Black and white close-up, profile view, glasses reflecting light from a window, mid-thought

Caught myself mid-thought today.

Sometimes that’s the most productive thing you can do.

From Routines to Rituals: How to Stop Living on Autopilot and Start Living on Purpose (with Erin Coupe) Most of us aren’t burned out because we’re doing too much. We’re burned...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of A Productive Conversation: From Routines to Rituals: How to Stop Living on Autopilot and Start Living on Purpose (with Erin Coupe). Have a listen:

Stop Managing Your Time. Start Crafting Your Time Instead. The difference between being busy and being productive isn’t time. It’s your relationship with it.

This piece started as a 2022 deep dive into TimeCrafting. It's been updated, expanded, and pulled off the paywall.

The difference between being busy and being productive isn't time. It's your relationship with it.

21 minutes. Worth it.

medium.com/@mikevardy/s...

A photo of Joey Scarbury from the 1980s.

A photo of a bearded Lou Ferrigno from the 1980s

Sometimes random things pop into my head while watching a video.

Things like “Joey Scarbury is what Lou Ferrigno would look like in the 80s without muscles.”

Well, here’s a new game that an old high school classmate made. I rather enjoyed playing it… threadpuzzle.com

Why Doing Nothing Might Be the Most Human Thing You Can Do (PM Talks S3E4) We spend a lot of time trying to fix things—our schedules, our systems,...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of A Productive Conversation: Why Doing Nothing Might Be the Most Human Thing You Can Do (PM Talks S3E4). Have a listen:

Watching Monterey Pop… and feelin’ groovy.

an elderly man in a blue shirt is pointing at a woman in a living room . Alt: Paul from shrinking doing a mic drop Motion to Shawn and Jimmy.

Dang, Shrinking. You got me.

For example, you can’t manage time so time management is a bad term. You can manage your schedule or your calendar, but not time itself.

Task management? I can get behind that. Same with project management.

But change management? I think we need a better noun.

Sure, I get that. But I just don’t like the noun that’s used. I’m sure there’s a better one.

See? The term has me so frustrated that I gave it a pronoun!

You know what I don’t get? The term “change management.”

They just got to be a better term for it because change is constant so… 🤷‍♂️

A shot of a listening session – the first session – using the Merlin bird app.

I guess I’m officially over 50 now…

Fixing something that should’ve been fixed a long time ago.

I’m finally watching Lawrence of Arabia.

Why "I'll Try" Is the Most Dishonest Thing You Can Say (with Carla Ondrasik) Most of us have been taught that trying is virtuous — that saying "I'll...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of A Productive Conversation: Why "I'll Try" Is the Most Dishonest Thing You Can Say (with Carla Ondrasik). Have a listen:

A photo of a page featuring a artist rendering of Tom Hanks as a postage stamp from the book the world according to Tom Hanks.

A writer spent years studying Tom Hanks’s life and distilled it into ten commandments. I found the book at Dollarama, of all places.

The ninth one is the most uncomfortable — and the most true.

This week’s Lantern: kit.mikevardy.com/posts/the-co...

On Quality is so good. Did you ever read Lila? (Or try to read it?)

The App That Changed Mobile Filmmaking (Then LOST It All) YouTube video by iPhoneographers

Years ago, FiLMiC Pro was a casualty of being acquired by Bending Spoons. This video offers more comprehensive. Look at what happened to a promising app after that acquisition.

(And yeah, I do not like Bending Spoons’ way of operating at all.)

youtu.be/ZasixDZFy8U?...

If you’ve got a VPN you can probably watch it on the PBS website…

The new PBS documentary on Thoreau is thoroughly amazing.

Definitely worth the watch and it’s divided up into three parts so you could spend an hour on it over three days. (And I think that’s probably the best way to do it. )

Started to watch the Ken Burns documentary on Henry David Thoreau this morning and had to stop it 30 minutes in.

Not because I didn’t like it, but because I don’t have a full three hours to spare right now… and I want to immerse myself in it.

172: Big Star - #1 Record (1972)

Props to @discordandrhyme.bsky.social for reminding me to listen to Big Star more often. open.spotify.com/episode/5q4e...

Koyaanisqatsi is not what I expected at all.

Feels good to have taken the weekend off. Didn’t think I’d be able to after midweek work travel, but I made it happen.

But Monday beckons…

Opening screen credits of the movie blazing saddles

Settling in on a Saturday night for a classic comedy…

I’m nine minutes into watching The Fountain for the first time and I have one main question: How high should I get to watch the rest of it?

Why Procrastination Persists Even When You Care Deeply (with Jon Acuff) Procrastination is often framed as avoidance of what we don’t want to...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of A Productive Conversation: Why Procrastination Persists Even When You Care Deeply (with Jon Acuff). Have a listen:

I’m learning about Bill “Spaceman“ Lee tonight and I couldn’t be happier.

Watching The Center Will Not Hold doc and this is the first thing that comes to mind: What was with Joan Didion AND Warren Buffett starting their days with some variation of Coca-Cola?

Update: My confidence was not misplaced.