There is a particular kind of week when the calls, the forms, the replies and the bills have all gone past the day you meant to deal with them. Looking at the whole pile is what makes it unbearable, because everything looks equally urgent and equally guilty.
This guide is practical admin help, not medical advice. It is about making the first choice smaller than the pile.
Sort by who is waiting
Do not rank everything. Put each thing in one of three piles.
3 things to do
Ticks are for this visit only. Nothing here is saved anywhere.
The two minute triage
Write it down
List only the things where a person or a date is involved. Leave the rest for later.
Pick one
Choose the one that is smallest or most likely to change something for somebody.
Name the first step
Write the first physical thing you would do: a call, a message, opening a form.
Put the rest away
Out of sight is not lost. Write them down somewhere and stop looking at them tonight.
What to do with everything else
The things you are not doing today are not gone. They are somewhere safe, and you know where. The relief comes from not carrying them in your head, not from finishing them.
If you need to contact people about the delay, you do not have to explain at length. A short, plain message is enough, and there are lines for it in how to deal with something you have put off.
Leave the pile alone tonight
Once you have picked one thing and named its first step, you are allowed to stop. Sorting is not a reason to keep going until midnight. If the first step is smaller than you can face, task paralysis: what to do in the next ten minutes is the next place to look.