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

A once in 20 year event doesn't need categorising as life admin!

agree with the majority here that no one denies it's existence but those who claim it needs 10 hours a week, every week, or whatever are the crazy extremes.

Things like banking - what does that entail exactly? I don't think in my entire life I've dedicated any time to 'banking'
We have 2 cats, both quite old - the last time we made a pet insurance claim was 5 years ago and it was resolved fairly quickly.
I cant say I've switched banks in 10 year, nor energy provider - but will run a comparison now and then on compare the market.
surely a service complaint is also once in a while and is a simple email?
Home improvement quotes - get 2 or 3, pick one, book them in.

none of these come up regularly at all so I just call them what they are rather than 'life admin'

Picking up your FIL I think comes in the same category.

I don't have a desk job and don't find it difficult.

I think you're onto something with the "my time" thing though.

It's the whole, "If you want something doing, ask a busy person," because, if you're busy, you're also likely to have developed ways of being efficient.

The only people I've ever known to complain about the amount they have to do and how little time they have to do it are (and I'm getting my hard hat for this one) the few SAHMs I've known who never worked after having children (and I'm including when their children were secondary age).

I can think of two friends I've had over the years who seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time 'busy doing not very much.' But even then, it was only two.

One had a dog and spent a lot of time talking about how she couldn't do things because she had to take the dog out. Or she didn't have time because the dog needed a walk. But everyone else I know with a dog just does it.

The other used to talk about all the jobs she'd done in the day or how much she hadnt got done or which jobs she was carrying over until tomorrow. I mean, I did the same things before or after work or didn't get them done and had to do them tomorrow but they didn't seem to weigh so heavily on my mind.

That's not a slight on SAHMs in general. Just what I observed in the women I was friends with.

In reality, I don't encounter people who call it 'life admin' or complain about how much time it takes IRL regardless of their circumstances.

Ok. How often do you or did you go and visit your parents? Did you have PoA for them? Did you have to sort stuff with banks and care homes for them? (Doing the PoA for my mum took at least an hour with each bank just to set up, plus registering PoA). Mum died in April, the paperwork is on-going.
Do you have a family who need visits/cards/presents?
Do you go to the dentist/Dr/optician?
Have you children? Do you take them to the surgery for vaccines etc.
Do you take them to school? Sort out lunch money? Stuff they need for Food Tech? Forms for school trips?
House/car insurance?
Organising getting the gutters cleared?
Organising the car service and MOT

All of this 'stuff' needs to be done if you put any value on family life. Much of it uses an considerable amount of brain space.
Are you a man?

It's never been easier to do your life admin in a couple of minutes when out and about/on your lunch break etc.. I logged on to my online banking to transfer some money whilst waiting to pick up my FIL from the hospital this morning. It's something I rarely have to dedicate specific time to. It didn't take me away from any other task (other than looking at mumsnet)

I just call them "shit to do"

I don't put a label on them as such, anymore than I put a label on cleaning my face and brushing my teeth in the evening, or emptying the dishwasher everyday.

I don't try to put everything into a big "mental load life admin" pile. I just.. do.
Read emails, deal with them.
Check calendar, book birthday parties, holidays, buy presents.. invite people

Just a bit everyday I am home, catch up when I am back if I am away for whatever reason. I don't buy the "it's not that much" because for most people, it IS a lot if you add it up, but I am not making a big deal out of it either.

You might as well add "put your shoes on before leaving the house" to your to-do list, you just get on with things in reality.

Just "life"

As pps have said, it's not so much that people dispute these things need doing, just that

A) they take up as much time and effort as some people seem to think - this will obviously vary hugely from person to person. You've given clear examples of scenarios that might require a lot of admin but for many people (particularly if you're not caring for someone else in whatever capacity) there really isn't that much of it. I personally don't understand why people include "paying bills" as some sort of huge stressful task that has to be done frequently for example as if its 1980 and we're still balancing cheques - some of my bills (ctax, water etc) I set up a dd for 10 years ago when I moved in and haven't thought about since. Even when I switched bank accounts it was all done for me.

B) they need a specific all encompassing term

In the same way people don't need to build/account for "hygiene maintenance" in their daily/weekly planning to account for every time they shower/wash their hands/brush their teeth and use the loo.
It's just life.

I dont have any strong feelings either way towards the term. Sometimes it's handy as a catch all, sometimes it's overused. We all know (or should!) what being an adult/running a home requires, it doesn't need to be spelled out.

There is more ‘Life admin’ these days.
Previously you got your electricity from the electricity board, telephone from the one telephone company etc.
Now we have to worry about being fleeced by these providers so you feel you have to check prices of these things each year or so. Check various airlines instead of going to a travel agent etc.
And even if you don’t do these things there is always someone saying “oh, I got a good deal of £29.99 for blah, blah”. So then you think argh - I should compare prices.
More customer choices = more stress and work generally = more life admin

I think that while you probably have more of it than many people (if you have chronic health conditions which require frequent communication with your GP and have responsibility for your mother's care), I still think you're inflating things.

I mean we all have 'banking', but it certainly doesn't take up much of my time.

