What are you life admin tips?

[WhatWillSantaBring]

I am permanently drowning in things to remember - when do the cars need their MOT, what's the expiry date of my DC's passport, when's the dog next due its flea treatment, pay the window cleaner, change the water filter etc etc. I can do it, but it takes up so much energy, I want to have a list I can check AND more importantly, that DP can also check.

How do you organise yourself to remember everything? Lists? Calendar reminders? Is there an app or a book?

Please spam me with your bright ideas, oh collective wisdom of the Mumsnet.

[Sadieeloise5687]

Wetnose are you my OH?! That does seem to be a lot of men’s systems amongst my friends!

[Fnib]

We're old school and have a calendar in the kitchen. It's a month view one with big squares with room to write stuff. We do different colours for different people. It looks very pretty by the end of the year.
Years of practice means we're all (both, now) are trained to look at it night at morning (I keep it on fridge door so that helps)
Current one is a Boxclever one purchased from amazon. It has birthday /doctor/vet etc stickers included so it's quite fun to use.

[Getmesomecoffee]

I used to be very disorganised, I think I have ADHD. google calendar + alerts has transformed things for me. (same with separate work calendar for work)
ynab app for money, has revolutionised staying on top of money admin
I love Trello for lists when I get round to using it but I forget to use it for weeks/months on end. Why? Any tips on how to be a better Trello user? I feel sure that this is the missing piece in making me a proper organised grownup!

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I use "Upcoming"

It's mainly for birthdays and anniversaries, but would work perfectly for all tasks which have a one year annual date.

For things like passports you could put the passports "birth" in as the start date then when it hits 10 years old it needs replacing. They give a reminder a week before, but it's very easy to scan down the list and see how far ahead annual dates are.

[chestnutshell]

You can set up reminder texts with DVLA for MOT.

[CompleteBarstool]

I tend to go for a multi-approach:

• A family calendar on the wall. On the back page I will add dates to that will need to be added to next years calendar eg. MOT due, home Insurance due for renewal etc
• Calendar on my phone - each entry has a reminder a set time beforehand eg. 24 hours before, an hour before

For particularly busy weeks eg. when DP is away so everything falls on me or at the end of term when there are loads of events going on, I find it really helpful to have a weekly planning sheet to refer to so I don't miss anything. I'll also put the weeks meals on there with reminders to get things out of the freezer etc if it is a really manic week!

[BertieBotts]

@Getmesomecoffee

I used to be very disorganised, I think I have ADHD. google calendar + alerts has transformed things for me. (same with separate work calendar for work)
ynab app for money, has revolutionised staying on top of money admin
I love Trello for lists when I get round to using it but I forget to use it for weeks/months on end. Why? Any tips on how to be a better Trello user? I feel sure that this is the missing piece in making me a proper organised grownup!

Look at what is different between trello and the other things. Why do you check those regularly but trello not? That's the kind of questions I now ask myself when I find something isn't working for me.

Perhaps there is a better tool than trello for what you're trying to do. Or perhaps there's some way you can change how you use trello in order to get the most out of it.

I mentioned above that I use it for meal planning and shopping lists. I used to have a task list on there too but I never checked it. I now use Google docs for that purpose because I realised it was not working for me on trello. I have that Google doc open in a tab on my browser at all times.

[yoshiblue]

I bullet journal as I have too much to remember these days and don't want to use online calendars - I like paper and pen.

I love bullet journalling as you can start with the video posted and then adapt it to your needs. I plan out each month, week and then micro lists for each days. I do lists in the back for all sorts - To Buy list, kids clothes lists, craft project notes etc.

My husband has started bullet journalling now, so managing his own to do lists though I do have to write the odd reminder for him from time to time.

[AliceMcK]

I’m another for google calendar. Both DH and I use it, everything is loaded, medical appointments, PE days, own clothes days, days off, mots, insurance etc...

In addition to that I make my own lists, usually on my phone these days but occasionally use paper. If we are going away I will list everything that needs buying, washing, packing. Then have a separate list for the last day, make sure things are unplugged, medication packed, check freezers (too many times I’ve come home to find the kitchen flooded because DH hasn’t shut the freezer).

[DarlingWithoutYou]

OP- are you Apple or Android?