Hello Reader, We’re deep into the holiday stretch now—the week where days blur, obligations multiply, and your calendar starts behaving like it has a mind of its own. This is the point in December when most people try to push a little harder. But that usually leads to the opposite of what we’re hoping for: more friction, more fatigue, less presence. There’s a gentler way through this week. It starts with a single question: “What kind of day is this?” Not emotionally. Structurally. Because...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I’ve been thinking about It’s a Wonderful Life again. Partly because it’s December—and we’re deep enough into it now that the shine has worn off. Partly because I recently listened to an episode of the What Went Wrong? podcast that unpacked how that film almost didn’t survive—and why it still endures. What stayed with me wasn’t the trivia. It was the reminder beneath it all. George Bailey doesn’t get a new life. He gets the same life back—just seen differently. That matters....
3 days ago • 1 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 42 | December 13, 2025 Hello Reader, Lately I’ve been noticing how easy it is to look like you’re working without actually working. The little signals we send — green dots, busy calendars, quick replies, bodies in rooms — can all stand in for real engagement. It’s productivity as performance, a kind of low-grade theatre we’ve all learned to act in. But when the performance starts replacing the purpose, something slips. The day fills up while the work...
7 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, We’re about to step into that strange pocket of the year—the final non-holiday week of 2025. The one that looks tidy on the calendar but rarely behaves. It’s a week that tends to ask more of us than it has any right to: wrapping up projects, closing loops, tying bows, attending gatherings, showing up for others, showing up for ourselves, and preparing for the holidays… all at once. It’s the week where the world turns inhuman—deadlines tighten, calendars crowd, and expectations...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Yesterday in the Grand Connection’s Grand Productivity Group I shared three free tools that can help you work with more intention — not by adding pressure, but by giving your thoughts, your focus, and your habits a clearer place to land. I wanted to pass my choices along to you as well, because each one serves a different layer of how we relate to our time. No overlap. No noise. Just three calm companions you can try without spending a cent. Here they are. Amplenote: For...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, I’ve been thinking about John Lennon again — not the icon, but the man who kept reminding us that time isn’t something you conquer. It’s something you learn to move with. There’s the line everyone knows: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Quoted to death, sure, but only because it keeps proving itself right. Lennon wasn’t warning us; he was inviting us to loosen our grip. But the line that hits me most now is this one: “Time you enjoy wasting was...
12 days ago • 1 min read
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 41 | December 6, 2025 Hello Reader, You may be familiar with the phrase “it is what it is.” A shrug dressed up as wisdom. A way of stepping back when life doesn’t bend. But there’s another line — harder, steadier — that Robert De Niro delivers in The Deer Hunter. Holding up a single rifle round, he says:“This is this.” Not resignation. Recognition. Where “it is what it is” lets you drift away from the moment, “this is this” places you squarely inside...
14 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Every December seems to carry a strange kind of whiplash. One moment we’re rushing — to wrap things up, to get things ready, to tend to the endless little pieces that somehow all become “urgent” at the same time. (If you were paying close attention to my emails yesterday you might've caught a glimpse of me falling prey to that too.) And then, almost abruptly, we’re supposed to pivot into rest. Into stillness. Into presence. It’s a familiar tug of war. And if we’re honest, most...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Before Monday arrives — and before inboxes start filling up with last-minute reminders from everywhere — I wanted to send a quiet breakdown of the two Black Friday offers I’m sharing this year. This isn’t a pitch. Just clarity, so you can decide what fits where you are right now. The 12 Days OF TimeCrafting Black Friday Bundle What it is: A twelve-day sequence of small, meaningful tools delivered from December 26 through January 6 — audio, video, prompts, short guides, and a few...
21 days ago • 1 min read