If you don't consider life admin to be a thing...

I don't even disagree that it does take A LOT of time, when you add everything up.

Even booking a holiday actually takes me quite a lot of time, when you add everything up.

But I think that some people are generally very disorganised, and a lot are frankly... lazy. Some people will think nothing of sitting down in front of their computer in the evening or early morning, and spend 20-30 mn dealing with "stuff" (life admin or whatever you call it)
But others resent this and see it as a massive job and chore, and are drowning in a teacup.

Well, I think that's true but reading the responses I think it hugely depends on how one categorises things. What I would call admin, others wouldn't. Perhaps it's better categorised for me as 'things I need to think about'.

I had a few things to do this morning, that you might call life admin. One was to ring the bank as I had a few questions about my mortgage and I wanted the mortgage account added to my app. That took about five minutes.
Then I also had to log into my pension provider app because I wanted to check some figures etc. That also took about 7 minutes.
I then had to message a carpet fitting company to say yes I would like to go ahead with the order I made…that literally took one minute.
I have one more phone call to make and I don’t envisage that lasting more than five minutes.
And that was a particularly busy day for me in terms of having to do stuff under the umbrella of life admin.

I always just consider things like this to be chores, no different to general day-to-day things like washing up, cleaning etc. It's stuff that needs done to facilitate parts of my life but takes time away from leisure.

The vast bulk of the "admin" stuff is online and only takes a few minutes of my month. I can't recall the last time I actually had to make an appointment in person, and even speaking to a human on the phone has become a vanishingly rare event. I think a lot of the complaining about this stems from the fact that a lot of people experience a form of dread when it comes to opening mail, dealing with authority etc, but in reality the switch to mostly online functionality has completely dismantled that for me and it barely even registers with me now that I'm actually doing "life admin" because it's so trifling.

It does, but don't you do that in the shower/on the bus/walking to work?

I do think where it all falls to one person the thinking, rather than the doing, can be exhausting.

Those things need doing, but people on here sometimes act as though it’s a full time job and somehow equivalent to paid employment.

DH and his brothers registered their POA for FIL fairly simply in a couple of hours one day, once done that was it. no further thought required.
Do you have a family who need visits/cards/presents? Yup - but not weekly, or even every single month. Visits don't take any forethought here but we all live fairly locally
Do you go to the dentist/Dr/optician? dentist, appointment is booked every time I leave the last one, Dr only when required, optician every couple of years, they email. I book it - minutes if that.
Have you children? Do you take them to the surgery for vaccines etc. 2 kids, not had vaccines in years, not needed dr in years.
Do you take them to school? Sort out lunch money? Stuff they need for Food Tech? Forms for school trips? Lunch money done once a term, extra curriculars on DD, walk them to school daily that's just life, forms complete as they come in again not often enough to warrant anything particular.
House/car insurance? once a year, quick comparison, buy if needed otherwise auto renew
Organising getting the gutters cleared? never in 15 years in our house have I booked this
Organising the car service and MOT booked online, takes moments

the big thing is that people put so much value on these things which barely even register in many other peoples heads

It's not the SAHM the problems for me, it's (sadly always mums, never dads!) those school mums, working or not, who make such a HUGE deals of dealing with .. an EMAIL (shock horror) from the school.

While being on their phone all day 😂

even if you have 4 kids, 4 different schools, as my kids are in the same school.. after years of the same nonsense, I still cant' figure out what the big deal is.

The hysteria about a school email is puzzling.

This. It's usually stuff I do whilst I'm sat watching TV or waiting for dinner to cook anyway!

Now try it again with an ND brain 🤣

I've only felt like I had it when we had a lot on - I think as a general thing when across three kids two schools and muliple clubs groups - endless letters and money demands and life being busy on top or when we were doing big house moves round kids.

As soon as kids got older more able to take their own stuff on board then kind of vanished.

