Quick personal recap

Like many people in 2025, I started off with various ideas and projects in mind, one being Subtstack!

Like for many people, it promised much. But, and I know this from hosting a podcast, it takes a lot of commitment to post weekly, if you want to do it well.

So at some point, earlier than expected, I fell off the substack wagon.

Still, all my podcasts are now scheduled into January and I am currently lying in bed with an ‘angry throat’ - according to the pharmacist, it is very red.

And I have an urge to write here. It has been a total pain being limited by what feels like 3 back to back illnesses. They have hit me hard and stopped me from doing what I love most - walking outside, often whilst talking on the phone or to friends, as the cold air + cough are a horrid combo. And strength training, making it to dance classes - and of course lots of talking.

But I’ve still had a beautiful end of December - with all the things I needed - lots of time with friends and family and festive winter things such as going to see the Nutcracker, doing Christmas puzzles and lots of family films. And the enforced ‘ill time’ has also not been entirely bad. We received a beautiful NEOM burner; that plus spotify thunder and rain sound baths and our bedroom has become a proper spa cave.

I like the idea of appreciating and enjoying all this even if things were not as I had hoped they would be health wise. Also - its fun, and a novelty, being the quiet one!

As we prepare for the new year, I’ve got my dated Moleskine ready, which matches my daughter’s. She’s gone full on bullet journal - creating beautiful page spreads. I’m very curious to see if she will persist!

I’ve been focusing on my organisation theme, getting a few quick wins off the ground:

• wardrobe - in 5 minute spurts, I’ve done a re-org, and noted what’s missing (dark coat, jeans, and boots, indian blouses, diwali outfit). wardrobe was a big 2024 goal and that has paid off ever since, and 2025 has been a quiet continuation of that. 5 minutes is the magic number for me to overcome my inertia, and sort a drawer out.

• Work logging - a few occasions when i’ve needed to respond to pitches and not had a go to place to capture all the work I’ve done since going independent 7 years ago. So I’ve started a spreadsheet to capture it, again, just 5 minute spurts

• photos - I love the ‘daily delete’ idea from Kendra Adachi: I’ve gone back to January 2025 and started to delete the absolute junkyard of screenshots and duplicates. Its a brilliant process and such a good way of looking back at the year at the same time. Plus, the Jan QR codes and tracking receipts can be deleted without a second thought - the beauty of time passing. Again, just 1-5 minute bursts which will compound through the year.

• finances - we have taken stock on progress for 2025 - there was lots - and made a list for this year’s essentials - to tackle one month at at time. this is the highest priority area for next year.

• sentimental - I already do a ‘what made today special’ line in my diary, I’ve now added a line in my apple notes of ‘funny / cute things the kids said’ - this is a pre-bed ritual along with the daily delete.

• sentimental no 2 - adding one picture to the 1 Second Every Day app.

The idea is to spend January making progress across all these areas - in 5 minute bursts! - while the energy to do so is high. And then take areas month by month.

I hope that 2026 will be a year of organisation on many levels! Categories not mentioned above include - food prep, home routines, work systemisation.

Having reflected a lot on this year, I’m not looking for any huge shifts, just building on what’s already there, with the north star of ‘laughter’ as my word of the year. Wellbeing, family and friends are the foundations of this, upon which the work is then built. This was a year where the podcast quietly matured - and I finally got comfortable seeing it as the platform it is. It was also an incredible work year - more about that another time maybe.

The organising projects excite me as they are about consolidating, deepening, taking care of and taking stock of what is already there and making it run more smoothly and systematically. I’ve referred in the past to my 30s being a real ‘build’ decade - house, masters, work, kids. 40s seems to be more about integration. It’s a shift that doesn’t feel completely easy to get my head around - there’s some sort of muscle memory of being in ‘transformation mode’ and so its a conscious effort.

This is a pretty quickly written substack and as mentioned I’m not 100% but I like the idea of using this when I feel inspired to do so - and I hope it’s helpful to give some detail that might not make it onto the pod!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!