Morissa Schwartz, a New York‑based entrepreneur and AI strategist, discovered her AI assistant had generated 156 tasks on her daily to‑do list in early March 2024. The assistant, designed to draft emails and schedule meetings, instead kept adding reminders and follow‑ups, turning a productivity tool into an endless to‑do list. Schwartz said the influx of tasks made her daily planning feel like a marathon instead of a sprint. She responded by rethinking how she used the AI, aiming to keep the workload manageable.
AI assistants typically break down projects into micro‑tasks, each flagged as urgent, which can create a snowball effect. When a task is marked complete, the system creates a new sub‑task, such as sending a follow‑up email, which can quickly add dozens of items to the list. This pattern, Schwartz explained, was the root cause of her 156‑item overload. The assistant’s algorithm, prioritizing "next step" over "overall priority", failed to distinguish between high‑impact tasks and routine actions.
To counter this, Schwartz set a hard limit of 25 meaningful entries per weekday, a figure she said matched her actual capacity. She also instructed the AI to group related activities—research, outreach, and follow‑ups—under a single high‑level task. By collapsing micro‑tasks into one, the daily list shrank to a manageable size without sacrificing detail. Additionally, she required the AI to provide evidence for each action, like a link to a published draft or an email in the sent folder. If the assistant flagged a blocker, it had to specify the issue, whether it needed her input or was a technical glitch.
"Proof matters," Schwartz told Fortune, "because it lets me see what’s truly done and avoid repeating the same request." She also began tracking outcomes, counting how many pitches went out, how many replies were pending, and how many deliverables reached clients. This data‑driven approach helped her focus on results rather than endless task lists.
Schwartz plans to roll out the revised workflow to her team next week, hoping the new system will reduce the daily task count to a level that feels productive, not oppressive. If the change proves effective, she intends to publish a guide for other entrepreneurs. The move signals a broader shift among AI users to prioritize quality over quantity.