Mike Vardy

Me 2.0

I think it might be time to do things a little bit differently around here. My web presence has gradually increased over the past few years, thanks largely to finding a great niche to blog about and throwing in a little bit of good fortune to boot. Up until today, my old personal website has […]

Being Okay With Your Inboxes

Episode 59 of Beyond The To-Do List (hosted by my buddy Erik Fisher, author of the recently redesigned book Ready, Aim, Fire: A Practical Guide To Setting And Achieving Goals ebook) features a return appearance of Merlin Mann. Merlin talks about a wide variety of things, but the part that hooked me from the onset

Review: HAND Stylus

I’ll be up front about this: I’ve never really used a stylus with my iPad all that much. I own a Studio Neat Cosmonaut, and it has largely sat unused after the initial excitement of having it wore off (it’s a great product, just not my style – pun intended). I won a stylus at

Designs on Life

I’ve heard many people say that life is meant to be lived, and I completely agree with that notion. Heck, it’s why I do what I do now instead of doing what I’ve done in the past. But after reading the first bit of Nick Wynja’s new book, Coffee Shop Contemplations, I think I’ve found

The Productivityist OmniFocus Themes

While I’ve never used anything but the stock OmniFocus theme before, my pal CM Smith (who helped me shape the look of this site) was inspired to put together some custom themes on the heels of the news that I’ll be sitting on The OmniFocus Setup panel in late January during MacWorld|iWorld. He created both

On Turning Pro

I was going to write a post here today, but after spending the better part of my train ride to Portland reding Steven Pressfield’s Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work1, I decided to get back to my book instead. It’s an excellent read, and it is a fairly short one.

Talking Points: WordCamp Victoria 2012

As some of you may be aware, I’m giving a keynote talk on Saturday at this year’s WordCamp Victoria. It’s not going to be about productivity or the like (Rebecca Bolwitt has that covered; totally stoked to see her speak again), but on the benefits of WordPress as a whole for online writers of all

ProductiVardy: Cal Newport

An excerpt from this week’s ProductiVardy podcast: “…we’ve been sold on this idea — that I call The Passion Hypothesis — that we’re somehow encoded with something that we’re meant to do and you have to discover it, and if you discover it then you’ll be happy. And it really just does not jive with

Decluttering iStuff: The Series

Like any gadget freak, I tend to get overenthusiastic whenever I buy a new toy. And that quality has been elevated with the arrive of the iPhone and iPad, because buying those devices is really just the beginning. And there really is no ending. In short, I’ve got a lot of apps on both devices.