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.
551
Everything Is A To Do with Michael Schechter & ...
Mike is joined once again by Patrick Rhone and reunites with his former podcasting partner-in-crime Michael Schechter on this episode. They discuss the idea of "have to" versus "need to," choices, chaos, caution, and much more.
41 min
552
Building a Better Podcast with Joel Boggess & D...
In this episode, Mike chats with prolific podcasters Joel Boggess and Dr. Pei. They are the husband and wife team behind the creation, development, and explosive growth of ReLaunch, an incredibly popular podcast.
22 min
553
How To Read More (and Read Better)
In this episode Mike flies solo, revealing his reading workflow. This workflow is how he's able to digest a ton of content every week as well as build a reading habit that allows him to read more...and read better.
22 min
554
An Intentional Discussion with Patrick Rhone
Patrick Rhone returns to the show for another free-form discussion with Mike. They talk about intentions, planning, and allocating your time wisely, and eventually get around to talking about what saying 'no' can do for you and for others.
33 min
555
Built Unstoppable with Justin Levy
In this episode, Mike spends time with Justin Levy. The story that has unfolded for him in the past few months has been very inspiring, as he's in the midst of recovering from a series of seizures that seemingly originated from a brain tumor. And even that hasn't slowed him down all that much.
26 min
556
Managing Time Demands with Francis Wade
This episode features a conversation between Mike and Francis Wade, author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity. They have a lively discussion about the difference between time management and time demands, the importance of looking inward when trying to improve your productivity, and what to do when you fall off the wagon with your resolutions for the year.
28 min
557
A Look at Calendar Apps
In this episode Mike explores several calendar apps, offering his thoughts on each of them along with some tips and tricks that he uses when dealing with his calendar. (Note: This won't be the last time he looks at calendar apps, as they are under constant development.)
18 min
558
Shaping a Great Year with David Delp
In this conversation with David Delp of Pilot Fire. Mike and David discuss what it takes to make a great year, how understanding and acknowledging roles can be a real boon to productivity, what goals actually mean, and much more.
35 min
559
The Disconnection Discussion with Patrick Rhone
In this episode, Mike has another conversation with Patrick Rhone. They discuss letter and number grading systems in schools when tech fails you, and more kernels of wisdom in less than a half an hour.
30 min
560
The Procrastination Conversation with Dr. Tim P...
In this episode, Mike has a candid conversation with Dr. Tim Pychyl about procrastination, strategic delaying, and what can get in the way of our productivity no matter what technology or approach we use.
26 min
561
Let Go and Lean In with Daniel Gold
Daniel Gold of DEG Consulting pops by to talk with Mike about letting go, leaning in, and the primary thing you need to keep in mind that will help you take your work, life, and side projects to greater heights.
27 min
562
Leveling Up with Jaime Masters
In this episode, Mike chats with Jaime Masters (formerly known as Jaime Tardy), founder of Eventual Millionaire and author of the book The Eventual Millionaire. They talk about the growth of their respective businesses and the things they did to level up along the way.
21 min
563
The Contexts Conversation: Part Two
After a lengthy thread on Twitter that debated what contexts were (and weren't), Mike invites some of the participants to discuss their thoughts on contexts in more detail in the second of two episodes on the subject. This episode's guests are Mike's old podcasting partner Michael Schechter and Lee Garrett.
28 min
564
The Contexts Conversation: Part One
After a lengthy thread on Twitter that debated what contexts were (and weren't), Mike invites some of the participants to discuss their thoughts on contexts in more detail. For this first part in the two-part series, the guests are Sven Fechner and Kevin Rothermel.
29 min
565
Voices for Vets with Gary Miller Jr. and Daniel...
This special episode of the podcast features interviews that Mike conducted with veterans of the military service, Gary Miller Jr. of GaryMillerJr.com and Daniel & Vanessa Hayes of Simple Life Together as part of the Voices For Vets campaign. These discussions focus on what aspects of the military that they've been able to translate into making their civilian lives fulfilling, and how they prepared for the transitions to their new lives beforehand.
42 min
566
Paul Jarvis: Old Man Internet
This episode features a great conversation with the incredibly creative and productive Paul Jarvis. The discussion revolves around future-proofing your work and your business (which also does the same for your productivity...in a manner of speaking).
27 min
567
Free Time with Patrick Rhone
Mike sits down with Patrick Rhone to talk about Rick Rubin, his Dash/Plus system, and a bunch of other cool stuff in the first of the regular "Free Time with Patrick Rhone" series on the podcast.
24 min
568
Being Unmistakable with Srinivas Rao
Mike speaks with the "unmistakably creative" Srinivas Rao, author of The Art of Being Unmistakable and founder of The Unmistakable Creative. They dive into the art and craft of taking things to the next level, adjusting your goals, and what it's like to get support - and not just from those in your corner, but also from the most unlikeliest of places.
13 min
569
Productivity on the Road
Mike just returned from a whirlwind travel schedule, and on this episode of The Productivityist Podcast he discusses how (and why) he went iOS only on this trip. He also offers up his presentation app of choice and sings the praises of SimpleREV.
21 min
570
Living Productively with Chris Bailey
In this episode, Mike chats with fellow Canadian Chris Bailey of A Life of Productivity about experimenting with workflow and productivity, as well as looking deeper at time, task, reading habits, and living a more productive (and meaningful) life.
26 min
571
Simply Executing with Josh Long
Mike is in conversation with Josh Long, an incredibly prolific and productive writer, builder, and designer. The thing about Josh is that he focuses on quality over quantity, and that's just one of the things discussed during this episode. (Seth Godin's name comes up as well.)
13 min
572
The Best Kind of Paper Pushing
In this episode, Mike talks about why he still loves and uses paper. He also talks about several paper-based approaches worth exploring, including Ryder Carroll's Bullet Journal and his own creation: The Strikethrough System.
20 min
573
Tasking, Tracking, and Tactics with David Sparks
Mike and guest David Sparks (better known as MacSparky) talk about task management, habit tracking, and plenty of other tactical stuff - all in a shade under 30 minutes!
29 min
574
A Hard Habit App to Break
Mike dives into the world of "habit tracking" apps, which also encompasses routines, rituals, and goals that we want to develop and foster.
23 min
575
Talking TaskClone with Troy Christmas
On the first official episode of the podcast, Mike talks about Meeting Hero, Checkmark 2.1, and Dave Ursillo's new book. He also has a conversation with Troy Christmas of TaskClone.
30 min