The average adult in the South West carries out 102 'life admin' tasks every year

Experts found a substantial chunk of our time is now taken up by mundane jobs such as sorting out home or car insurance, checking bank accounts and paying off credit cards.

The study found more than half of adults in the South West struggle to keep up with household paperwork and often fail to complete everything by the required date.

The average adult has three important tasks currently in the pipeline which they urgently needed to clear – but can't find the time to do.

Nearly one in two workers has even sacrificed time at work to carry out their life admin.

Paying a utilities bill, buying a gift, booking a doctors’ appointment, writing a shopping list and applying for a job all appeared in the list of top 20 life admin tasks.

Rob Alder, head of business development at the Association of Accounting Technicians, which commissioned the study, said: “The early part of the year can be a great time to reflect on the past and plan the year ahead. We shouldn’t allow mountains of life admin to get in the way of our ambitions for the rest of 2018.”

Forty-five per cent of people in the South West said they wanted to work on achieving a fitter body in 2018, while 47 per cent would like to save enough cash to go on their dream holiday.

Ten per cent of people in the South West want to move house and one in seven are open to starting a new romantic relationship, while 32 per cent of people would like to enrol on a course or learn a skill.