Reclaiming My Energy: Auditing the Leaks in Business and Life

A Look Back at 2025

The year started with a bit of reflection. I go over any regularly used systems and look for ways  to make it more efficient. You can thank my wife for this. I've seen her pull the whole house apart numerous times to reorganize it to fit the family's changing needs. Looking back at 2025, I concluded my biggest deficit wasn't professional success, it was energy. Energy: where do we find it? Or more importantly, how can we make better use of it? I realized I was carrying around a mind full of open loops. What started as a quest to simply reclaim enough energy to be present for my family quickly evolved into a journey about mental health and clarity. I want to share the story of how I discovered what I truly needed to thrive.

In 2025, my business was moving and going well. However, it was also an incredibly draining year. I sacrificed my peace at home by letting too many personal things go unchecked, completely unaware of how their presence was quietly siphoning my energy source like in the show The Haunting of Hill House. I remember how exhausted and stressed I felt, and the unfair pressure that stress placed on everyone around me. I had spread myself too thin across too many areas, holding onto things that no longer served me or my family.

I told myself I refused to go through another year like that. I wanted a clear path. So, as 2026 kicked off, I took some necessary time to step back and reevaluate.

The Math of Burnout: Multiplying Instead of Subtracting

During this time out, I realized something vital: I never stopped to subtract; I only multiplied. Every phase of my life used up energy. When I got married, that energy was divided. When I started a business, it was divided again. When my son was born, the demand grew even more.

And those were just the major life changes. It doesn't even include all the personal projects I wanted to complete, which constantly drained my energy just sitting idle in the back of my mind. I kept spreading my energy thinner and thinner across new priorities, never realizing I needed to offload something that was no longer a priority before bringing in something new.

Hunting the Energy Leaks

Initially, I looked into how to generate more energy to keep doing all the things I wanted to do. But how do you even do that? You can't just manifest more hours or stamina out of thin air. I couldn’t just kick back a cup of coffee either, it just doesn't work for me. Instead, I stumbled across a much better perspective: finding the energy leaks and plugging them so I could focus on what mattered most. Now, that was something I could actually work with.

I had an honest conversation with myself and performed an "attention audit." For several days, I simply observed my own thoughts. Strangely, I noticed that the simple act of walking through my garage was the most mentally taxing part of my day. It was also the most unorganized and inefficient use of space. That was my "aha" moment, the exact second I realized where the majority of unnecessary, underlying stress was coming from.

A look at the unorganized space that was quietly taking up valuable mental real estate. Less of a functional garage, more of a physical manifestation of my anxiety.

For the few seconds it took me to travel from the garage entrance into my home, my brain was overwhelmed. I saw lawn tools placed in three different locations. Regularly used tools were mixed in with seldom-used ones, and the garage gym was filthy from the lawn tools. Unfinished projects stared back at me, serving as a constant reminder: 'When are you going to finish me?' That total lack of organization took up valuable mental real estate, weighing on me just enough to throw off any momentum I had going into the house. The space was wildly inefficient. While I wasn’t entirely sure of every single step required to fix it, I knew one thing for sure: I needed to purge the clutter and create dedicated, functional zones for our gym equipment, garage tools, and lawn gear.

The Game Plan: Decluttering Mental and Physical Space

The solution quickly became clear. To close the open loops and make room for what actually mattered, I needed to tackle two major projects: build an outdoor shed and finish the garage gym. Once those were done, I could finish my office artwork and update my business website. My goal was to have both projects completely wrapped up by the end of the first quarter. The first quarter dictates the momentum and trajectory for the rest of the entire year.

I knew this project would require a bit of chaos before everything looked organized. Before I did anything, I sat down with my family, express my needs, and set expectations. My wife was incredibly supportive, and my son, well, he was a little over two and a half, so he didn’t have much of an opinion either way.

The chaos created before the peace came. Phase one required making the garage look like an apocalyptic disaster zone before it could get better, heavy trash day couldn't come fast enough.

With the green light from my family, I decided to build the shed myself rather than hiring it out. It wasn't about saving money; it was about protecting my peace of mind. I knew that if I opt for the fast commercial build, the lack of precision would ultimately bother me in the exact same way the messy garage did. If I wanted a space that truly restored my energy, the foundation had to be done right, maybe not down to the millimeter but I would be happy with 95% accuracy.

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Precision over speed. Took the time to build it myself because I enjoyed the learning experience, and a fast commercial build would have just siphoned my energy all over again. It might not be down to the exact millimeter, but my mind is at peace with 95% accuracy.

Less is Indeed More

If 2025 taught me that success without peace is just a louder form of exhaustion, 2026 is proving that a calmer, more focused mind comes after you subtract. Protecting your energy isn't about finding a magical source of extra stamina; it's about having the courage to look at your life, audit your attention, and plug the leaks that are quietly draining you dry.

Shed Final Build

Gym Build

Garage Tools Organized

Building the shed, completing the gym, streamlining my website, and finishing my office off with my own artwork aren't just items on a home improvement checklist. They are deliberate boundaries I drew to reclaim my mental real estate. By choosing to subtract the clutter rather than multiplying the chaos, I am designing the space that works for me to be the business owner, husband, and father my family deserves.

Closing the open loops. I finally finished and framed my own artwork. It turned my office into a place that allows for deep focus, rather than a physical reminder of unfinished business.