I Was Using AI to Write Code. Then We Started Using It to Run My Life.

My productivity system died in October, and I didn't notice until December. Not dramatically — no single failure, no missed deadline that blew everything up. It just quietly stopped working while I was busy, and by the time I figured it out I was already three months behind on things that mattered. It was the fourth time, by the way. Four systems over twenty years — all good, all eventually quiet for the same reason I couldn't see. I assumed I was the problem: wrong tool, not disciplined enough, too much going on. The actual cause didn't become clear until I stumbled into the answer while building something completely unrelated. I've run through pretty much every productivity system you've heard of. Franklin Covey first — at the Naval Academy and into my time in the Navy, when the structure of military life made values-first planning feel natural. GTD in 2009 when I moved to DC Public Schools as Logistics Manager and suddenly had to manage my own complexity instead of executing someone