How ‘well’ are you living your life? Have you optimised your sleep yet? Do you track not just your workouts but your water intake, macros, resting heart rate and stress levels? Have you perfected your capsule wardrobe? Or tried a 75-hard challenge? Are you ‘maxxing’ your appearance or ‘locking in’ on your goals? Are you feeling tired yet?

Everywhere we look, particularly on social media, we’re surrounded by people trying to improve themselves. And while it’s not a bad thing to want to work towards a healthier, happier life – including through practices that have a positive impact on our mental and emotional wellbeing – the pursuit of constant self-improvement can be exhausting. So what if we let go of the idea of five-year-plans and 15-step morning routines and got comfortable with being a little more slapdash instead? What if we took an approach to life that’s more ‘half-arsed’ than ‘all in, no excuses’?

It’s a philosophy that author, poet and content creator Leena Norms wholeheartedly believes in. She’s a proud shave-one-legger. A self-confessed rinse-the-plates-and-tell-herself-any-residual-dirt-will-improve-her-immune-system-er. And yet she’s also determined to live better, build a career, strengthen her relationships, be good to her body, sort out her wardrobe, find meaningful hobbies, act on her ethics, and live a full, passionate, varied life. Because aren’t we all? We’re just starting to realise that we don’t want to bring ourselves to the brink of burnout doing so.

Half-arsing, Norms believes, is a much-needed antidote to our over-optimising, all-or-nothing, ‘do it 100% or don’t do it at all’ culture, and a world in which nine out of 10 UK adults report experiencing high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the past year. In her book Half-Arse Human: How To Live Better Without Burning Out, Norms proposes that we stop chasing perfection altogether and get comfortable with doing things with less dedication, less effort and less pressure… for greater results.

“I stopped chasing perfection and started ‘half-arsing’ life instead – these are all the ways it can pay off, in your career and beyond”