A Productive Conversation

A Productive Conversation

Hosted by productivity strategist Mike Vardy, A Productive Conversation offers insightful discussions on how to craft a life that aligns with your intentions. Each episode dives into the art of time devotion, productiveness, and refining your approach to daily living. Mike invites guests who are thinkers, doers, and creators to share their strategies for working smarter and living more intentionally. From practical tips to deep dives on mindset shifts, this podcast will help you reframe your relationship with time and find balance in a busy world. Subscribe and join the conversation—because a productive life is more than just getting things done.

Episodes

August 5, 2026 38 mins

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Logic is beautiful and it's also almost never enough. That's the tension running through this entire conversation — the idea that we want our decisions ...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


There's a two-word sentence that's been sitting with me since I finished this book, and I haven't been able to shake it: life is. Not life is hard, not life i...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Inbox zero was never about the number. That's the part almost everybody forgets. When Merlin Mann coined the term in the early 2000s, "zero" wasn't a count of...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


We tend to treat procrastination like a willpower leak — something we could plug if we just tried harder, planned better, or bought the right system. Ro...

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July 8, 2026 44 mins

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Patrick Rhone joins me again for the latest installment of our monthly PM Talks series, and this month we landed on a word that does a lot more heavy lifting ...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


We tend to treat sleep like the thing we'll get to once everything else is handled — the line item we trim first when life speeds back up. But sleep isn...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Most of us have convinced ourselves that the problem is effort. We're not working hard enough, moving fast enough, or checking enough boxes. But what if the r...

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June 24, 2026 50 mins

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Most of the conversation around focus starts in the wrong place. We talk about distraction as if it's the problem — the notifications, the open tabs, th...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


We spend a lot of time talking about how to do more. What we talk about far less — and what might matter far more — is the question of how to pace...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Most productivity conversations start with systems, tools, and tactics. This one starts with something more fundamental: the quiet principles sitting right be...
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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


There's a loop most of us know well, even if we've never named it: feel behind, find the thing that's going to fix everything, go all in for a few weeks, get ...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


This episode marks the latest installment in PM Talks, the monthly series I do with my longtime collaborator Patrick Rhone. We've been doing this for a few ye...

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Watch
Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


There is a difference between confidence and bravado, and most people have never really had to find out which one they actually carry. Confidence — real...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Most of us have been told that success is about mindset — stay positive, visualize the outcome, trust the process. But what if that advice is quietly wo...

Listen
Watch
Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


The word "intentional" has been hollowed out. It's on coffee mugs, in Instagram bios, and attached to productivity advice that treats it like a personality tr...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


We've built entire systems around moving faster — faster responses, faster workflows, faster outputs. But speed isn't something you pursue. It's somethi...

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Watch
Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Patrick Rhone is back, and so is PM Talks — the monthly series where Patrick and I take our time with one idea and actually see where it goes. This is S...

Listen
Watch
Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


Overwhelm isn’t new. It’s human. That idea sits at the heart of my conversation with Dr. Max McKeown—strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and...

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Mark as Played

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


There's an assumption buried inside almost every productivity system, self-help framework, and optimization routine: that you're not enough yet. That the gap ...

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Mark as Played
April 22, 2026 29 mins

My next book, Productiveness, arrives this September. It's about the difference between doing more and doing what matters, and how we lost the ability to tell them apart. I'll send the release date the day it's set. Visit https://mikevardy.com/productiveness to learn more.


We've turned busy into a badge of honor. The fuller the calendar, the longer the to-do list, the more people seem to think we're crushing it. But after more t...

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Mark as Played

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