Does anyone have a PA for personal/home admin ?

[floooooofy]

I work FT and am seriously considering hiring someone. I cannot keep up with the amount of personal/home admin I constantly have. Add in Christmas planning too - which is fast approaching - and I cannot cope.

Would be interested to know if anyone uses a PA for their personal/home admin.

Oh and it really doesn’t take any time to “manage” a PA. I sent an email with essential information on when I started working with her. I email her with tasks and she does them. If she has a question she texts me and I reply with a yes or no or whatever. Easy.

No judgement here because I have considered doing this too but one of the things that leaped out at me was that it sounds like at least DC1 is not a little child - if this career choice is so important to them, can they not do more of the running? And TBH some of the chores more generally

The thing I find is that in reality most of the stuff that I need to do on the life admin front requires so much info from me that it's not really worth outsourcing.

But there are things that are easier to outsource - cleaning, gardening etc

I would also try to get a cleaner who is happy to help with other things - ours isn't one of those "I clean not tidy" types, she basically will just make herself useful. If it's a busy week and I can't find another slot, I will get the grocery order delivered while she is there, she puts it away, if we have guests coming, I ask her to make up the spare room etc

You’re post has gathered sneering and negativity @floooooofy but I think if you feel it would help you then why not.
maybe start with trying to get some order into all of this yourself, and see if that helps first. I get your point, working and being a mum is hard. Take an afternoon off work if you can, no distractions and do all the non schooling stuff, pet stuff, car stuff etc you might find after sorting all that, the other things feel more manageable. I set myself one night a week for a couple of hours to do life admin to help me keep on top of it all x

It depends! People have all different sorts of lifestyles. If you have two homes, more than one car, pets, children at primary school and run your own pt business, and are sorting carers for your elderly parents, I think there would be plenty of work to fill 2 mornings a week (outside of work stuff I mean).

It makes sense to me if we channel most of our efforts in to the things that we are uniquely good at, or bring us the most reward, whether that’s in earnings or time, and out-source the other stuff.

I outsource my cleaning and it has the added benefit that I have to keep a tidy home for the cleaner, plus, when she has finished and done a much better job than I could have done in the available time, it always inspires me to go and do one little area of decluttering, like a drawer of a shelf. So the benefits are more than just the work itself ifyswim.

I imagine with someone who manages admin professionally, you would learn all sorts of time-saving tips and tricks.

Why not though ? People pay for cleaners, gardeners and maintenance people. Though it would cost they could also save you money shopping around for insurance, utilities and holidays.

As well as some having more admin than others (SEN is a big factor) some just find it harder than others. I'm tech savvy and fairly organised but also a bit anxious and so when say my car insurance needs doing I go on comparison websites then get bogged down in all the detail when I click through to the individual insurers and before I know it a couple of hours have passed and I am still undecided. Whereas others probably click on the cheapest one or two, quick read through, pay, job done. Also all my family are ND, so I give them varying degrees of support (DS needs support for most admin tasks, DD and DH just need constant reminders as they are ADHD and very forgetful). It means I am carrying 4 people's to do lists in my head/notebook not just mine, I am working on getting them to use organising techniques but it's slow progress.

Well, some of these could have been done in the time it took you to write this post.

Now you've got a list at least. Work through it and stop procrastinating on Mumsnet 🤷🏼‍♀️

If you can afford it and it would add value to your life, why not! When I was a child my DH ran his own business and had a PA who worked a hybrid of personal and work tasks. On the personal side she would manage his travel, organise things like dry cleaning, house repairs, external parties like the cleaner, dog walker, paying bills etc. She was fantastic and worked with him for around 15 years. At first there's bound to be some time "wasted" on explaining etc but once you're in a rhythm that should cease to be an issue. The one thing I would say is it takes a lot of trust to feel comfortable sharing your life so intimately with someone so this should be taken into consideration. Also, a PA generally won't do any housework or childcare. It could be that a nanny/housekeeper is more suitable.

I'm a part time virtual PA and do more Personal admin work then I do business admin!

And these are all things I do, it's not as strange as you think it is! People outsource big things so why not the small things. I can sit at my computer for an hour and get done a bunch of small things that would take my client 2/3x that purely because I have the time and no distractions.

This morning I did 2 hours, 1 for each client.
Client 1 - rang bastard fucking Qatar airlines to fix a problem on their holiday booking, I was on hold for 38 minutes and in that time arranged a return of 2 parcels (these clients are local to me so I will also do the physical return), sourced their chosen dog food on sale and emailed the kids holiday camp with the info they asked for.

Client 2 - arranged a return of a faulty item (they are in another country so will do the physical return themselves), ordered the kids school uniform and rang a store to see if an item was in stock (ill get a call back about that later)

Between work, kids, distractions, prioritising other tasks, you may not be able to do them and they get forgotten or pushed, hiring someones whose sole job it is for X hours to get shit done, means they prioritise it

There’s some good advice on this thread!

Like a PP it works best for me to take a few days unpaid leave (or reduce my hours for a few weeks, which has the same effect) as what I struggle with is the headspace to think through the more complicated admin things. I prefer to do it “my way” and in doing this I can do it without distraction. But that only works as I have a flexible employer, and don’t have other things grabbing my attention or throwing curveballs iyswim and I can add in some downtime. And I don’t get paid that much (my DH does, so it wouldn’t be silly for him to do similar)

But it wouldn’t work for everyone and it makes sense to outsource whatever lifts the load in the most sensible way OP

I didn't know this existed. How would I go about finding someone? I need someone to organise things like this

My EA at work used to be a full time PA for a very wealthy family. It sounds amazing.

What age is DC1??

I don't but the company i work for offers this service at really reasonable prices- feel free to DM me if you'd like me to send you their website x

Zero judgment and there’s nothing unreasonable about this at all. There’s a book called who not how, it’s about delegating m, it focuses on the workplace but a lot of examples are domestic. Delegating tasks to someone else who’ll do them quicker and better and give you back that time, is essentially paying for you time. Which as a working mum is very valuable

Sorry to divert the thread, but those of you who are Virtual PAs, how do you get into it? Is it self employed/through an agency?

Yes I do I also have a cleaner , gardener and a declutterer / organiser. This is due to ND and I wouldn’t cope otherwise

This is an amazing idea. I am a massive procrastinator and would love this. My life juggle sounds similar to yours op. I know someone who used to do this as a job. Maybe one day I will hire her!

I suspect the big problem with personal admin is data protection. You'll find that if they eg phone the insurers about a car insurance quote that they'll get no further. Or they have to pretend to be you, which I guess is an option.

I did have a job a few years ago with a concierge service included but that was more to arrange presents, find products etc. It might go some way towards helping though.

I've met a few virtual PAs via networking groups - some work via franchises eg Pink Spagetti and others just set up by themselves.

I have sort of done this. I started helping a woman who ran her own business & that evolved to helping her personal life too.

It was things like liaising with her gardener, cleaner, etc. booking travel & transport. Lots of researching for things to do on holiday, weekends away, xmas which actually can take more time than you think. Lots of trips to the PO to return shopping.

I also helped with some accounts stuff.

I have dc now & if I won the lotto would get one!

I’d love someone to do this for medical appointments.

Really? I don’t have that much admin. What on earth are you doing?