Life Admin Checklist: A UK List, Plus a Routine to Keep It Up

A good life admin checklist does two jobs: it tells you what to have in order right now, and it gives you a routine so it stays in order. Below is a UK list in six groups (money, home, car, documents, health and people), followed by a weekly, monthly and yearly routine. Work through the list once, write a date next to anything that renews or expires, and then let the routine do the remembering.

If you're not sure what counts as admin in the first place, start with what is life admin and come back.

How to use this life admin checklist

Don't try to do it all in one evening. A sensible approach:

1. Read each group and tick what's already sorted.
2. For anything not sorted, write down the single next step (find the letter, ring the provider, check the date on GOV.UK).
3. For anything with a date, note the date and when you want reminding.
4. Do one group a week until you're through.

Keep the results in one place, whether that's a notebook, a spreadsheet or a notes app. A checklist scattered across three places isn't a checklist.

Money

• [ ] List every direct debit and standing order on your current account, and what each one is for.
• [ ] Check council tax: correct band, correct address, any discount you're entitled to (for example, if you live alone). Your council's website explains what applies.
• [ ] Note the end date of any fixed energy tariff, and take meter readings.
• [ ] Note your water supplier and how you pay.
• [ ] List every subscription (streaming, apps, gym, boxes, memberships), how often each renews, and whether you still use it.
• [ ] Know your broadband and mobile contract end dates. Providers must tell you between 10 and 40 days before a contract ends, under Ofcom rules, but having the date yourself is safer.
• [ ] If you file a self assessment tax return, note the deadlines on GOV.UK and where your records live.
• [ ] Have a simple monthly budget, even a rough one: money in, fixed bills out, what's left.
• [ ] Know where your pension details are, including old workplace pensions.

If money is tight rather than just untidy, MoneyHelper offers free, impartial help.

Home

• [ ] Tenancy: end date, notice period, deposit protection details. Or mortgage: when your current deal ends.
• [ ] Home or contents insurance: renewal date and what's covered.
• [ ] Boiler: when it was last serviced, and whether the warranty expects regular servicing. If you rent, your landlord must arrange an annual gas safety check and give you a copy of the record within 28 days of the check (or before you move in).
• [ ] Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms tested.
• [ ] Bin and recycling collection days.
• [ ] TV Licence, if you need one: check the expiry date on your licence.
• [ ] Spare keys: who has them.
• [ ] Appliance manuals and warranties in one folder, with the warranty end dates noted.

Car

• [ ] MOT due date. In England, Scotland and Wales the first MOT is due by the third anniversary of registration, then every year. You can have it done up to a month (minus a day) early and keep the same renewal date. Northern Ireland has different rules.
• [ ] Sign up to GOV.UK's MOT reminder service by text or email.
• [ ] Vehicle tax: due date, and whether you pay by Direct Debit. Tax doesn't transfer when a car changes hands, so tax a car you've bought before you drive it.
• [ ] Car insurance renewal date.
• [ ] Service history and when the next service is due.
• [ ] V5C log book: in a safe place at home (not in the glovebox), with your current address on it.
• [ ] Breakdown cover, if you have it: renewal date and membership number.

Documents

• [ ] Passport expiry date for everyone in the household. Adult passports are valid for up to 10 years and children's for 5. Check your destination's entry rules in GOV.UK's foreign travel advice before booking.
• [ ] Photocard driving licence expiry date. Photocards need renewing every 10 years, and every 3 years once you're 70.
• [ ] GHIC (Global Health Insurance Card): it lasts up to 5 years, and you can apply up to 9 months before it expires.
• [ ] Birth, marriage or civil partnership certificates: where the originals are.
• [ ] National Insurance number written down somewhere safe.
• [ ] Will, if you have one: where it's kept and who knows.

The important documents checklist goes into what to keep, originals versus copies, and how long to keep records.

Health

• [ ] Registered with a GP, and you know how to book.
• [ ] Registered with a dentist, and when your next check-up is.
• [ ] Eye test: when you last had one.
• [ ] Repeat prescriptions: when each runs out and how you reorder.
• [ ] Any vaccinations or screening invites you've been putting off.
• [ ] A short note of medications, allergies and conditions, for emergencies.

Questions about medicines, doses or symptoms belong with your GP or pharmacist, not a checklist.

People

• [ ] Birthdays and anniversaries for close family and friends in one calendar.
• [ ] Emergency contacts up to date on your phone and with your employer.
• [ ] Who to tell when you move: bank, employer, GP, DVLA (for your licence and V5C), council, insurers.
• [ ] Shared household jobs: who handles which bills and renewals, written down.

The routine: weekly, monthly, yearly

A checklist done once goes stale in months. The routine is what keeps it current.

Weekly (15 minutes)

1. Open the post and any letters you've been avoiding. Act, file or bin each one.
2. Look at the next two weeks: birthdays, appointments, anything due.
3. Do anything that takes under five minutes.
4. Choose one bigger admin job for the week and give it a slot.

Monthly (30 minutes)

1. Check your bank statement against your list of direct debits and subscriptions. Anything you don't recognise or don't use?
2. Look at the next two months of renewals and expiry dates. Start anything that needs comparing or a form filled in.
3. Take meter readings if you submit them.
4. Order repeat prescriptions in good time.
5. Tidy the paperwork pile into its folder.

Yearly (an afternoon)

Pick a quiet week, perhaps early January or late summer:

1. Run through this whole life admin checklist again.
2. Check every expiry date: passports, licences, GHIC.
3. Review insurance cover against what you actually own and do.
4. Cancel subscriptions you didn't use this year.
5. Clear out old paperwork you no longer need to keep, shredding anything with personal details.
6. Update your emergency contacts and, if relevant, check your will still reflects your wishes.

Common gaps people miss

• Things that only renew every decade. Passports and driving licence photocards are easy to forget because you've only done it once or twice.
• Fixed deals ending. Energy, broadband and mortgages can quietly move onto a different rate when a fixed period ends.
• The new car's tax. It doesn't come with the car.
• The partner's stuff. In a shared home, one person's passport or licence often isn't on the other's radar.
• Moving home. Every address change ripples through a dozen accounts.

Always check your own dates and the current rules on GOV.UK, as details change.

Keeping the checklist in one place

Once you've filled this in, it needs a home that reminds you. If you'd like that done for you, mylife/ keeps life admin in ledgers for bills, home, car, documents, health, insurance, subscriptions, warranties, travel and dates, and gives you a nudge before anything is due. You can tell Slash about a renewal in a sentence, and your mate's Sunday report lists what's coming up (see the Sunday report). If that sounds useful, see the plans.

Frequently asked questions

What should be on a life admin checklist?

The essentials are bills and direct debits, home contracts and insurance, car dates (MOT, tax, insurance), document expiry dates, health appointments and prescriptions, and important dates for the people in your life. Anything with a renewal or expiry date should have that date written next to it.

How often should I do life admin?

A short weekly check keeps the small things moving, a monthly look at bills and upcoming renewals catches the medium ones, and a yearly review catches the slow ones like passports. That rhythm means nothing has more than a few weeks to slip.

What's a life admin day?

It's a block of time, often half a day, set aside to clear a backlog of admin in one go. It works well for a first run through a checklist like this one. After that, a weekly routine usually beats saving everything for one big day.

How do I stop forgetting renewal dates?

Get every date into one calendar with a reminder set well ahead of the due date, not on it. Different renewals need different lead times, so a passport needs far more notice than a subscription.

Is there a printable life admin checklist?

You can print this page, or copy the lists into a notebook or spreadsheet. What matters more than the format is that you keep it in one place and revisit it on a routine.