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

Run through a comparison sites don’t think I’ve ever spent more than 20 minutes

Also people in the UK you MUST hang onto the NHS for dear life because if you end up with an insurance model like the USA you will find you have ‘life admin’ coming out the wazoo.

For example DH has complex medical needs - GP recommends going to a specialist. I have to contact the insurance company to get a list of practitioners who are ‘in network’ meaning our co-pay to use will be in the hundreds of dollars rather than the thousands. Then I have to look up each one and see which one we prefer based on distance, reviews etc. Then I start phoning to see if we can get an appointment.

Then there are several forms to fill out to be admitted as a new patient.

If this doctor recommends a medication I have to go back to the insurance company and find out if they will pay for it. If not have to go back to the doctor and find out if there’s another option.

At any moment in time the insurance company can suddenly decide they won’t cover a medication and you get to the pharmacy and instead of a co-pay of $30 the medication now costs $500 for a month’s supply.

So then you have to go back to the insurance company and find out if there’s a similar drug by another name that they will pay for.

At a recent incident of this the insurance company had decided that if we get a 90 day supply from one specific named pharmacy on the other side of town to our regular one then the co-pay for my asthma inhaler would be $19 for the 90 day supply but if I wanted to get my regular pharmacy to supply a 30 day one then it was going to cost me $350 per inhaler.

you asked a question you got a response and my opinion, tends to be what happens on AIBU

its not personal towards you

many of us have busy lives, I certainly do compared to some not compared to others its not a competition

lots of us just don't need to bleat on about it all the time or validate our time to others

OK, so what if your circumstances chaned and you do have to contact your GP regularly, you couldn't get EVERYTHING done online and within a few minutes and there were banking tasks and other similar tasks you had to do regularly and for quite a few people. Would you consider it a 'thing' then?

This thread is starting to sound like all the WFH threads or that weird how often/long do you shower thread to me.

Why is it so hard for some people to understand/believe that other people often have a very different life and life experience to their own.

Some people have a lot of admin to deal with on a day to day basis because they have a more complicated family or are responsible for extra family members, or are dealing with specific organizations which create a lot of paperwork.

For my experience I’m not calling it ‘life admin’ - I’m calling it admin and it’s anything related to writing, phoning, filling out forms or dealing with things on a computer. And in my personal life I have an hour or more of it a day 3-5 days a week.

I guess if you all know people in real life who have exactly the same set up as yourself with no extra responsibilities and are constantly moaning about life admin the it must be annoying - but I’ve never met anyone like that in real life.

I mean, to be honest, I don’t really do anything with my car insurance that often. I go through a broker they send me an offer,I ring them up, see if they have a better offer and if not I just go with it. There is a little point in me going online to try and figure out another offer because usually there’s some sort of clause or something that I don’t understand. Do in theory the broker does it for me.

I suppose it depends on your own circumstances but I probably contact my GP once every couple of years, I dont need to do any banking its all online. Vets, dentist, insurances etc all online and takes a few minutes. I dont consider the need to label any of this its just part of life.

Its just boring things that need doing

those who go on about how stressed they are with life admin are usually stressed about something that most others juts get on with

To me it’s just general admin I’m always confused by the amount of of time people recon they have to devote to it
things like house or car insurance is literally a 15 minute task every 12months
most phone and energy companies are 2year contracts
to renew my ISA took 10 minutes tops

yet it’s as though some people have hours and hours of mental loads and admin tasks

But there's no such thing as "life admin", according to some people. And those who describe this stuff as work are just making a fuss.

If this stuff isn't "work" and it's just part of being an adult, then I don't need to do it, do I?

Last time I looked, I'm still an adult.

For me it is the headspace it all takes up - I have a to do list that reads like this

• return parcel to post office
• order Halloween costumes for kids
• book ballet exam and check if new shoes/ leotard needed
• secondary school application, check it has been submitted properly
• pay gardener when bill arrives (chase bill?)
• check whether parking ticket appeal was successful

I put stuff off and then it becomes urgent - if I just did the thing rather than just thinking about the thing I am pretty sure my life admin wouldn't feel so bad. I have been thinking about those Halloween costumes for two weeks now....

Some people absolutely do attempt to make out they're busier than anyone else. I'm on a committee for a sports club with such a person, and to hear her speak you would think she was the only one with a career, kids doing different activities (despite this being a club for kids, and we're all parents of kids in the club) and any number of other commitments.

I feel like it's a thing. Work full time so not one of those who says they can't work when kids are in school. Always something to be done, sorting out presents for parties, arranging playdates homework,brownies homework, looking at holidays, pets,school stuff. My husband is quite handy so always researching how to fix stuff and also we have solar panels and batteries and he's always fiddling about with the settings to optimise return depending on the weather- saves us a lot of money and keeps him happy 🤣.

I don't feel I need to label jobs like that, it's all so quick and easy to do now.

For example:

I have my direct debits set to leave my bank account on the first of the month, it takes seconds to check they've gone out. I then log into my accounts first thing in the morning whilst I'm having my cup of tea to ensure nothing fraudulent has happened. I'll move money around as and when it's needed, again by the app.

Doctors appointments for me or dc, I do that as and when one is needed. My GP surgery has an app and I request an appointment and wait for one to be sent. Dentist appointments are booked before we leave the dental surgery - the same with hairdressers, barbers and my nail salon.

I get emails when any insurances are due to end. I log into Compare the Market etc which doesn't take long as all details are stored and it's a quick check and either pay a new company and cancel the new one, or leave it as it is.

Every Friday I log into Parentpay and give consent, pay for trips or lunches (youngest dc on packed lunches now so that job has finished for a while).

School newsletters come in on a Friday and anything that needs input from me, or a trip, special lunch etc gets written down in the diary.

Every evening I check my diary for the next week. My diary comes everywhere and everything is written down as soon as I know about it.

I'd say my 'admin' takes 10 minutes a week, if that and doesn't take enough time to warrant a name.

They also exclude from their lists all the jobs outside the front door often done by her OH! After my husband died I found that putting up the outside lights for Christmas was a bloody cold, miserable job and don't get me started on chopping wood!

Once a year I shop around for insurance, and every week I move money into a bills account. I do a ‘big shop’ roughly every 10 days, and have meals mainly on rotation that we like, and will branch out into something else only if I feel like it. 4 loads of washing a week. Dentist every 6 months for me and 1 child, GP if sick. I do believe the term is overused, as most items on it aren’t daily, and this that are take no more than a couple of hours, meal prep, washing, and tidying up/ cleaning. I feel it’s very overused for many tasks which are intermittent and usually automated.

Yes I do. I've been on MN long enough to know people see being busy as a moral virtue

All my dc’s school payments and permission slips are done through the apps now! I assumed this was standard! Paper slips etc, entering the school, calling the school is something i rarely do! Unless I need to speak to a teacher etc and even that I ca do through a message service on the app for ds’s school. It’s great!