Life Admin, what is it?

[OneSugarOneSpoon]

Have seen the phrase a few times now, where people have little free time as they're doing this " life admin" most days
What exactly is it? My bills go by direct debit, shopping on line, kids stuff from school doesn't take that long...so am I missing something?

Absolutely spot on.

Single mom of a child with complex special needs.

I have lots of paperwork and hospital appointments with ds, but a lot of the stuff listed seems less admin and more daily living. Cooking, shopping, drop offs. That isn't on top of being a parent, that is being a parent.

Get a grip

Just today I've had to complete two permissions/information sheets for clubs and trips, (15 minutes) pay for three activities/clubs, (10 minutes) renew a phone contract, (10 minutes) update my calendar with the schools list of dates for upcoming events (10 minutes).

That's 45 minutes and today is a typical day. On worse days I could also have car insurance, self assessment, school applications, open evenings, travel insurance dentist/MOT/doctor/hospital/vet/repair/optician/vaccination appointments to try and book while being kept on hold. There's always an endless list of things with schools that I need to fill out and even more things I need to pay for that are not on a direct debit.

My car insurance is always at least £60 cheaper to sort myself than to let it renew so I would consider that time well spent even if it takes an hour.

I think once my children are older or in less clubs I will have a lot less 'life admin' to do on a regular basis.

I try and minimise it as I can't make calls during work and I work 8-5 which rules a lot out!
So I take a day off when stuff is due, car insurance etc all due at the same time. On that day I do my contents insurance, car insurance, car goes in for MOT, service, get my blood tests done, and basically cram it all into one day even down to changing smoke alarm batteries and taking the cat to the vet (the garage is near the vet so it works well)

Medical stuff I can usually do via email and arrange appointments that way. Anything else involving a phone call has to be done when I'm on leave from work and I resent taking leave to deal with admin

Oh and I use comparison sites as they save all the details so it really is seconds if nothing has changed

None of it takes 30 seconds to do, not a thing. Organising kids appts, insurance, booking holidays, taking the cat to the vet, planning a birthday party, nothing ever takes 30 seconds. It takes longer than that just to find your phone to even start thinking about it

30seconds is a slight exaggeration but paying for a school trip is very easy using Scopay or whatever, it's not like them olden days when you had to write a cheque, fill in a form and find an envelope for it. I keep a few birthday cards in a drawer so finding them and writing one really is that easy. And how often do you need to take the cat to the vet? If it's every week because there's something wrong with them, that's one thing. But if it's an annual visit for vaccinations, well it's only once a year. Like getting the MOT done (which I book online). And I just let my insurance roll over.

And booking a holiday isn't "life admin", it's fun! Booking the car parking for the airport is the boring bit, but actually booking the holiday isn't a chore.

I expect a lot of the people who dont have life admin:

• don’t research for thé cheapest deals /bills
• go into a couple of shops and buy everyone’s Christmas and birthday presents thinking ‘that’ll do’. Any effort into good presents takes research and is life admin.
• probably don’t have a lot of social events to go to or a wide circle of friends. Or they just turn up without ever organising anything.
• probably have a job that they can stop thinking about at 5pm. A stressful job doesn’t really allow a lunch break doing admin tasks as people actually need to eat and relax.
• aldo probably think Christmas dinner is ‘just a Sunday roast’. I feel sorry for their family if no special effort is put into their Christmas meal which is obviously life admin.
• just action life admin tasks as and when they remember or become urgent.
• probably have already decorated their homes or don’t care how clean/tidy/decorated their homes are.

@SquirrelSoShiny

I have plenty of humanity and empathy thanks.

What is "disgusting" about musing that some things are just part of life?

We all go to the toilet, shit happens. It's just not something that requires a detailed list of "life admin" to achieve. Clearly there are a number of other hurdles if you have a physical disability, but I wasn't addressing that, merely responding to a pp who asked if going to the loo and wiping their arse should be listed under "life admin".

Are you a single parent?

Are you a single parent?

aldo probably think Christmas dinner is ‘just a Sunday roast’. I feel sorry for their family if no special effort is put into their Christmas meal which is obviously life admin

Christmas Dinner IS just a (larger) Sunday roast. The only difference is I do pigs in blankets. Well, DH does them. And we get a supermarket pudding and some custard. Family are quite happy!

There is no need to make life more difficult than it needs to be.

Also I don’t think life admin requires a sahp.

But it does mean if two people are working full time, then a lot of their evenings and weekends are taken up with life admin or as other people like to put it ‘tasks when living’.

Life Admin is just a stupid phrase covering the need to do things when running a house. Not that the amount of effort and time needed to pay bills and organise things should be ignored or underestimated.

Oh dear, your poor poor family. Maybe if you had a dedicated life admin list to martyr yourself to, they'd be better able to enjoy your 'special effort.'

I love that phrase by the way. Special effort. Because that's what it's all about, isn;'t it? How much effort you have put in. How can you make it look like you make the most super special effort, that your efforts in making lunch are above and beyond anybody else's? You make a longer list. You make the job sound bigger and bigger.

I wonder if those who like to list out their life admin perhaps feel less appreciated for those things they do, hence trying to make it sound more than it is.

When people are openly counting staying at home having a cup of tea as ‘something to do’ thus it’s life admin, it kind of proves the point many are making that people exaggerate

@Parker231 no, I'm a lone home owner
Admittedly I don't have children admin to do but I'm replying explaining how I do it with working FT, no ability to make calls in working hours and hospital appointments across three different hospital trusts (chronic illness)

Above and atm:
sorting out passports - need to do 2 before xmas.
plan half term activities/ days out/ book hotel
calling up clinic for appointment
calling up for dentist
post some presents

etc etc etc.

Maybe I skimmed too quickly, but has someone listed 'staying at home and having a cup of tea' as life admin?
I recall someone saying they were on hold for a while, but had to wait because of their houses room configuration or something, and then posters taking the piss out of that and adding in themselves as it fits their sneering narrative that having a cup of tea was life admin. But I don't recall anyone seriously actually listing that, but maybe I missed it.

That was too @PoundOfNesh

Yes, hence why it’s handy to read the thread.

@LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet considers waiting at home for someone to fix their broadband for a few hours as admin, because they had to remember to do it!

this is in addition to the many posters listing things such as general household chores and stuff that genuinely takes minutes, paying for a school trip for example.

This post is just everything 😂

People have listed things which either don't take much time or only have to be done once or twice a year.

'stuff that genuinely takes minutes, paying for a school trip for example.'

My goodness me, is this really that difficult to grasp?...
The opening post was to please list what you count as life admin.
People duly listed stuff.
Idiots then came and pulled the lists apart honing in on one thing each time.
Yes, many of the things on the lists take mere minutes, but here's the thing, and listen very carefully now, if your particular household has 30 things a day that take 2 minutes; well then you multiply 30 by 2 and that equals 60 minutes.
Call it what you will, it needs doing.

@reigatecastle So no starter, no cranberry sauce, no special drinks, no Christmas snacks, no arranging which family is coming over, no collecting family members, no crackers, no cheese board, no setting the table in a Christmassy way, no doing a quick tidy up of kitchen after cooking, no trying to get a delivery slot, no going to the supermarket when it’s super busy, no visiting other family members or going to church so trying to work out oven timings to fit in.

Let me guess, you spend Christmas with just your nuclear family and everyone gets chocolate or socks?