrastination. Interestingly, the term ‘procrastination’ originates from the Latin ‘procrastinare’, which literally means ‘to defer until tomorrow’. Historically, this wasn’t always seen in a negative light; it was simply part of planning and prudent delay. However, over time, the concept...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, “Oh, no… I want to do that trip solo.” That was what my daughter said to me after I suggested we all go to Southeast Asia as a family. This was after she declared that area of the world was the next place she wanted to experience. She’d literally just returned from a four-month “gap year” trip to Europe with two of her closest friends, so I’m not surprised that she’d caught the travel bug. I’m not surprised she wants to do the Southeast Asia trip solo, either. But I was...
about 1 year ago • 2 min read