The Family Continuity Plan: A Simple Guide to Staying Prepared
By James Dyson | Published 19 November 2025
A simple way to keep life running when you can’t
Most people think “continuity planning” belongs in boardrooms or disaster recovery manuals.
In reality, it’s just the grown-up version of making sure someone else knows where the important things are so they’re not wandering around your life like a confused temp on their first day.
Life doesn’t ask before it disrupts you.
A night in hospital.
A long trip.
A phone that finally gives up after years of mistreatment.
A week where your body decides it’s on strike.
None of this is dramatic, but each one is enough to send your practical life into a tailspin if nobody else knows what’s what.
A Family Continuity Plan stops that mess before it starts.
It isn’t emotional.
It isn’t complicated.
It isn’t about preparing for the worst.
It’s about not leaving people you love in a scavenger hunt they never agreed to.
And ideally, keeping them away from your browser history while you’re at it.
Here’s what a good plan actually covers, without turning it into homework.
1. The essentials someone needs quickly
Imagine you were completely unreachable for a week.
Now imagine the poor soul trying to work out how your life functions.
What would they struggle to find?
It’s usually things like:
• How the bills get paid
• Where your key documents actually live
• The accounts that matter
• The recovery email you always forget exists
• Which device is the “real” phone and which one is the emergency relic in the drawer
This is the stuff that stops normal life collapsing for absolutely no reason.
2. The responsibilities inside the home
Every household quietly divides itself into roles.
One person deals with Wi-Fi.
Someone else keeps the car insured.
One remembers the council tax dates.
One manages the entire mental load of everything.
And at least one person forgets to put the bins out every single week. It’s tradition.
It doesn’t matter who does what.
It matters that the other person can take over without panic.
Mapping this out takes five minutes.
Most people realise how much they rely on each other once they see it written down.
3. The “if something goes sideways” contacts
You don’t need a long list.
Just the people who matter when things get bumpy.
GP
Insurance provider
Employer
Trusted friend or family member
The one sensible adult in your life who knows enough to be useful
Put those contacts in one obvious place.
Not in your brain.
Not buried in an email thread from 2021.
4. The items that cause chaos when they’re missing
These are the usual chaos-makers:
• Passport
• Driving licence
• Insurance policies
• House details
• Medical information
• Key accounts and recovery options
You don’t need to hand these to anyone.
You just need to know where everything is.
And if someone had to step in, they should have the same fighting chance.
5. Keep it simple
A continuity plan doesn’t need to be pretty.
It just needs to exist.
One document.
One folder.
One place someone can check if life knocks you sideways.
If you need tabs, chapters or a contents page, you’ve gone too far.
Why this matters more than people think
If something happened to you tomorrow, the hard part wouldn’t be the situation.
It would be the confusion that follows.
People searching.
People guessing.
People trying their best with half the information and none of the context.
A continuity plan removes that chaos.
It’s calm.
It’s practical.
It’s the quiet type of care that actually helps.
You can start yours with the Digital MOT.
It shows you what’s missing, what’s messy and what needs sorting.
Here it is:
securevault.life/mot
And yes.
It keeps people out of your browser history too.