To not understand claims that life admin is 'not a thing'

[LabradorsInThePond]

I keep reading this on MN threads about organisation, time management etc. And that the life admin tasks of renewing insurances and checking mortgage rates can't take up that much time. But I spend a huge amount of time in the throes of life admin. We live a pretty normal, busy family life. I work 4 days in a professional role and can easily spend the 5th day (or at least half of it) in the throes of dreaded life admin.

My list tomorrow extends to twenty three separate items. None of which involve renewing insurances, but they do include buying clothing items (Scout shirt etc.), paying instrument hire, photocopying medical reports for school, booking airport parking, collecting worming tablets, booking a restaurant, buying zoo tickets, arranging a delivery of flowers for mum's birthday, an online grocery shop, buying a thank you gift, arranging a birthday party, booking a roofer, buying new windscreen wipers, emailing the GP, updating kids' Nimbl cards, finding a way to teach DS about dividing decimals, paying various people online etc.

None of these are yearly tasks, and next week there will be another 23 items to complete. It is relentless. DH does most of the house and long-term financial admin and he's also executing his father's too-complicated will, which makes my 23 items look like peanuts.

Do we just have an over-committed life, or does anyone one else find (what others consider non-existent) life admin burdensome and time-consuming? What am I doing wrong here?

I agree - takes me ages.

I agree op endless. I try and do a few bits in the month but I have a window in morning to do it. But full T is not easy trying to sort stuff. You right its an endless list lol

Most of those are 2-5 min jobs that I fit in around my full time job to be honest. I wouldn't take a full day to do them. I also automate stuff - the wormer gets posted to me vs me having to collect for example.

I find that it comes in waves. This week is insanely busy but that's because I'm getting married next week then having a 2 week holiday, plus there are 2 family birthdays, a Ruby wedding and father's day in that time. I've not counted up the items on my mental to do list but I'm willing to bet it's more than 23! However once all that's over life should quieten down for a while

I got stuff like that in during the day. It takes minutes. But I guess if you save it all up it seems like loads.

Today I put money on DSs lunch account - a minute tops
Will order wormer (thanks for the reminder!) two minutes.

I guess if you've a flexible job it's easier.

I manage all these tasks too, but I have to admit that I hate spending evenings or weekends queuing on the phone to speak to bank or whoever. I really hate it, it's the hour of your life you're not getting back.

Doing an online shop I wouldn't consider life admin and it's considerably less time consuming than going to the supermarket.

I find it hard to believe that of the others you have 23 comparable items week in week out.

There's never been an easier time to do things like make online payments, book restaurants/tickets online. Things like booking a roofer are a once in a decade type thing surely? These days with phone app banking I can be boiling a kettle, remember I have to pay the dog walker and have it paid before the kettle has finished boiling.

I've always fitted those things in around work, but I would do one or two per day. Today I've called the bank to close an account during my lunch break for example. Yesterday I called school about something and picked something up from the vets. I get how you might save jobs up if you have a day off in the week but I've never found it necessary to have a non working week day to get them done.

Agreed. Some of these I wouldn’t count as ‘life admin’, either — things like booking a restaurant, zoo tickets, or teaching a child a maths technique.

I agree OP and I don't see how people fit it in around a full time job unless their kids are older and more self sufficient (or unless when they are at work they are on their phones sorting out personal stuff out which is what quite a lot of my colleagues do, rather than doing the job they should be doing).

This.

Most people just crack on and do things without having to compartmentalise them and then give it a title.

It's just part of life.

Tasks expand to fill the time available. Allocating yourself an admin day means you will spend a day doing admin.

I like those sorts of activities. They're life aren't they? Maybe a change of mindset is needed.

I just do most of those things online as and when. I'm playing Lego with my DS now while I do an online supermarket shop. I procrastinate more if I have to make a phone call but that's quite rare these days. If there are big things like a house move, I can see that taking up more time but otherwise, I don't consider life admin to be particularly taxing. I could book a restaurant while having a wee for example!

Saying I do it during the day is not the same as saying life admin doesn’t exist.

OP of course it exists

If you do a bit every day it may feel like less but it’s just as much.

My issue with it is not the time it takes to do the jobs which isn’t too much, it’s the mental capacity to keep having to remember and think about these things. I use to do lists but there’s still a lot of headspace needed to make sure nothing gets missed.

