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?

True, just makes me think I'm sat watching too much TV when I should be doing stuff, makes me tired just reading this. 😂

This week:

Working every day despite being part time - nature of the job - attending urgent meetings that have to be held when everyone is available

Organising my mammogram for a time I can fit in to my work week

Attending an urgent scan around work with 24 hrs notice

Sorting finances as ex decided he can't pay as much maintenance

DD3 sent home from school with a head injury (mid meeting!)

Mother, abroad on her own, broke a bone (although fine) which was a worry

Blood tests and booking my Covid booster

Wallpapering the study

Dismantling DD3's bed and clearing her room - painting room and cleaning carpet - moving DD2's stuff in then doing the same with her room

Sorting medication for DD1 at Uni

Worrying when DD1 doesn't read my WhatsApp messages!

Trying to go to the gym and sleep!

Christmas /Birthday shopping for kids and family

Getting worming and flea treatment for the cats

It's just a lot to try and cram in and even remember

A new passport every year? Nope, still not seeing that as a major burden on time. I've done all my DCs in the last few months and it didn't exactly take days at a time.

So basically you are including your entire life in the definition of "life admin" including your job and sleep.😂

Isn’t life admin just “stuff which I need to get done”? It’s not about those tasks being a pain or taking ages or claiming that someone is more busy because they’ve listed them out.

I’m not an organised person at heart, so things like getting a passport renewed or booking kennels will slip my mind until the week before a holiday when suddenly it becomes urgent (and super stressful!)

By making a note of such “admin” and maybe scheduling an hour in the week to focus on these tasks, it stops me from having to take the DC to Swansea to get their passports renewed same day etc.

My husband will slot these sort of tasks into his day without noticing, me not so much 🤷‍♀️

well done except - work isn't life admin - the nature of my work makes fitting time to DO the other stuff difficult - and sleep - well I thought it was obviously a joke.

That wasn't my whole life though - just this past week

My ds has ADHD as do a few other members of my family and I have a lot of shared traits with them, a big one being a problem with executive function.

i notice that I have trouble getting started, organising, and keeping motivated with tasks.

I’ll often feel paralysed when thinking how to tackle something as simple as “make sure me and the children all have valid passports” (to stick with this example)

So, breaking it down into a series of smaller tasks, get digital photos, speak to headteacher and doctor about verifying id, schedule time to complete online forms, means that I’m not overwhelmed and I have a clear path to success.

Sleeping, worrying about your daughter, and being aware that your mother had an injury? Two of these are just having a thought. Some of them don’t even seem like tasks, much less ‘life admin.’ And some of them could be completely solved by letting a uni student (an adult living independently at uni presumably) sort their own medications.

It sounds like you have a somewhat busy life, but not that you’re snowed under with ‘life admin.’

A bit of snobbery?

It was positively dripping in snobbery.

I agree with PP a half arsed 'a bit' apology isn't proportionate for such a shitty post from you.

I hope you read the post in question back and felt embarrassed tbh, it made me cringe.

@celestialsphere but it does take up a lot of time if you are new to decorating or if you are doing a whole house up and it’s really run down.

And that’s my point FOR SOME PEOPLE it’s difficult, for others it’s easy. Why can’t people see that!

Again - no one is saying it’s a major burden.

it’s just part of the discussion with of different definitions of life admin alongside trying to explain to some posters that different people have different demands on their time.

eg for some people they only think about passports every ten years and are only dealing with one country for others it’s a more regular activity

eg for some Christmas takes a couple of days to sort out for others with more commitments it takes a couple of weeks or more.

AGAIN - no one is complaining about the time our choices are taking compared to others - just trying to get through to some posters who keep saying ‘nope you can get all that done in less than an hour because I do it like this’ and ‘nope that has no paperwork so it’s not admin’

Life Admin = (slightly wanky) phrase to mean all chores outside of work and social

Time taken up with life admin is different based on your personal circumstances.

