The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 39| November 22, 2025 Hello Reader, I was born into a moment of contrast. On the day I arrived, Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown sat at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 — a song about suspicion, jealousy, and shadows. Just a week later, the charts flipped, and the Hues Corporation’s Rock the Boat took over, ushering in one of disco’s first big splashes. From suspicion to celebration. From solitude to togetherness. From brooding to dancing. That cultural...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I discovered Chris Dalla Riva the same way I discover a surprising number of meaningful things these days: by scrolling through TikTok. Not doom-scrolling, not distraction for distraction’s sake—just wandering through that unpredictable digital bazaar where brilliance and absurdity sit shoulder to shoulder. Depending on the hour, my feed swings between thoughtful essays, clever creators, and Sora-generated fever dreams of cats caterwauling at customers from behind fast-food...
6 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, A quick note to share a few things I’m part of this week that you might enjoy. Tuesday November 18th: I’m hosting a live conversation with Stacey Harmon about where Evernote is headed—new ownership, new tools, and what all of this actually means for the way we take and use notes. Join in on LinkedIn or on YouTube. Wednesday November 19th: Erik Fisher and I are back with our Productivity A to Z (Volume 2) livestream. It’s open, unscripted, and you can learn more about the...
8 days ago • 1 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 38| November 15, 2025 Hello Reader, Lately I’ve been noticing how haste hides well. It doesn’t always look like rushing—it often looks like helping. Like wanting to get the next idea into someone’s hands before it’s ready. Like tightening the prose just a little too much so it “lands.” Like turning a living concept into a system before it’s had the chance to breathe. In my work, I’ve learned that haste makes waste isn’t about losing time—it’s about...
10 days ago • 2 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 37| November 8, 2025 Hello Reader, There’s a kind of wealth in caring — not in the Hallmark sense, but in the sheer fact of having the bandwidth to care about something deeply. I was talking with a friend this week about energy, attention, and effort — those things we protect in the name of focus. But the conversation took a turn toward care. We don’t often think of care as something that needs guarding, but it does. There’s only so much of it to go...
17 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, The latest monthly essay I write for Medium — The Sound of Time — started as a small reflection on why vinyl feels better than streaming. But beneath the surface, it became something else: a meditation on how time behaves when we stop trying to control it. Then there’s this week’s episode of A Productive Conversation with James Kimmel Jr. — an episode we recorded months ago that finally drops in audio format today. (Want to watch the full, unedited video interview? Here you go.)...
20 days ago • 1 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 36| November 1, 2025 Hello Reader, October always feels like a month in motion. The days quicken, the light shortens, and the world seems to collide with itself — baseball finishing, basketball and hockey beginning, football and soccer in full stride. It’s a season of noise and momentum. And then November arrives. A quieter month. A slower breath. It starts with no — but I like to add a W. For me, that turns it into NOWvember — a reminder to shift from...
24 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, October 30 — sometime known as Devil’s Night. A fitting time to talk about what haunts so many of us: the details. The calendar gives us the directory of our days—where things live.The to-do list gives us the details—what fills them.And that’s where the devil often hides. We stare down a swarm of half-done projects and open loops. Fear sets in—the fear of forgetting, of not finishing, of facing too much at once. But fear fades when we can see clearly. That’s what Attention Paths...
26 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I have this bright orange coffee mug that says ignore negativity in black script. It holds just enough coffee to get me through the first stretch of writing, but lately, it’s been holding more meaning than caffeine. Because here’s the thing: ignoring negativity only works for so long. Whether it comes from others—or from inside your own head—sooner or later, that voice you’re trying to tune out starts humming in the background, asking to be heard. When I chose The Productivity...
28 days ago • 1 min read