Mike Vardy has spent his career inside the word “productivity.” He built frameworks around it, taught it, made a living off it. And for years the word itself bugged him. But don’t forget “Productivity” started out as a term for measuring the efficiency of factories.

Mike argues the better word is “productiveness”. Not how much you produce, but whether what you produce, and how you go about producing it, actually amounts to something.

That distinction is the subject of Mike’s new book, out now. Nine principles for keeping meaningful work sustainable once the systems around it start to strain. My congratulations to Mike for getting this book published.