056: Define it to refine it by @LifeAdminLifeHacks

056: Define it to refine it

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2 years ago

It is important to have a mental model of what life admin is in order to be able to approach it in a more systematic way

Mia and Dinah start the episode by discussing how:

for most people, life admin is a blurry amorphous bundle of tasks - and with no mental model of the different categories and types of tasks is can be difficult to approach or share the tasks in a systematic way
their definition of Life admin - that it is not housework or parenting but it often overlaps; housework is defined as cooking, cleaning and laundry, parenting is about child-rearing and supports the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of your child; life admin is the third piece of the domestic labour puzzle - it includes the scheduling, booking, shopping, paperwork, and planning that often facilitates housework and parenting tasks, but also has its own areas of responsibility.
life admin is often conflated with housework and parenting and that can be problematic because it can become hidden which is a big issue as life admin generates a significant portion of the mental load
life admin often gets more complex and time-consuming at the precise time you have less time to manage it - particularly having children generates a significant amount of life admin
their recent survey of more than 300 Australians revealed that
- the average Australian does almost 500 life admin tasks each year
- parents grapple with 33% more life admin tasks than households without dependents
- 37% of people do life admin tasks for a parent or adult relative
most people think the reason their life admin is out of control is their lack of motivation and/or time - but usually, the problem is not having the know-how or system and/or the lack of a scheduled time to do life admin

They discuss the cost of not having your life admin in control including:

spending more time than is necessary on it
wasting money - it has been estimated that Australians are paying more than $11 billion in ‘loyalty tax’ by not shopping around.
cognitive load - stress, anxiety, overwhelm - worrying, scared of forgetting, monkey mind, brain chatter.
relationship friction - their survey showed that life admin causes friction in 85% of two-parent households

Mia and Dinah describe their framework for life admin:

that there are two types of life admin - everyday life admin that occurs cyclically or seasonally and event-based life admin (eg getting married)
that there are four categories of life admin and that these can help you prioritise and determine how you will share them in your household
- household operations eg meal planning, decluttering, paying bills
- personal affairs such as tax, super, other investments wills and health checks
- comparison shopping for plans and policies
- leisure and social planning eg holidays, Xmas, social life, kids extracurricular
think about life admin tasks by how much time is required to get them done -
- Hour of Power - recurring slot in the schedule for chunky life admin tasks
- 2 Minutes Too Easy - tasks to complete as they arise
- 10 Minute Time Killer - tasks to complete in idle time - include them in a to-do list