There are jobs you get paid for. Then there are the other 847 jobs you apparently acquire simply by being an adult.
Remember the dentist. Buy food. Use the food before it becomes compost. Reply to that message. Book the MOT. Exercise. Drink water. Sort the insurance. Remember birthdays. Make plans. Cancel plans because you're exhausted from making plans. Clean the thing. Replace the thing. Research the best replacement for the thing. Change a password. Find the password you changed. And somewhere in all of this, apparently, you're also supposed to “make time for yourself.”
WHEN DID LIVING BECOME LIFE MANAGEMENT?
A full life and a life that is full of admin are not the same thing.
The problem is that a huge amount of modern life happens in the background. Remembering. Planning. Comparing. Researching. Anticipating. Deciding. Following up. None of it looks particularly dramatic on its own, but together it can leave you feeling as though you're permanently the unpaid operations manager of your own existence.
And then we try to fix the overwhelm by adding more things.
A better morning routine. A meal-planning system. A meditation app. A habit tracker. A productivity method. A colour-coded calendar. A podcast explaining why our existing morning routine is wrong.
Congratulations. Your solution has become another job.
MAYBE YOU DON'T NEED TO GET BETTER AT DOING EVERYTHING
Sometimes the problem isn't that you're disorganised. Sometimes there is simply too much on the list.
This is one of the ideas behind RESET: before you optimise your life, question it. What actually needs doing? What could be easier? What are you maintaining purely because you've always done it? What standard are you trying to meet, and who the hell set it?
You don't need a twelve-step system. Start with four questions.
THE GREAT UNF*CKING
Take the things currently occupying your time, brain or kitchen table and run them through this:
STOP — Does this need to exist in my life at all?
SIMPLIFY — What is the easiest acceptable version?
SORT — Does this genuinely need dealing with? If yes, what is the next actual action?
SCREW IT — Is this something I can consciously decide not to care about?
That last category is important.
Not everything needs improving. Not every drawer needs organising. Not every invitation needs accepting. Not every hobby needs monetising. Not every dinner needs to contain seventeen vegetables and a garnish.
Some things are allowed to be good enough.
MINI AUDIT: WHAT CAN LEAVE YOUR LIST?
Write down five things currently irritating you, nagging at you or repeatedly appearing on your to-do list.
Beside each one write: STOP, SIMPLIFY, SORT or SCREW IT.
Then do one thing today.
Not five. One.
The aim isn't to become the most efficient human alive. The aim is to create enough space that your life stops feeling like something you're constantly administering.
Because a joyful life isn't one where you've finally completed the to-do list.
It's one where you've stopped putting so much shit on it.