We were reminded that being productive is not about filling every moment with more tasks, but about creating the space and clarity to give our attention to what truly matters. In this Grand Connection conversation, Mike Vardy shared simple yet powerful ways to protect our attention through capturing what is on our minds, journaling, theming our time, creating attention paths, and intentionally filtering communication.

He reminded us that intention without attention is powerless, while attention without intention is directionless. A special thank you to our co-host Garland Coulson for helping create the space for this meaningful conversation. This event showed us that when we give our attention to the people, work, and priorities that matter most, we create not only greater productiveness, but more room for connection, purpose, and grace.

🌟Mike Vardy shared:

• Reframed productivity as productiveness, focusing on the quality and value of what we accomplish rather than simply doing more.
• Protecting your attention creates more space for your clients, collaborators, business, personal life, and yourself.
• Capture everything that comes to mind and put it somewhere you trust so your brain does not have to act as storage.
• Use clear action verbs when capturing tasks, making it easier to understand exactly what needs to be done.
• Journaling helps you reflect, recognize patterns, course-correct, and protect yourself from burnout.
• Theme your time by giving days or blocks of time an overarching focus that guides your work without overly restricting your schedule.
• Use attention paths to organize tasks based on time, energy, resources, activity, or themes so you can match the task to the moment.
• Filter communication instead of storing it, especially email and messages, so you deliberately decide what deserves your attention.
• Start with the simplest practices first and gradually build toward more advanced systems instead of trying to change everything at once.
• The biggest takeaway is that intention needs attention: true productiveness is about directing your attention toward the things that create the most value, not simply checking off the most tasks.

🌟 What others said about the event:

• I need to stop measuring productivity by how many tasks I complete.
• The reminder to protect my attention really resonated with me.
• I love the idea of theming my time instead of trying to do everything at once.
• Journaling feels like a simple practice I can actually start today.
• This made me rethink where I’m giving my attention and whether it aligns with my intentions.
• Thanks for these helpful tips.
• Very helpful session for quick wins – thanks Mike – and for all your insights shared more generally in your e-blogs.
• Thank you for this valuable information. Great connections.

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