✨ New year reset checklist

Not resolutions — an afternoon of admin. The subscriptions group alone usually pays for the afternoon several times over, and none of it needs willpower.

37 items

1. Money
2. Read a full month of the bank statement, line by line
3. Cancel every subscription you had forgotten about
4. Check what free trials are about to start charging
5. Compare energy, phone and broadband
6. Check savings rates against what you are actually getting
7. Set the year's budget with real numbers
8. Round up the standing orders to charities you meant to keep
9. Dates in the calendar
10. Every insurance renewal, with a reminder a month early
11. Car test, service and tax
12. Passport and licence expiry dates
13. Tax deadlines
14. Birthdays, including the ones you always miss
15. School holidays for the whole year
16. Book leave before the good weeks go
17. Digital
18. Change any password you have used more than once
19. Turn on two-factor authentication where it is missing
20. Check your backups actually restoreA backup nobody has ever restored from is not a backup.
21. Clear out the photo library enough to stop paying for storage
22. Update the phone and laptop
23. Unsubscribe from ten mailing lists
24. The house
25. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm batteries
26. Boiler service booked
27. Check the loft insulation and the draughts while it is still cold
28. Filters: extractor, tumble dryer, vacuum
29. Decorations down and stored properly
30. One drawer or cupboard cleared out completely
31. Bag for the charity shop, taken the same week
32. You
33. Book the dentist and the optician
34. Any check-up you are due
35. Repeat prescriptions reviewed
36. One thing in the diary to look forward to
37. One recurring commitment dropped