Here's a question I didn't expect a book to ask me: when did I start treating myself like a machine?

It's the question at the heart of my friend and coach Mike Vardy's book, Productiveness. His starting point is simple and a little radical: being human isn't a glitch in your productivity. It's the foundation of everything else.

So grab a cup of something warm. Let's start there.

The great mix-up

"Productiveness" is an old word. Somewhere in the Industrial Age, "productivity" took over, and Mike says that's when the shift from productiveness (a human condition) to productivity (a machine word) began:

• From being to doing

• From quality to quantity

• From presence to performance

Productiveness was never about speed... It's about substance. It asks for a more human balance and leaves room for quality, context, and more of you.

Productivity and productiveness may sound like the same thing, but they ask very different questions:

• Productivity asks: "How much can I get done?"

• Productiveness asks: "Is this aligned with who I am?"

The difference shows up in how each treats you: productivity sees you as a resource to be maximized, while productiveness sees you as a person to be honored as you bring forth something meaningful and valuable—often to be shared with others and your community.

Read that last sentence again. Most of us have been using ourselves as a resource to be optimized, not as a human in pursuit of quality and excellence.

Grabbing life, not tasks

In the first chapter, Humanness, Mike brings in the documentary I Like Me, about John Candy. In the documentary, friends commented that Candy's father died young, and John wanted to grab as much life as he could because of his father's fate. John lived to be 43 years old and outlived his father by 8 years, as Sidney James Candy died at the age of 35.

But here's the distinction that stuck with me: John Candy wasn't grabbing at tasks. He was grabbing life. That's a very different way to fill your days.

A few things worth remembering as humans:

• Your humanity, fear included, isn't a malfunction. It's part of the deal.

• Time isn't a problem to solve. It's a partner to relate to.

• Rest isn't weakness, and reflection isn't waste.

• Systems are here to serve you, not the other way around.

Signs you may have forgotten you're human:

• You say yes when you're already spent.

• You keep looking for the tool that will finally fix you.

• You feel like rest has to be earned.

• You confuse pacing with progress.

• You keep asking how to do more, without asking whether it matters to you.

If any of these sound familiar (hi, it's me), the answer isn't about being more efficient. It's about coming back to who you are when you work, what you choose to do, and the quality of the task as it fits into your goals and desires to be accomplished.

Four practices for coming home to yourself

1. Externalize the swirl. Get honest, not organized. You can't work with what you can't see.

2. Build a check-in cue. Create a small pause that brings you back to yourself before the world pulls you into its pace.

3. Make reflection a rhythm, not a report. That's how awareness turns into true alignment for you and your desires.

4. Lead with silence. Awareness isn't found in doing. It's found in stopping to focus attention on you.

(Full confession: I recently practiced "externalize the swirl" a little too well when an email went out as rough notes before I'd finished it. Being human, it turns out, is very on-brand for this topic.)

Suggested Actions (pick just one this week):

• Brain dump: Set a 5-minute timer and dump everything in your head onto paper.

• Pick a cue: Choose a check-in cue (holding your morning coffee, walking through a doorway, sitting at a red light) and ask, "How am I, really?"

• Nightly note: Write one line each night about what you noticed.

• Pause first: Take 60 seconds of silence before you reach for your phone.

Reflect and sit with this:

"This week, I felt most human when..."

As you plan the week ahead, pause and ask: How am I, really? Then plan a week that fits the person answering: YOU.

Warmly,

DeShawn

Bonus & Next Steps

• Read along: You can purchase the book directly from Mike Vardy's site at mikevardy.com​

• Plan with support: Ready to plan like a human, with support? Time Partners is my small-group coaching membership where we plan human-sized weeks together, guided by the principles of productiveness.

​