I'm in the middle of a major house renovation at the moment, which I'm handling as DH is away a lot for work, and more liable to drop balls, but I wouldn't count that as 'life admin. Getting quotations, handling deliveries, tradesmen etc is a series of one-off tasks for a specific end. If I switch energy providers, that's a one-off, too. I don't remember there being endless 'correspondence' from last time I did it.

I'm currently checking our house insurance for cover on something -- but again, that's a one-off, not a regular event.

I don't have pets, but if I were complaining about poor service often enough for it to be a regular feature in my life, I'd be looking very carefully at why I was going so wrong with trades/restaurants etc.

I think it depends if you’re the kind of person who just gets on and does stuff or if you’re the kind of person who lets it build up/puts it off etc. I am the latter so feel like I do hate life admin. But I don’t actually complain about it to anyone and it doesn’t really affect my life.

But DH might ask me what I’m doing and I say ‘life admin’ - he uses the term too and does plenty of his own. I think because I spend so much time on my computer and emails etc at work, I hate also doing it in my free time. I would include things like researching a new home appliance (luckily my DH does that stuff).

It’s also why I don’t like online grocery shopping - it does from a physical task to an admin task (even though it’s not arduous it’s just another thing in my mind).

It's just stuff I need to do. If I categorise it at all, it's by urgency i.e. does it need done now or can it wait?

And then there are things like handling the correspondence if you switch banks or energy providers, complaining about poor service, managing quotes if you're getting home improvements done... what are these things if not life admin? What do you call them instead?

How often do you do any of those things?! I haven't done any of them in at least 4 years. Complaining about poor service is not a must (I find that quite funny as I'm more likely to add "leaving a good Tripadvisor review" to my to-do list than bothering to lodge any official complaint).

I do in fact call those things life admin but it's not really a significant proportion of my life.

I find it easier to categorise things into urgent life admin (such as sorting a plumber when the tap falls off) and life admin that can be done next week/another time/when I get round to it.

It's just stuff I have to do.

It's not so much the label as the enormity some people place on it that's laughable. You'll always see people listing things like "making doctors appointments for the children" or "buying school uniforms" and it's like... How often does that really come up, and how much time does it really take that you're including it on a list of chores like the sodding labours of Hercules?

Everyone has to make doctor's appointments and manage their bank account, but I just do it as and when it comes up. It doesn't occupy a single thought in my mind if I'm not actively doing it.

I think some people don't have much, so it doesn't feel like a lot. Over the years I have had one year-long period where between me and DH, we were doing...

• a house move for ourselves
• managing FIL health decline, then carers, then death and estate management/administration
• managing my mum's illness then her rental property that had tenants who wouldn't leave and a court case

• dealing with an ongoing health problem for my child, lots of referrals and appointments and getting supplements and meds sorted.

During this time it felt like the admin was both absolutely relentless and high stakes.

Other friends have had cancer, fostered children, had to get EHCPs for their children - these things are additional burdens.

I dont think the everyday is a huge deal though. I wouldn't count as life admin

• weekly aldi big shop
• paying my kids termly hobbies or music lessons

• car service, even car going wrong and needing repair or replacement is ok

Everybody does these tasks. Some people find labelling and categorising things helpful hence the catch-all term 'life admin', some people don't need to categorise things in this way. It's fine if you do, it's fine if you don't.

But being critical of someone for categorising their tasks in this way or using a catch-all term like 'life admin', claiming that is doesn't exist...that marks you out as a prick. These people are best ignored.

Most of the times I see ‘life admin’ and ‘mental load’ being used, it is being used to beat a husband with because they are not doing enough in terms of house chores or child related things. I’m not entirely sure why we need to label them anything or what’s wrong with saying I’ve a few jobs to do.

I am adopting messages immediately!! “Sorry I’ll be late for that meeting I’m attending to my messages” has such a dramatic and mysterious ring to it

Surely its just being an adult. It doesn't actually take that much time.

It’s the weight of the term, not the fact there are tasks. For me, it’s simply my to do list and I happily chip away when I have time. I don’t see it as a big deal, and most things are automated or have automated reminders.

I call these 'messages'. I love how old fashioned it sounds. My Grandmother would put her banking etc into a leather shopping bag and set off to run a message. Bills in those days had to be paid at the electric board or the post office. Now we do everything on the phone. No gloves or hat required.

It’s not a big thing - DH and I divide things up between us - he’ll take DC’s for new shoes and clear out their wardrobes of clothes they have grown out of whilst I book the boiler service and arrange for the car service to be paid. Haven’t found it complicated.

Yes.

I've never encountered the term 'life admin' until I met a woman who used it about 10 years ago. I had absolutely no idea what she meant until I realised she just meant 'paying bills', 'going to the doctors', and 'renewing the car insurance'. I've still never heard it used in real life.

These things take so little time in reality that I just do them as an when required and pay bills by DD.

I'm not even sure what people include. Making a shopping list? Going shopping? Cleaning out pets? Replacing candles? I don't know. It's just doing stuff.

these are my banking life admin jobs:

once a year renewing insurances
Usually once a month checking bank account and moving money around
reading utility meters and updating them online. Possibly shopping around every few years

everything else is on a direct debit?

I understand the relentless primary school parent mail and online school dinner payments are an annoying level of admin but not a full time job

people go to the dentist and opticians every 6 months/year so that’s not much admin either?

I don’t have an elderly parent and don’t have much other admin so I don’t find it a lot of work