Why I deleted 90% of my tasks
Most people I work with feel busy, productive, and strangely stuck at the same time.
Here’s the core idea that shaped my last year:
Stop optimizing for outputs (stories) and start architecting for inputs (narrative).
In 2025, I applied this principle to my own life and work.
What followed wasn’t incremental improvement.
It was a phase shift.
What It Looked Like From the Outside
On paper, it looked like a hyper-productive year:
Deployed Storied AI, codifying 27 narrative frameworks
Returned to a 7-figure ARR business with high profit margins
Worked with 2 dozen clients on investment narratives, category creation, GTM storytelling
Partnered with early-stage startups in SaaS, fintech, healthtech, longevity, AI drones
Advised execs at orgs like Amazon, Salesforce, Roche, LG, Milken Institute
Joined a VC fund as an Operating Partner, bringing narrative into early stage investing
Turned the corner on a 3-year biz redesign and many sleepless nights
None of this came from working harder. It came from finally fixing what was upstream.
At home, life expanded too:
We welcomed my second daughter into the world, while our first turned two
Restored my health and rebuilt nervous system resilience after a few hard years
Took the family on a European vacation…2 weeks in Barcelona, Majorca, Paris
Celebrated the New Year and 5 year wedding anniversary with my wife in CDMX
Most people see that list and ask, “How did you find the time!?”
But that’s the wrong question.
I didn’t find more time. I bought back my time. [my absolute fav book on the subject]
I didn’t do more. I did less.
And delegated more, or stopped saying yes.
The Inputs That Made the Outputs Inevitable
My breakthrough year didn’t come from grinding harder.
It came from realizing my outputs were only as good as my inputs.
Attention, energy, language, and nervous system regulation - these became my focus.
When inputs are muddy, everything costs more. You pay in burnout, missed moments, and decisions that feel harder than they should. So I kept my focus on the internal architecture. The mechanics of my life.
Here are three specific shifts that made 2025 one of my best years yet.
1. Declared Task Bankruptcy
In Dec 2024, I archived 90% of aging “open tasks.” If it wasn’t critical path, it got cut or backlogged. I realized I was carrying a mortgage of old ideas. Tasks I captured months ago. Projects I “should” get to. Open loops that were draining my battery just by existing. This wasn’t just cleaning house. It was an ontological reset. It freed up the RAM in my brain to focus on the most high leverage work. Consider trying this for yourself. What might happen if you declared Task Bankruptcy?
2. Reset My Biological Systems
You can’t run a new Operating System on broken hardware. With serious health challenges in ‘24, I realized my physical “inputs” were compromising my optimal “outputs.” I treated my health like a business turnaround.I went through a mold detox. I focused on reconditioning my autonomic nervous system. I invested in vagus nerve training and photo-modulation (red light and near infra-red). The specifics matter less than the principle. You can’t expect clean thinking from a dysregulated system.
3. Codified the Language System
This was the year I finally turned the magic into a manual. For years, so much of my work lived in my head. In the moment. In 2025, I codified the Narrative OS. It began with my Storied AI. And extended into scalable workflows, processes, and systems. I stopped trying to be the hero of the story and started being the architect of the platform. This is the gift of AI, for non-linear thinkers like me. AI thinks in “order of operation”, but only produces high signal if you lay the foundations.
Now, I still struggle with being a tinkerer and perfectionist. Wanting to get the words “just right.”
So for 2026, I commit to continuing to ship more of my ideas.
Including a shift to Substack as my primary content home, coming soon.
It also means less infinite drafts constantly being polished to perfection.
And more locking in the systems and language for scale and growth.
Competence is being commoditized.
If your value comes from producing outputs, you’re racing a machine that never sleeps.
Narrative Intelligence™ is how you decide what matters, and edit out what doesn’t.
Which is why I believe architecture is the moat. Belief is the asset that then compounds.
2025 taught me this.
Design the inputs.
Let the outcomes take care of themselves.
May you thrive in 2026,
Michael