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?

Or choose to get lumbered with, like writing Christmas cards for their other half's family. I've never done that. In fact DH probably writes more than I do these days (although I will be sending extra ones this year to use up stamps!)

Christmas is only once a year and isn’t much extra thought/admin when you divide it into the total number of days in the year. The amount of time you're spending per day on Christmas dinner must be tiny. If it genuinely would work out as a lot of time, it’s because you enjoy it rather than because it's a job that has to be done. The same goes for the other jobs you mentioned as “capital jobs”. Many would only once every few years or even once in a lifetime. The exception perhaps is hospital appointments but I wouldn't call seeing a healthcare professional admin.

I thought it was pretty clear

you said you don’t enjoy the posts implying you are a halfwit.

so we now know why you’re being so sensitive, you’re seeing those questioning life admin as being that time consuming as a personal attack. Since you seem to struggle with it

Pre printed is the way to go 😁

Yes I struggle with it, ok?

I imagine most people who have to try and put a care package in place for an elderly parent while living 300 miles away would struggle too! I am not ashamed that I find it hard.

@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

No starter, no. Cranberry sauce we already have/buy. We already have wine. Snacks are bought from supermarket. My mum is in charge of crackers. We don't do a cheeseboard. Setting the table involves a candle arrangement that we've had for years that you put tealights in, and Christmas napkins. DH does the shopping and goes a few days ahead so it's not superbusy. No we don't have to collect or visit elderly relatives because they're all dead or fit enough to bring themselves although this year we may go to my mum's. Don't do church, but do do parkrun. Oven timings are easy because I am good at cooking roast dinners (not much else on the cooking front). And actually there's nothing at all wrong with chocolate and socks. Better than stuff you don't want or need (although last year I got a Garmin running watch from DH which I did want!)

Only "life admin" task is ordering and collecting turkey.

@Ashadeofgreen55 I hear you. I struggle with it too.

The tone of some of the posts on this thread is sneering and really unpleasant. Some people really don't seem to understand that life admin is really fucking difficult for some people for multiple reasons. The sneerers are blessed if they but knew it. Their blessed state can change very quickly which some of them will learn down the line.

Thank you SquirrelSoShiny

Thank you. All this shit about buying tights for kids, dropping at brownies, making dinner. It’s not life admin it’s day to day life

But life admin is just a phrase to use to describe what you (and others) are calling day-to-day life.

I call it chores or the to-do list in my house. Because I work from home I have a running list which is split into two - on one side of the paper it has Work To Do, and the other it has House To Do - but I include everything not work on there so kid's school stuff, family stuff etc.

Obviously, I don't actually write down the every things like 'wash up, make bed' but in my head I have them on the house chore list for timing's sake.

Some weeks the House To Do list that I write down is huge because everything comes at once - passports, visa applications, school medicals, pet vaccinations etc

If someone invited me for a coffee on one of those weeks I would be too busy and it would be because of .....life admin (although I wouldn't describe it that way but it's perfectly understandable what someone means if they do describe it that way.)

So on weeks where all the day to day life stuff means you don't have a spare afternoon to go for a coffee, or a spare night to go to a movie with a friend what phrase do you use - 'too busy'? If someone said what's making you so busy this particular week what would you say?

I wouldn't use life admin myself - I'd probably say 'I've got so much extra stuff on this week'

I do think lots of the eye rolling is because admin is meaning more of a paperwork stuff.
If you lok at it from for example business side. Imagine b&b.
Admin would be orders and subsequent invoices, taxes, bookings etc.
Changing beds, cooking breakfast, cleaning bathrooms would simply never be considered admin. Job, yes, but not admin.

I think that's what's grating.

@celestialsphere maybe the last sentence is the confusion. I would call hospital stuff life admin. I use that term because it’s not work or social or general living. It’s a boring task that’s important and needs doing but isn’t daily or weekly.

i think maybe people only think of admin as paperwork type activities. Which is why you are saying it’s not admin.

also I wouldn’t split Christmas dinner over the whole year. Maybe only the week before. And that week might be focused on Christmas but the other months will be equally focussed on some other capital jobs.

I have to say my main takeaway from this thread is how jealous I am about the people who have these really easy-chilled Christmases with just the one easy roast dinner on Christmas day.

@reigatecastle like i said to a previous poster, I’m happy for you that you cope with it all which I expect comes from years of experience. But lots of other people don’t cope with all that for various reasons and it’s not nice to minimise it for other people.

If people can't cope with bog Christmas they need to scale down and simplify. Christmas should be relaxing time with family and or friends or by themselves, whatever flots the boat, but it shouldn't be weeks of stressing. It's not worth the health.
We made our easy and if something doesn't go to plan, well, it didn't go to plan 🤷🏻
We have 2 bloody Christmas dinners as well😂 (merging cultures, innit).

It is self harming martyrdom to do something someone cannot cope with. It is not worth it

I don't know why phone is obsessed with bog instead of big 🙄

Sometimes you're in the minority though and would be the one making everyone else miserable if you insisted on a quiet one. So I suck it up, I don't complain about it though as I'm choosing the path that causes me the least pain - upsetting people is worse for me than killing myself with the big elaborate Xmas.

Its every single thing you do that's not sleeping, doing paid work or enjoying yourself, apparantly. (Though some people stretch it to include things that others consider part of enjoying themselves, like booking holidays, for example)
In short, it's simply a way to decribe the everyday minutiae of life as though its akin to a paid job. Some people like to make a song and dance out if it, most people just get on with it without fuss and barely register it. Just as they did in all the years before it was given a name.

Well then they all have to pitch in. It's really not on to have one person stressed like that.

For me, it nearly always involves ringing somebody (such as my local council) and hanging on the phone for about 46 years.

@InCheesusWeTrust firstly you are just focussing on Christmas. People on this thread are saying that Christmas is just one item of life admin.

secondly who said anything about being so stressed about Christmas and not enjoying it. It’s perfectly possible to have a life admin list and also enjoy Christmas.

We focused on Christmas a bit because the conversation between few posters developed that way...

The rest of my posts were about general admin. People can hold two conversations at once

This is just the height of martyrdom. If the majority want big Christmas, let the majority organise it. ‘Upsetting people is worse for me than killing myself with the big elaborate Christmas’ sounds so silly and OTT. You’re either a total doormat or in a potentially abusive/toxic family situation if you think the only alternative to you ‘sucking it up’ and doing everything is people being ‘upset.’ Are they all incapable of any tasks?

Obviously you wouldn't split Christmas organising over the whole year. I just mean at it takes a very insignificant proportion of your life overall. Most of the other things you mention are similar or even less frequent. They don’t add up to much time.