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Stop Tolerating It: Why It’s Time For A Boundary Reset
We love a list, don’t we? If you’re trying to simplify your life—whether you’re thirty-something and drowning in toddler gear or retired like me and staring down a lifetime of accumulated physical and mental clutter—the trusty to-do list is usually our first weapon of choice. We write them down. We cross things off. We feel like productive and organised. But lately, as I’ve been deep in the process of decluttering my mind and my home, I’ve realised something crucial. Living lightly isn’t just about being more productive and organised. It’s about clearing out the heavy, invisible weight of what we tolerate. If you get what I’m talking about because you’re living…
The Mental Load: Women Have Been Carrying It For Decades. It’s Time For Us To Finally Put It Down.
There’s a concept doing the rounds on social media recently that has young mothers nodding so vigorously they risk giving themselves whiplash. It’s called the mental load, and if you’re a woman of a certain age (hello, fellow fifty- and…
Master Your Desk: A Simple System for Clutter-Free Focus
Let me paint you a picture. My desk. A glorious, sprawling testament to good intentions. A letter that needed following up. A bill that needed querying. A notebook with something important written in it — I just couldn’t remember what.…
The Digital Takedown: The To-Do List
And the change that made the difference. I have a confession to make. I am a world-class, gold-medal, Hall-of-Fame procrastinator. There. I said it. And honestly, it feels better to have that out in the open. Now, you might think…
Minimalism Isn’t a Monastery: Your Version of Less Is Enough
Minimalism does not mean ten grey t-shirts, bare white walls, and a single artfully placed pebble on a windowsill. It means something far more useful, far more personal, and considerably more interesting than that. Let me make the case. Say…
Beyond the To-Do List: Finding Meaning on the Hamster Wheel
I’ve spent a lot of time chasing productivity. Crossing things off lists, clearing inboxes, staying focused — and honestly, I still value all of that. But somewhere along the way I started noticing that even my most productive days could…
The Metrics of a Life: Why Some Things Shouldn’t Add Up
I was staring at my smartwatch the other day—a device I bought a few years ago with “self-improvement” enthusiasm—and I realised I was annoyed. I hadn’t hit my 10,000 steps, and somehow, the lovely, meandering walk I’d just taken through…
Buying time: How to Buy Less and Do More
I’ve spent the better part of my life acting as a voluntary curator for a museum of “Someday.” My loft is a historical archive of university textbooks for a degree I finished in the nineties, and my kitchen drawers are…
The Digital Takedown: Reclaiming My Time from the Everything Machine
Sci-fi writers of the 1940s and 1950s predicted everything from living on the moon to robot maids. I’m not sure whether any of them imagined a portable device that would allow us to access the sum of human knowledge instantly,…
The Great Disappearing Act: When the Script Moves On Without You
There’s a strange thing that happens when you hand in your notice. You expect a fanfare, perhaps, or at least a mild sense of panic from your colleagues about how the wheels will stay on the bus when you’ve gone.…
The Person I Was vs. The Person I’m Becoming.
I am currently in the thick of it. And by “it,” I mean a lifetime of accumulated evidence that I am a person who might need a rusty nail at 3:00am on a Tuesday. As I get closer to retirement, I’ve realised…
