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?

Things that need doing it should be more streamlined now but seems the opposite with so much choice

for most of us it’s part of every day life that doesn’t take up too much time and can be done in between other tasks (recently researched and paid for travel insurance when Im shop queues) but on odd occasions can take up lots of time (ie. remortgaging) for some especially when medical issues are involved it can take up a huge amount of tome

like many at the moment I’m looking at mortgages this is only once every now and again

it’s the jobs many don’t actually like doing but they have to be done

Oh, they are all doing stuff too - everyone is flat out. It's just become this massive week-long thing.

I'm talking at least one if not two large 12+ people dinner parties in the week up to Christmas Day (one hosted at our house, one at other family members but black tie sort of thing so almost as stressful to attend as host with getting everyone ready and all the small talk etc). Huge family meal on Christmas Eve with several courses. Then midnight mass. Then host a big champagne brunch on Christmas Day for about 12 people. MIL usually cooks the main meal in the evening but again it's evening dress etc. Then we host a Boxing Day party for friends and family - sometimes up to 40 people.

We're not in the UK. And this has become the tradition - it can be a lot of fun but it's exhausting and takes a lot of work and planning.

@celestialsphere

passports - every 10 years if you are lucky but in reality every 3 years as the dates don’t line up
getting best deal on annual bills - annual
house diy or decoration - every 7 years or so
planning à holiday - for me about 4 times a year but could be less
annual vaccinations - annual
hospital appointments inc doctor and dentist - annual
school related admin - all year
care for elderly relatives - four times a lifetime for a couple
Christmas prep inc research, ordering, wrapping, delivering - annual
Buying items for a new baby like a pram - once a lifetime
wedding planning - hopefully once a lifetime
ivf - this was a 3 year process for us for one child. So more time for more children
Buying a new car - every say 5 years
moving house admin - every say 15 years
buying items for children’s hobbies - annual
pets vet visits and vaccinations - annual

m’as a younger person a lot of this stuff very easily clashes so feels like more stuff to do. For someone who has adult children and is in a forever house, the list is obviously much shorter.

why did it take 3 years of ‘admin’ for your IVF? That’s very far outside the norm (never taken more than 5 months from initial consultation to transfer the 3 times I’ve done it) and not much, if any paperwork either, appointments yes, but wouldn’t consider that time consuming ‘life admin’

many on here are making really simple tasks sound like a full on job, that’s the issue with the phrase life admin, and those that use it as a reason they’re always so busy.

That's just mental🙈
We do traditionally 3 days of Christmas with different sides of families. I don't think I would be doing all that above even if I liked the family😂

What's even worse is we've just done 5 days of similar family dinners and parties exactly one month before for Thanksgiving - and that involves a flight across the other side of the country. I married into a super social family!

Your list demonstrates my point rather than yours. Most of the items don't take that long in the first place and those that do (e.g. wedding planning) are so infrequent that on average very little of your time will be spent on them.

I hve to fly to change my passport or national ID. The trick is to make them expire about same time by losing a passport by accident in your sock drawer just about the time ID also needs renewing.

Lifehack

It’s the stuff we used to do without even thinking about it. Now it’s apparently hugely stressful “mental load”.

@InCheesusWeTrust

and not much, if any paperwork either, appointments yes, but wouldn’t consider that time consuming ‘life admin’
many on here are making really simple tasks sound like a full on job, that’s the issue with the phrase life admin, and those that use it as a reason they’re always so busy.

This is the essence of the issue with this thread - some people are fixed on the idea of admin meaning paperwork. And I guess reacting to something people are saying about being busy.

Yes, some people are using the phrase 'life admin' to mean everything outside of sleeping, eating and leisure. Some are using it for the extra chores that come up outside of regular stuff. But either way the end result is some people are busy because of stuff in their lives. I don't understand why this is an issue or why choosing a phrase like life admin to describe it is an issue.

My Christmas example above. It's a unique family issue - two months of exhausting holiday schedules that takes an extraordinary amount of time from mid November onwards. My chores/tasks/todo list/'life admin' for those two months takes a lot of time - I then have no extra time for anything extra.

I'm not lying about how busy I am, I'm also not complaining about it - but I'm telling people who want stuff from me in those last two months of the year it's the reason why I am busy.

Other people on this thread have stuff that comes up every month that others don't.

@celestialsphere had care for elderly relatives at four times a year between a couple - at one point in my parents' lives they were taking care of their parents, great aunts, elderly cousins between them - it meant tasks four times a week, 16 times a month, that's 192 times a year between them. If they were counting that as life admin then that's clearly a significant amount.

