diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index e0468aa8137a2..484107af678a7 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -436,3 +436,10 @@ repos:
         types: [python]
         files: ^pandas/tests
         language: python
+    -   id: sort-whatsnew-items
+        name: sort whatsnew entries by issue number
+        entry: python -m scripts.sort_whatsnew_note
+        types: [rst]
+        language: python
+        files: ^doc/source/whatsnew/v
+        exclude: ^doc/source/whatsnew/v(0|1|2\.0\.0)
diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.1.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.1.0.rst
index dd27fd9e128ae..68159cd211a5e 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.1.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.1.0.rst
@@ -100,12 +100,12 @@ Deprecations
 
 Performance improvements
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Performance improvement in :meth:`DataFrame.where` when ``cond`` is backed by an extension dtype (:issue:`51574`)
-- Performance improvement in :meth:`~arrays.ArrowExtensionArray.isna` when array has zero nulls or is all nulls (:issue:`51630`)
-- Performance improvement in :meth:`DataFrame.first_valid_index` and :meth:`DataFrame.last_valid_index` for extension array dtypes (:issue:`51549`)
-- Performance improvement in :meth:`DataFrame.clip` and :meth:`Series.clip` (:issue:`51472`)
 - Performance improvement in :func:`read_parquet` on string columns when using ``use_nullable_dtypes=True`` (:issue:`47345`)
+- Performance improvement in :meth:`DataFrame.clip` and :meth:`Series.clip` (:issue:`51472`)
+- Performance improvement in :meth:`DataFrame.first_valid_index` and :meth:`DataFrame.last_valid_index` for extension array dtypes (:issue:`51549`)
+- Performance improvement in :meth:`DataFrame.where` when ``cond`` is backed by an extension dtype (:issue:`51574`)
 - Performance improvement in :meth:`read_orc` when reading a remote URI file path. (:issue:`51609`)
+- Performance improvement in :meth:`~arrays.ArrowExtensionArray.isna` when array has zero nulls or is all nulls (:issue:`51630`)
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 .. _whatsnew_210.bug_fixes:
diff --git a/scripts/sort_whatsnew_note.py b/scripts/sort_whatsnew_note.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..e4ab44984b0d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/sort_whatsnew_note.py
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+"""
+Sort whatsnew note blocks by issue number.
+
+NOTE: this assumes that each entry is on its own line, and ends with an issue number.
+If that's not the case, then an entry might not get sorted. However, virtually all
+recent-enough whatsnew entries follow this pattern. So, although not perfect, this
+script should be good enough to significantly reduce merge conflicts.
+
+For example:
+
+- Fixed bug in resample (:issue:`321`)
+- Fixed bug in groupby (:issue:`123`)
+
+would become
+
+- Fixed bug in groupby (:issue:`123`)
+- Fixed bug in resample (:issue:`321`)
+
+The motivation is to reduce merge conflicts by reducing the chances that multiple
+contributors will edit the same line of code.
+
+You can run this manually with
+
+    pre-commit run sort-whatsnew-items --all-files
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import argparse
+import re
+import sys
+from typing import Sequence
+
+pattern = re.compile(r"\(:issue:`(\d+)`\)\n$")
+
+
+def sort_whatsnew_note(content: str) -> int:
+    new_lines = []
+    block: list[str] = []
+    lines = content.splitlines(keepends=True)
+    for line in lines:
+        if line.startswith("- ") and pattern.search(line) is not None:
+            block.append(line)
+        else:
+            key = lambda x: int(pattern.search(x).group(1))
+            block = sorted(block, key=key)
+            new_lines.extend(block)
+            new_lines.append(line)
+            block = []
+    if sorted(new_lines) != sorted(lines):  # pragma: no cover
+        # Defensive check - this script should only reorder lines, not modify any
+        # content.
+        raise AssertionError(
+            "Script modified content of file. Something is wrong, please don't "
+            "trust it."
+        )
+    return "".join(new_lines)
+
+
+def main(argv: Sequence[str] | None = None) -> int:
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    parser.add_argument("paths", nargs="*")
+    args = parser.parse_args(argv)
+    ret = 0
+    for path in args.paths:
+        with open(path) as fd:
+            content = fd.read()
+        new_content = sort_whatsnew_note(content)
+        if content != new_content:
+            ret |= 1
+            with open(path, "w") as fd:
+                fd.write(new_content)
+    return ret
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/scripts/tests/test_sort_whatsnew_note.py b/scripts/tests/test_sort_whatsnew_note.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..6e40f6814c402
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/tests/test_sort_whatsnew_note.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+from scripts.sort_whatsnew_note import sort_whatsnew_note
+
+
+def test_sort_whatsnew_note():
+    content = (
+        ".. _whatsnew_200:\n"
+        "\n"
+        "What's new in 2.0.0 (March XX, 2023)\n"
+        "------------------------------------\n"
+        "\n"
+        "Timedelta\n"
+        "^^^^^^^^^\n"
+        "- Bug in :class:`TimedeltaIndex` (:issue:`51575`)\n"
+        "- Bug in :meth:`Timedelta.round` (:issue:`51494`)\n"
+        "\n"
+    )
+    expected = (
+        ".. _whatsnew_200:\n"
+        "\n"
+        "What's new in 2.0.0 (March XX, 2023)\n"
+        "------------------------------------\n"
+        "\n"
+        "Timedelta\n"
+        "^^^^^^^^^\n"
+        "- Bug in :meth:`Timedelta.round` (:issue:`51494`)\n"
+        "- Bug in :class:`TimedeltaIndex` (:issue:`51575`)\n"
+        "\n"
+    )
+    result = sort_whatsnew_note(content)
+    assert result == expected