It's kind of like hoilday packing - DH used to do just his and wonder why I was getting so stressed - well I was packing for three kids me and more general family stuff as money was tight and we'd try and minimise additional spends and trying to get everyone washed and dried to avoid last minute rushes. I was also slowly teaching kids how to get orgainsed and pack as well. Over time they did more and more. Now I pack for me - it's straight forward and if something missed can do without or just buy - so much less stressful - DH thinks I've gotten better at it or more chill at least - no I'm just doing a hell of a lot less invisble stuff.

i think it uses a fair amount of thinking time, myself.

Despite being in a foreign country, working out the journey involved nothing more than typing an address into google maps. As someone else said, I give as much thought to it as I do putting on my shoes.

This really. It’s just life. The same way that eating is life, showering is life, going to work, sleeping, opening a bank account, buying a house, getting the MOT on the car etc. it’s life, it’s all things we have to do, and the more there is the harder it can be, especially for those of us who struggle with ND traits.

I don’t feel the need to separate certain tasks out as “life admin”, it’s all just more boring, overwhelming shit I have to sort out at some point 🤣

“Stuff” “Errands” “Chores” all acceptable. We all have to do it to varying degree, what’s annoying is the constant martyr-dom from some people about it. Just get on and do it, stop whining!

I have done/do all of that with the exception of the elderly parent stuff.

But how much time does it really take?

I mean, I have a window cleaner. I googled local window cleaners, found one, looked at his reviews and messaged him. It took 10 mins at the absolute max while I was sitting in bed drinking a cup of tea one Sunday morning about 5 years ago.

I thought my gutters needed cleaning and so texted him to ask him if he also did that. He did. I asked if he'd do it next month and asked how much. He said he would and told me. I asked him to do it. Sorted. The whlenexchange was done within 5 mins.

Car service and MOT. "Hi, Phil. My car needs servicing and an MOT. When can I bring it in?... Great. Thanks."

Done.

It's nothing.

My children had vaccines. I was on maternity leave, I believe. It's not something I was constantly doing.

Form for a school trip. 5 mins.

I'll accept the PoA stuff etc is more the consuming but general life stuff is 5/10 mins a time. That's all.

Many, many women on Mumsnet complain that their partners do very little of what's on my list, i.e. buy their mum a birthday present. This is why I asked the question.

I don't think I need a phrase to cover this kinda stuff, the closest it gets to a label is if I write a list headed 'To do'

There has always been a need to do things like booking a dentist appointment, sorting out life insurance, booking your car in for a service, but I've only know these things to be labelled 'life admin' in the last 10 years or thereabouts. Certainly my parents would never have used the term.

I am not the poster, but you lost me with "are you a man". Or do you mean us women are less efficient and more over-reacting because we lack a penis or something? Charming.

I don't disagree that there's loads to do, I said that earlier, but I don't agree that it needs to use a considerable amount of brain space. Chill, it's the attitude towards it the problem.

Have you children? yes*
Do you take them to the surgery for vaccines etc. no
Do you take them to school? yes -but how is that using any brain space? You just .. do
Sort out lunch money? Stuff they need for Food Tech? Forms for school trips?
yes to all,
but again, just read the email and deal with as it comes. How much effort is that? No brain space or mental load needed.

it's all the same. You don't put MN on your "mental load" list, do you? and yet, I bet you are on here quite regularly 😂

Are people that bored that they need to create that mystical "mental load" to make their life sound more interesting?

I definitely wouldn't call it life admin in that scenario. TBH I cant imagine telling anyone I was too busy for something because of this kind of stuff. If it was one big "life admin" task, I'd say that. I've got someone coming round to quote for the boiler replacement, or I need to finish DC's bursary application, but I can't imagine staying in to pay bills .

again I don't think I've needed to declare myself busy because I've got 'the kids lunches to pay' or a 'car insurance comparison to do'

In a mad way, I think it does (I've done a lot of hospital stuff with my mum). You have to make the time, remember, work out the journey, find the right bit of the hospital etc. I think Life Admin includes all the brain space and time we give to other people as well as our own stuff.

Stuff