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?

I count

cleaning
laundry
cooking
food shop - requires research to do cheaply
banking - I check everything has gone in or out as it should
insurance renewal type things - always look for best deal
prescriptions
look at mgmt co charges quarterly to make sure they're not pulling a fast one

most of that for elderly mum, plus regular medical appointments where I accompany.

i think that's a big chunk of time and all very dull.

It’s all the normal stuff you do from day to day that SAHMs use to make staying out home sound like a job.

Booking dentist for me and kids
Same with hair cuts
Post office trips
Sorting out school stuff e.g find a fiver for the book fair, fill out a form, sign up ds to Lego club
Meal planning
Sorting out my diary / organising
Keeping on top of things at home e.g boiler needs servicing, mattress topper needs cleaning booked at laundrette
Keeping on top of my lists of stuff to buy e.g ironing water, toilet roll, food etc
Organising the kids' clothes - who needs what in the next size up?
Planning Christmas
Sorting out birthday cards and gifts
Planning social life

I could go on! The list is genuinely endless.

You know what it is: bills, looking for better deals on bills, insurance, bank balance balancing, shopping, looking for cheaper shipping, kids party planning, taking the car to be fixed, booking dentists and medical, going to dentist and medicals, getting work done on the house, driving your mate to chemo, driving your kids to swimming/brownies, going to your elderly parents to help with DIY, helping with PTA fundraising, taking yourself and kids for haircuts and new clothes, mowing the lawn, buying Christmas and Birthday presents, planning Christmas, planning and booking holidays, packing for work trips and holidays, doing your expenses, doing your taxes, looking for the most cost effective white goods, getting your house insulated, your driveway potholes filled, helping with the street coronation party, shaking a tin for cancer research, doing the laundry, making packed lunch, hoovering, kitchen cleaning, bathroom cleaning, duty phone calls to parents/ in laws/ elderly neighbours, taking the bins out, sending money to school for whatever, sewing on name tapes, taking old clothes to charity shops, taking your mate’s kid for the afternoon, walking the dog, taking the dog to the vet, getting your bike fixed, going to parents evenings, going to school plays, getting the boiler serviced, calling the plumber, putting batteries into the fire alarm, leaving work at mid day to pick up your sick kid from school, filling in the wall calendar.. repeat

This

I am so bored of similar posts, which just utterly lack empathy.
My life contains no admin therefore nobody else's possibly can.

and this

Why sneer at people giving things another name? As a pp said it is just another way of saying doing errands. Or would it somehow be acceptable to you to list the jobs you have got done, or plan to do that day ?

I should add, I also do errands for elderly neighbours but that's a choice.

I should find this easier as I've worked from home since 2016 which means I mostly have an extra 2 hours due to not having a commute, but I think it feels like it accumulates over a lifetime as it's so effing boring.

also, the travel to the elderly parent/s is a chore. So I guess I think of life admin as chores.

I can imagine all the posts about ‘what’s the big fuss? It’s just part of life you plebs yawn…’ are people with loads of time on their hands and/or paid help.

Nope I work FT, have my DS to see to and couldn't afford help even if I wanted it. Normal day to day activities aren't hard and making a fuss over doing the very basic things everyone needs to do to get by is IMO ridiculous

I think it’s the opposite. Those who work just fit in the so called life administration. Maybe use your lunch break or journey time. I think the less you have to do the bigger fuss you make out of the small stuff. It’s often mundane boring and thankless though and doesn’t tend to pay well if at all!!!

Lots of the time people name things which are done every x years.
It's just a different name for normal chores

There you go @Illybidol
You're getting there. You do it in your journey time. So, it's a thing that needs to be done. Which you do in your journey time. Other people don't get journey time.

Life admin/wife work...
Bills,
Job hunting,
Meal planning,
Birthdays and Christmas organising
dealing with school correspondence
Topping up school dinner money
ensuring homework is complete
Medical appointments
Starting ADHD assessment process
Emails schools re any issues x 2 DC
Cleaning
Washing
Sorting taxes
Helping fundraise for school etc
Packed lunches.
Cooking Etc etc.

Some days there is virtually none. Others I get home at 4pm and don't stop until bedtime.

It's all the endless minutiae of running a home and family that no-one else in the house appears to ever notice needs to be done.