That’s why DH saying “just tell me what I need to do” isn’t that helpful- doing the job isn’t the hard part, it’s realising it needs doing and remembering to do it. Basically being the manager rather than the junior.

It does amuse me when some people try and dress up life admin as something that takes a lot of time. Most of us just get stuff done on our lunch break or when out and about. A lot of those jobs can be done online or only take a few minutes.

My mil likes to tell us she is so busy. She had the dentist, had to get the shopping and out for lunch. I don’t know how she copes .

Life admin is definitely a pain, and takes longer since we have "choices" about everything. I'm not convinced we save that much either.

However with many of the things on your list (paying instrument hire, ordering scout shirt etc) it would have been quicker to just do them than put them on a list. And other things could be done in an easier way (the worming tablets could be posted). I think collecting them all in one list makes the task look more formidable than it really is.

I don't understand claims that it IS a thing. It's not like it's a massive project. How do you think people who work full-time manage? They just fit those things into their day.

I have loads too and it really gets me down. I find I can get lots done when I WFH. Not because I'm not working, but in that 5 mins/hour where I take a break to make a cup of tea or whatever, I can get a personal task done. But otherwise I can spend hours on this stuff, and we don't even have kids !

Tasks expand to fill the time available. Allocating yourself an admin day means you will spend a day doing admin.

So true.

23 items a week that take 3 mins each on average is an hour.... if you're taking longer than that i suspect a lot of procrastinating!

Though you have reminded me to book airport parking so thank you

Some of those are specific to your situation, most of them are things which people just get on with. They don't take that long for the most part.

Most of the tasks on your list could be done in one half an hour or so block whilst you have a cup of coffee or eat your lunch. I can’t work out how you’d stretch it to an all-consuming day-worth of tasks, nor how you’d have that many things to do on a daily basis.

It sounds like you’re over-complicating things rather than that you have a complicated life.

In the time you took to write this email, you could done half those items on line

YANBU. A generation ago there would be a person at home full time doing all of this.

Just like in the workplace. Years ago, tasks like writing a letter, etc., would have been expected to take ages and professional workers had secretaries to carry out a lot of tasks - now those have been absorbed into everyday jobs, so we are all (at home and work) expected to keep on absorbing new admin tasks that either would not have existed or would have taken a much longer time and more labour to do beforehand.

When I first started work, if a manager wanted to send a letter to a client, they sent for me, dictated it to me, I gave the handwritten dictation to a secretary who typed it up, sent it back to me on paper to correct, I then took it back to the manager and (usually he) corrected it, then it went back to be retyped, I collected it and delivered it to the manager in a folder, he signed it, I took it back to the secretary, she addressed and franked it and then went out to deliver the letters to the post office at the end of the day.

Five years later the manager just wrote a letter, printed it off and sent it himself - or sent an email. So all that secretarial work disappeared — BUT the labour of writing the letter didn’t, it just got absorbed into the manager’s workload. And because letter sending became quicker, more letters/emails got sent and needed replying to.

That’s happened to all of us in varying ways. Certain kinds of labour have disappeared (a housewife washing clothes by hand, etc.); but the work of running a household hasn’t just all gone away because some of it has changed shape, even if it’s got quicker and easier. Someone still had to put the clothes in the machine and take them out, even if we pretend that a full time housewife isn’t needed any more. Same with all of the other work required to run a home, office etc. It’s still there even if capitalism requires that we pretend it’s all now weightless and easy (which it isn’t, not really).

The majority of these kind of tasks expand to take up as much time as you allow them. Paying dinner money/instrument hire/school trip, ordering flowers, buying zoo tickets and booking a restaurant take minutes online. The sort of thing I do either while the kettle boils or while commuting or in the snatched moment while waiting for a meeting to start. If you know what you are buying e.g the scout uniform and the gifts you can do online etc. It would have taken much longer to do in person even 10 years ago.
The only things that might be lengthier are organising a birthday party and a roofer but how often do you do those.
I work full time and have two young kids and manage to do it all. My husband splits it with me. My SIL works full time and is a single mum and manages it all. My MiL is retired and can spend a whole day just deciding where to do her online shop this week. If you had to do it round working 5 days a week you just would do it