A Productive Conversation

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureI’m not a fan of the term “have to" do. When someone tells me that I have to do something, I get my back up. I know there’s no maliciousness attached to the term “have to” but the phrase repels me all the same. Now if you were to say that I “need to” do something, that’s different. There is something about the way that term resonates with me that adds some level of connection that “have to” doesn’t. In fact, “have to” disconnects me from the task far more than “need to” does. “Need to" indicates to me that it’s something that will benefit me by doing. “Have to” indicates to me that it’s something that will not benefit me by doing (at least on the surface) but still needs doing. This week on the podcast Michael Schechter joins me and four-time guest Patrick Rhone to have a candid discussion about the things you have to do versus the things that you want to do, among other things. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureThis week on The Productivityist Podcast, I spent some time chatting with (and learning from) Joel Boggess and Dr. Pei, the creators of a slew of podcasts including their latest, the ReLaunch Show. I decided to have some bonafide podcast experts on the program as my own podcast has just hit the six month mark of its existence and I wanted to find out what I could do to take things to the next level. Joel and Dr. Pei did not disappoint. You can listen to this week’s episode, where we talk about podcasting strategies, podcasting productivity, and whether or not we sit or we stand while we record our podcast episodes below. As I mentioned, having Joel and Dr. Pei on the show wasn’t just so I could have guests to interview. I really want to take The Productivityist Podcast to greater heights going forward, and I’ve started to map out what looks like. If you’re a Patreon supporter of the podcast, then you’ll hear all about my plans for the program starting this weekend as patrons receive weekly content that falls outside of the regular podcasting schedule. They also get other goodies, with perks such as exclusive monthly 20 minute Productivityist Coaching calls with yours truly and access to the Task Apps Made Easy course I co-created with Steve Dotto of DottoTech fame. Want to support the podcast as a patron? Head over to the Patreon page and we’ll all welcome you with open arms! If you want to support the show in another form, leaving a review and rating in iTunes can help more people find the program. I’d love it if you took a few moments to leave your thoughts on that forum, and you can do so by clicking here. Thanks again for listening to this week’s show. You can subscribe and get the latest episodes every Wednesday by clicking here for iTunes, here for Stitcher, and here for RSS. I’ve got some great guests and topics lined up over the next few weeks (and beyond), so I hope you’ll join me. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureI’ve been spending a lot more time reading over the past few years. I’m enjoying it a lot more that I’m making an effort as well. I actually found reading a lot like exercise for a long time, struggling to get going with it and adopting it as a habit. Fiction was especially difficult to get back into because my brain seemed to fight it off more. Why? Probably because it felt that I wouldn’t learn from fiction nearly as much as non-fiction. That’s not true, either. Some of the fiction books I’ve read I’ve learned a lot from. Peaceful Warrior would be one of those and I’m now diving into The Alchemist for the first time to see if it can teach me anything as well. I’m making time to read more and finding ways to create more time for reading as well. With Blinkist leading the charge (allowing me to digest a book in a single session on the FitDesk) and Audible providing me with another way to “read” more, I know that I’m not going to be able to read more – I’m going to be able to read better. I talk about my reading workflow and ideas surrounding reading better on this week’s episode of The Productivityist Podcast. If you’re interested in learning about how I manage to read blogs, RSS feeds, and books effectively and efficiently, then give this episode a listen. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureThis week Patrick Rhone makes his third appearances on The Productivityist Podcast. I always enjoy chatting with Patrick because even when we don't see eye to eye on a topic, we always manage to find common ground on several others. This time around we talk about our disinterest in new year's resolutions and what we prefer to focus on instead. We also touch on how time and money can be treated in ways that are eerily similar and we finally get around to what we wanted to discuss – the importance of saying 'no' even when you're people pleasers like we are. There's lots of great stuff in this week's episode of The Productivityist Podcast, so give it a listen in the player below. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS. And if you want to offer some form of monetary support to the show, head over to The Productivityist Podcast Patreon page to see what perks await those who offer patronage. I've recently made some changes to the way the podcast looks in iTunes which should help with discoverability, but getting more ratings and reviews would be even better. If you've got a moment, head over to iTunes and let the world know what you think of The Productivityist Podcast. Thanks! Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureThis week on the podcast, I spend time with Justin Levy. I've known Justin for a few years now (although we only first met in person last year), and the story that has unfolded for him in the past few months has been very inspiring. Justin, who works for Citrix as Head of Global Social Media, is a young and active guy. In the late summer of 2014, he suffered a seizure. Then it gets even more unreal. "Once at the hospital I had another seizure. After conducting a MRI they found that I had a brain tumor sitting near the motor skills strip and in front of the speech pathways. It would be a few days before they realized that I had dislocated and fractured shoulders." Justin's been chronicling his recovery progress at his blog, Built Unstoppable. It reveals his story and everything that has occurred during this turbulent time. After you're done listening to our conversation, you should check out the blog. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureFrancis Wade is the guest on this week’s episode of The Productivityist Podcast. I worked with Francis back in my Lifehack days (he was a regular contributor) and I love how passionate he is about helping others get more out of the time that they have. His new book, Perfect Time-Based Productivity, is a great read. During this episode, we talk 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. If you want to get more out of your time - and get a special offer from Francis - then take the time to listen to the episode below. Or you can subscribe via iTunes here or RSS here. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureIn 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.) Relevant Links http://neuyearnet.refr.cc/2VFNZ66 (NeuYear.net) http://www.neuyear.net/products/the-now-year (The NOW Year Calendar) http://www.timeful.com/ (Timeful) https://productivityist.simplecast.fm/9 (The Productivityist Podcast: Being Unmistakable with Srinivas Rao) http://www.busymac.com/busycal/ (BusyCal) https://flexibits.com/fantastical (Fantastical) http://whetstoneapps.com/ (DayMap) http://upto.com/ (UpTo) https://www.tempo.ai/ (Tempo AI) https://calendar.sunrise.am/ (Sunrise) Want to send Mike an app, book, or something similar to discuss on the show? Email him at info@productivityist.com and he'll give it a look. Want to listen on Stitcher? http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=53149&refid=stpr (Click here.) Support The Productivityist Podcast by becoming a patron! http://www.patreon.com/Productivityist (Click here) to visit The Productivityist Podcast's Patreon page and see what perks await those who pitch in a buck or more.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureThe calendar year is coming to a close and it’s time for many of us to think about the year to come. This week I invited David Delp of Pilot Fire to join me on The Productivityist Podcast so that we could talk about what it takes to make a great year not just a pipe dream, but a reality. David and I have a very good rapport, and we really connected when we met at the inaugural SimpleREV event. This episode is well worth your time and attention. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