I am actually surprised how many people do regular trips to post office! Ours are always deserted just the shop part busy

There's always something. Recently we've had my Dad's death and his paperwork to deal with, a car insurance claim from someone stealing our car, hassle with British Gas overestimating our bill wildly, lots of school stuff / French ski trip and Italy trip, hobbies (we run a couple of sports clubs), kids' multiple hobbies which require communication and organisation, vet stuff etc etc. although I wouldn't call it life admin - it's just part of our daily life. Although I honestly don't know how we managed to get it all done when we were working!

Oh it's another one of these threads where smugness and sneering at the way other people see life are very poorly disguised as innocent bafflement. Quite an MN speciality.

I forgot to add that my Mum, who staunchly refuses to have any online presence whatsoever, has to have a lot of help as a result - from booking and taxiing to Covid jabs to organising direct debits etc!

Paperwork , working out budgets , paying bills booking holidays etc

It’s just life.
Some people list out every single task they might have to do in a day and make a big song and dance about their ‘life admin’ but for most people it’s just life outside of their job.

I remember seeing someone on another post put ‘pick and book a restaurant for the weekend’ on their life admin 😂

Such an exhausting list of chores!

I agree OP. I think that some people like to make a big song and dance about everything and/or are just not that good at “admin” and things that probably take most of us a couple of minutes take them a lot longer. Many of the things listed by people here don't have to be done very often e.g insurance and even then they don't take that long if you use price comparison websites etc.

Life admin is basically my to-do list for today. I have time off work at the moment and would probably be more efficient at dealing with if I were still in work mode rather than easily distracted at home mode.

Today’s to do list:
check how much money is in bank account and then
pay gas bill
pay elec bill
pay medical bill
design and print party invitations
apply for police check
go to nursery to buy plants for the mud patch that is the front garden
drop off present for friend at work

Does housework count as life admin? Maybe or maybe not. There is a fuck done of that to be done today too.

Does going to a Chiro appointment the afternoon count as life admin? I don’t think so but that is also on my to do list today.

I have this argument with my dad regularly. He's always worked long hours, my mom has always been a stay at home mum/housewife. He never gets how lucky he is and is always saying she's the lucky one! Except the only thing he does is work. She cleans, cooks, irons, shops, organises all insurances, buys phones/sorts phone contracts, pays all bills/sets up direct debits, sorts our price comparisons. Books plumbers/decorators/any tradesperson. Books his haircuts, books and researches all and every element of holidays. Packs fit said holidays. Does all gardening - and it is a massive garden!
He genuinely can't use the internet at the age of 66 and has never sorted any of those things in his life. Never bought a birthday or Christmas present (my sister now gets them for my mom cos I refuse), never organised a party, arranged a meal out with friends, unloaded a dishwasher, changed a bank account, called a company about a problem, taken a too small item of clothing back to a shop, attended a parents evening or even booked an appointment for one. It's incredible to me!
I walk in from a full time job and start all over again...with three kids that is a lot of tasks! All of the above plus organising play dates, sorting school dinners and payments for school events and clubs. Today I phoned the swimming teacher because my son was having issues with his lessons...that was 15 mins in my lunch break sorting a solution. After school clubs then off to the supermarket to get a birthday card for a friend and two further cards and presents for weekend parties for the kids. Onto the internet to order new cricket kit for my other son. Cleaned out the tortoise. Life admin is a thing in between a 40 hour week and 8 hours of commuting. It's tough being an adult, no-one tells you!

It changes every week in terms of the types of tasks but I would estimate I do 20-40 life admin things every week, while working full time.

Why?

I have a child with a medical condition and multiple allergies requiring tests, appointments, scripts being filled, research…
I have two busy kids with multiple extra curricular activities with things to be paid for, booked in etc.
For my sins I am the manager of one of those sporting teams. That means I organise 9 other parents.
Paying bills, ordering stuff, researching stuff, chasing stuff… some of it fun and some of it boring such as parties, holidays, bills, food etc.
Organising car pooling with other parents.

The list goes on. Some of it is my choice and some of it definitely isn’t.

I agree with @AlwaysLatte that elderly relatives who don't drive or use the Internet are Life Admin. Hospital appointments, vaccines, pharmacy etc can take up a huge amount of time and the people (mostly women, in my experience) who help with all that usually don't get much acknowledgement or appreciation.