Nonfiction: Life Admin by Elizabeth Emens

      Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More takes a deep dive into the administrative tasks of life, such as making appointments, filling out paperwork, researching purchases, keeping track of schedules, etc.
      The author provides different strategies for dealing with admin overload: asking a friend to sit with you (either in person or virtually), have an admin “study hall” with others who need the support, or holding a solo “power hour” to tackle admin backlog (then rewarding yourself afterward).
      Having financial resources makes navigating life admin less onerous, whereas people without means are more likely to deal with public institutions that entail long wait times, high stakes, and demeaning attitudes.

      The author is a writer and notes the time suck associated with life admin, saying, “if I began every day by responding to external demands, intending to complete them before moving onto writing, I would never write.”  Thus prioritizing how and when to do admin is critical.

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      Practical suggestions for downsizing life admin:

• Consider the “admin” cost of who you choose to collaborate with.  For example, I notice some friends are easier to schedule with than others, because of the compatible rhythms of our lives.
• Break tasks into manageable sections to have the “satisfaction of crossing things off the list, of getting something done.”
• Try to anticipate the admin involved in a given activity before committing to it and look to downsize admin time-sucks.  I took out a flower bed that grew more weeds than flowers—huge relief!
• Instead of trying to schedule a group meeting, commit to being in a certain place/time and send out a general invitation.  For example, a writer friend of mine invites other writers to a “write-in” at her favorite coffee shop.  If others show up to write, great, if not, she keeps the appointment with herself.
• Sometimes high-tech solutions can be more exasperating than old-school analog.  I was struggling with my work laptop and, after reading this book, I started taking notes on paper at work then transcribing them at home.  Paper is much lighter to carry and I eliminated the aggravation of waiting for my old laptop to (slo-o-o-wly) come online.

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      Some companies use “sludge” to make themselves harder to deal with.  Sludge “is when an entity makes certain actions very difficult”—like dealing with health insurance companies.  “Outright denials of coverage need to be justified, but if the insured person [or healthcare provider] just stops trying because the process is too taxing, that’s a win for the insurer.”
      Similarly, “our poverty programs force recipients to jump through hoops that favor the most agile rather than the most in need."
      On the other hand, companies such as Amazon excel at customer service, making it easy to both order and make returns.  The obvious life admin hack is to seek out companies that minimize customer burdens—and get help to navigate less congenial situations. 

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      We can have different coping styles and strategies based on the situation, but most people, according to the author, fall into one of four categories:

• The Super Doer who stays on top of admin and delegates as needed
• The Reluctant Doer who grinds through admin tasks but never feels like they’re keeping up
• The Avoider who puts things off as much as possible, often until a crisis occurs
• The Denier who don’t acknowledge admin, often because someone else is doing it for them

      The author goes into considerable detail exploring how life admin—especially different approaches to managing admin tasks—can affect relationships, particularly if one partner is picking up the slack and the other is oblivious (a Reluctant Doer paired with a Denier, for example).  She offers strategies for making shared admin more equitable between partners.

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      Some of her many strategies for minimizing the burden of life admin: 

• Online bill pay and autopay
• Amazon app to order household supplies
• Taking photos of information rather than scanning or writing it down
• Sort mail while walking in the door then recycle or shred promptly
• Create a spam email for ordering tickets and retail purchases to reduce junk email
• Offer admin to others: babysit the grandkids and take care of their meals or offer to sit with someone doing tough admin like planning a funeral.

​      Admin duties are part of modern life, and Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More helps illuminate the burden of this reality.  The book also offers many strategies to minimize this burden for ourselves and our loved ones.

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For more on forging sustainable social relationships, read The Art and Science of Connection
For more on communication skills, especially for mismatched styles of doing life admin, read
Say the Right Thing and Supercommunicators 

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