Sorry tagged the wrong person with the elderly care list @XjustagirlX

But your point also @celestialsphere what if you are wedding planning for several children four years in a row.

The point is you can't tell someone else they don't have life stuff that takes a lot of time if you don't know what their life stuff is.

It would be pretty unusual for a parent to plan even one child's wedding let alone four nowadays! We're not in the 1950s.

Well again, that just shows how different people have different lives. I'm in a current social circle where that's very common and hosting at home is frequent too so the planning involves every single detail from hiring the tent to the cutlery, to the staffing etc.

Again - everyone's 'life admin' is varied and comes at different points in their life.

And again, I don't even really use that phrase but I understand where other people are coming from when they do.

I think we need to specify countries here in some matters tbh

@PoundOfNesh my ivf took 3 years of so much admin

• booking gp appt to get initial referal
• so much research and reading books on how to get naturally pregnant
• attend hospital for my 3 miscarriages one ectopic.
• attending nhs investigations
• Covid cancelled nhs investigations so research différent private clinics
• attend private clinic blood tests
• Attend nhs procedures x3
• book private procedures x 2
• travel to london for private sperm tests and consultation
• all these nhs procedures I needed to phone every few days to see why I heard nothing and they couldn’t give me a date and then trying to get a cancellation coz of Covid.
• weekly fertility acupuncture for over a year
• Phoning nhs as i did not attend even though I wasn’t sent an appt.
• ivf nhs referral appt
• All ivf forms snd consents
• 6 cycles of ivf one after the other including consultations and multiple scans more than normal as lining develops slowly so attending every two days for over a week.

as you can see that is a lot of admin to deal with while working full time and it is completely overwhelming.

@celestialsphere but what I’m saying is that in those 4 months that bride will probably be struggling with life admin. And it may also clash with a new house move or hospitals etc. So at different points I time people will struggle with those big capital tasks.

Because everyone in one country always has exactly the same stuff going on in their lives?

I'm in the USA right now but am from the UK - my life here is not hugely different to my life in the UK.

I have friends in the UK who also have very busy lives because of the different things going on in their family/household.

So is it just the phrase or do some people just not believe that others can be busier than them?

But we can when those people list their life stuff and it boils down to an hour a year.

that’s what this thread is, people giving examples of their ‘life admin’ and 95% of them being things that don’t take a lot of time, or mental effort.

Attending medical appointments is not admin.

I’m sorry but this is just getting silly now.

That's why it's called Life Admin

Attending medical appointments is not admin.

Aggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - no it's not 'admin' if your definition of admin is paperwork.

But we are talking about admin in the context of the phrase 'life admin' - yes a new modern wanky phrase but it's like 'wife work', 'work wife' 'hangry' 'netflix and chill' etc etc

It's something (some) people are using to bring together all the chores or tasks they have to take care of to keep their life functioning in the way that they choose.

And* that last bit 'in the way that they choose'* is the important bit - they might be choosing to spend 2 hours researching the best hotel pool, and the best restaurant, and the most convenient transport options and then have to discuss it with 4 other family members before they book their holiday where you could simply book the place you went to last year - so your 'book holiday task' takes you 20 minutes - theirs took them 4 hours over 3 days.

Then you might say well if they are choosing to spend 5 hours booking a holiday when I can do it in 20 minutes why are you complaining?

They are not complaining - just letting you know why they don't have time to meet you for a coffee.

It's just stuff that needs to be done on a regular basis isn't it. Just part of life. Not sure why some people feel they are the only ones who do it. 😂

And 'sorting out passports' only needs to be done every ten years so hardly a regular burden on ones time.

Exactly this.

I hate the term.

Doing normal life “stuff” isn’t Admin, it’s just doing things that need doing and it’s no different to the kind of stuff that everyone else does too.

I honestly don’t understand why “Life Admin” is classed as such a huge factor of everyone’s life…. let alone use it as a reason not to work.

Yes, it is just the stuff done on a regular basis - I don't see anyone claiming they are the only ones who do it. However, I do see people claiming that regular tasks take the same time for everyone.

Passport example - if you have two kids under 16 with dual nationality and therefore two passports that's two passports renewed every five years per child. And you can't do them at exactly the same time because you often have to send off both passports to each different country's adjudicating authority. And you've got to time it so that it doesn't interfere with any trips. So that's eight passports renewed within a ten-year period not counting your own. Which means I'm doing a new passport for someone nearly every year.