@InCheesusWeTrust oh do fuck off 😂

I'm not suggesting that you are not busy with your job or life but you aren't really answering OP’s question of why life admin would itself take a lot of time. Most of stuff you mentioned wasn't admin (e.g. worrying about your DC or mother, sleep, job, wallpapering). Even the things that were life admin aren’t particularly time consuming (e.g. arranging a mammogram is just a phone call). Your claim that the jobs are all for this week seems unlikely too given you mention unless you do all your christmas and birthday shopping in one week of October,

@LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet wjy is it pathetic to google something when I’m genuinely interested in the answer?

also bit weird assuming I have a sad life. I actually have an incredible life and am very fortunate 😆

”life admin” is a phrase I hate but I do understand it - and to me it only includes things that are “administrative”.

• paying bills or querying errors, changing providers etc
• managing any subscriptions
• doing personal accounts/taxes
• making medical appointments for yourself/others
• prescriptions (ordering/picking up)
• Buying and sending cards etc
• tidying/throwing out paperwork etc
• making a shopping list (often including things like working out exactly what kind of shoes it is your kid needs for school trip which was written on a bit of paper three months ago you now can’t find)
• Library books
• Sending or replying to messages/emails that are personal but not “fun” chats eg filling in RSVP for a wedding, arranging to view a flat

i don’t count things like cooking and cleaning - that’s not admin is it. But for some reason I do sort of count clearing out the fridge because it’s always part of making the shopping list.

Life Admin = (slightly wanky) phrase to mean all chores outside of work and social

Most people wouldn't define life admin as everything you do outside work and socialising. The clue is in the word “admin”. Even if you think it does include absolutely everything e.g. housework and shopping, isn't it obvious that OP doesn't?

Being on the phone to the doctors or similar can easily mean 45 minutes on hold, so really some tasks could take anywhere between 5 and 50 minutes.

also, identifying something exists doesn’t mean you’re complaining it takes over your life.

Also, I think some people use “life admin” as an excuse to get out of social occasions because they’re feeling low or just need some quiet time.

Most people wouldn't define life admin as everything you do outside work and socialising.

SOME people do though. That’s the point. People are just describing stuff in a different way!

i don’t care if people don’t describe it that way. But stop minimising the people who do and making out they are exagerating.

No it wasn’t obvious what the OP meant - it sounded like she was asking for opinions on what other people considered life admin - which is why people were helpfully telling her their definition - and are still getting told no that doesn’t count when surely the point is it counts for them.

You may call it chores, stuff etc - you may never need to define it - that’s cool too.

Firstly, I have not said that including housework or shopping as “life admin” is exaggerating. I'm just wondering why people include it when answering OP’s question of why life admin takes so long. It's obvious she's not asking about housework. Secondly, there is a lot of exaggeration on this thread regarding the time that it takes to do actual admin.

Because they are using the whole phrase Life Admin as a catch all - they are not seeing it as the word admin relating to more traditional Admin tasks.

I haven’t seen any examples of people exaggerating timescales for ‘actual’ admin - do you have examples?

Why do you think she was asking opinions on what people considered to be life admin? She is asking people what paperwork or admin that they are doing that is taking so long because It doesn't take her long and she's wondering if she's not doing something that she should be doing.

But it’s not actual admin for some people. It’s admin for you. It’s everything other than work and social for some people. For other people it’s everything other than work social and chores like cleaning etc.

it’s a difference of meaning of the phrase. Simple as that

@celestialsphere if you read the OP she actually mentioned bills, food shopping and kids school stuff. Within your personal définition food shopping isn’t traditional admin so she wasn’t clearly asking about admin/paperwork.

my thé OP thinking she was thinking maybe food shop did fall within life admin.

This the whole essence of the OPs post she said she kept seeing the phrase Life Admin used by people to explain why they were so busy and couldn’t understand why admin kept them so busy - so lots of people replied saying for me I don’t just mean admin, I mean all these other life things too.

And if you read the OPs replies she’s since said oh thanks I didn’t realize some people were also including other things.