🚨 The Forge Your Future Challenge is back – August 7–9, 2025!Join yours truly, Mike Vardy, for this free 3-day experience to reconnect with what matters, regain control of your time, and set your future in motion. Just two hours a day for three days—no fluff, just focus. Save your spot now: https://mikevardy.com/forgeyourfutureThis week on the podcast, Patrick Rhone makes a return. These episodes with him may appear to be the least related to productivity, but that’s the beauty of our conversations. They head in that direction somehow because of the lenses that we look through in our everyday lives. I always enjoy chatting with Patrick because each of our conversations have a great deal of meaning. They stick with me. Whether we’re talking about our different philosophies of calendar management and task management (you’ll have to listen to his appearance on the retired Workflowing podcast for a good deal of time, I remember kernels of each chat fondly. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 📘 Grab My New Book: The Productivity Diet: A Practical Guide to Nurturing your Productive PotentialIf you’re looking to build a sustainable, personalized productivity practice that actually sticks, my latest book is for you. It’s available now—wherever books are sold. Learn more at mikevardy.com/lit or request it at your favorite local bookstore.

Dr. Tim Pychyl, an expert on procrastination and productivity, joins Mike to discuss strategic delaying, task-based productivity, finding meaning in productivity, and the role of self-discipline in overcoming procrastination.