You know that feeling when you have so many things you need to sort out that you somehow… sort out absolutely none of them?

Your inbox is ridiculous. There’s a bag of clothes you’ve been meaning to take to the charity shop for six months. You even move it closer to the front door and then it just becomes something else to step over on your way in and out. You need to book the dentist. You’ve got subscriptions leaving your bank account that you’re pretty sure you don’t use. Your phone has 47,000 photos on it. There’s a cupboard in your house that you’re frankly frightened to open.

And somewhere amongst all of that, you’re also supposed to be a present parent, a good friend and not forget to prioritise self-care.

Excellent.

The problem with overwhelm is that it can make everything feel equally urgent and equally impossible. There are so many open tabs - literal and metaphorical - that you don’t even know which one to close first.

So instead, you avoid the lot.

I realised, I can’t keep reinventing myself or believing the next organisation hack is going to fix my entire life.

When we feel stuck, there’s a temptation to think we need some enormous transformation.

A new routine. A new career. A new house. A new body. A new business. A new life plan.

Sometimes you might.

And whilst the Marie Kondo fold/roll did transform my drawers, sometimes you just need to deal with all the little things that have been quietly draining your time, energy and attention.

Because every unfinished task takes up a tiny bit of space in your head.

The appointment you haven't booked.

The pile you keep walking past.

The money thing you don't really want to look at.

The person you need to reply to.

The thing you've been meaning to cancel.

The work situation you've known for a while isn't really working anymore.

None of them necessarily feels life-changing on its own. Collectively, though? They can make life feel surprisingly heavy.

So, I made a life reset checklist

I originally created a Get Your Shit Together checklist years ago, designed for my clients to create space in their life before starting their business. I've recently dragged it back out, given it a proper overhaul and turned it into something that feels much more relevant to where I am now. Nearly 40, a mother, perimenopausal, a little burnt-out and no longer chasing a Pinterest perfect life that is exhausting to maintain.

It isn't a productivity challenge.

You don't need to complete everything on it.

And there is absolutely no certificate for achieving Peak Shit Togetherness.

It's simply somewhere to start.

I've broken it down into the different bits of life that have a habit of getting neglected when we're busy - health and energy, home and stuff, money and life admin, your digital life, style and self, work and purpose, people and boundaries, and - importantly - actually having some fun.

You can open it on your phone and work through it whenever you have a spare five minutes, or print it off, get a pen and physically tick things off.

Personally, there's something very satisfying about pen on paper when your brain feels scrambled.

Start ridiculously small

Please don't download this and immediately decide you're going to complete the entire thing by Sunday.

That would rather defeat the point.

Pick something.

One appointment.

One drawer.

One subscription.

One email.

One conversation.

One bag for the charity shop.

Get it done. Tick the box.

Then pick another.

You're not trying to become a perfectly organised human. You're creating a little bit of breathing room.

And once you've cleared some of the noise, you might find it becomes easier to hear the bigger questions underneath it.

What do I actually want?

What isn't working anymore?

What do I want more of?

What do I want less of?

What have I been tolerating because changing it feels too difficult?

And what could my next move be?

Life gets so busy that sometimes it feels like you’ve blinked and suddenly you don’t quite recognise your life. You’re wondering how all this stuff piled up, why everything feels so overwhelming and what happened to the organised person you used to be. I hear you.

It’s not our fault. It’s capitalism, consumerism and the patriarchy - but that’s a post for another day.

Use this list as the mental download you’ve probably needed for a while, and just start somewhere.