Drowning in admin tasks? Me too. Here’s what I’m trying to do about it.
My guiding principal for 2023 was Deep Work. Serious Play. Using that theme as my guide, I made decisions about where and how to spend my time. I planned to spend my deep work time coaching, volunteering, and working on my own health and wellness. I imagined my serious play time would be spent engaging in fun activities with friends and making things.
By April, I began noticing what was getting in the way of my deep work and serious play time. And, it turns out, the stuff that gets in the way by-and-large falls into a category I’ve come to think of as admin.
What’s admin? It is all the stuff most adults have to do. Pay bills. Pay taxes. Do battle with your health insurance over a claim. Check Slack. Send emails. Schedule meetings. Add your Zoom details to a calendar invite. Make a doctor’s appointment. You get the point.
I typically structure my weeks so that Mondays are devoted to admin only: no calls or meetings. But lately, I’ve noticed that the volume of admin exceeds the number of hours on a Monday. In search of better ideas, I turned to my work colleague, Chat GPT, and asked it to generate a list of 20 ways to reduce administrative work. Here’s what I got back:
“Automate Bill Payments: Set up automatic payments for recurring bills to save time each month.
Use a Task Management App: Utilize digital tools to organize and prioritize tasks efficiently.
Meal Prepping: Cook in bulk and prepare meals for the week to minimize daily cooking time.
Delegate Responsibilities: Share household chores with family members or roommates.
Outsource Tasks: Consider hiring help for tasks like cleaning, lawn care, or grocery delivery.
Digital Organization: Digitally organize documents and files for easy access and management.
Batch Processing: Group similar tasks together and complete them in one go.
Streamline Wardrobe: Adopt a simplified wardrobe to reduce time spent on choosing outfits and laundry.
Use Timers: Set specific time limits for tasks to stay focused and efficient.
Limit Social Media: Reduce time spent on social media platforms to free up more time for essential tasks.
Online Shopping: Utilize online shopping for groceries and other necessities to save time.
Efficient Home Layout: Organize your living space for functionality to minimize time spent on cleaning and searching for items.
Email Management Tools: Use email sorting and filtering tools to manage your inbox more efficiently.
Pre-scheduled Social Activities: Plan social activities in advance to avoid last-minute planning and preparation.
Regular Purging of Items: Regularly declutter your space to reduce cleaning and organizing time.
Use of Checklists: Implement checklists for recurring tasks to ensure quick and consistent completion.
Prioritize Tasks: Focus on high-priority tasks and consider dropping low-impact activities.
Utilize Voice Assistants: Use voice-activated devices for reminders, searching information, and controlling smart home features.
Simplify Financial Management: Use financial management apps to track spending and budget more efficiently.
Set Clear Goals: Having clear, achievable goals for tasks can help focus efforts and reduce time spent on unproductive activities.”
Chat GPT’s list brings to mind an image of a super-efficient, well-paid, digitally savvy person who outsources or minimizes many of life’s daily activities. Are these just recommendations that keep us tied to our phones and computers and minimize the spontaneity of the day? I get it– and tbh, I already do the majority of the things on this list, so maybe I really am that person.. But this sort of plugged-in, efficient life is not my goal. As much as I value my time and others, I also know that the best things in life are often messy, unexpected, and inefficient. My goal is to just do less admin– or, to put a finer point on it, experience less friction with the admin I do.
To get to the place I want, I see two paths forward.
The first option: constrain how much admin I can do each week by scheduling it (e.g. what I do on Mondays). Discard non-mandatory administrative tasks, and just focus on the urgent and important ones. Don’t go for perfect.
The second option: become a proponent for more human-centered ways of doing business. Be a helpful human in my own work, and encourage others to approach customer/client interactions that way, too.
Companies are now leveraging chat bots, text messaging, digital portals, and other apps in efforts to minimize their investment in staff and improve their own bottom line– but increasingly people like me and you are paying for it with our time. Most of the admin I’m doing involves interacting with companies where there are digital tools I must use to get what I want. For instance, I have to register and log in to a portal in order to book a haircut or a doctor’s appointment (a process that may take 5 minutes), instead of calling and making an appointment (a process that takes 2 minutes) and enjoying some nice shallow connections time along the way. I have to use a chatbot or text with my insurance company to get a simple question answered, with loooong minutes going by in between exchanges, rather than getting one well-informed human on the phone who would help me faster (and, better yet, might even have the authority to move the matter forward).
So now that I’ve complained about this issue, here’s my four step process for how to navigate this if you feel similarly.
Keep a to do list specifically for your admin tasks. I do this digitally in the Omnifocus app, which I adore, but you can do it in just about any digital or paper tool.
Reserve a fixed time each week to do your life admin. Holding a specific chunk of time on a fixed day can relieve you of the pressure of feeling you have to do it all every day. On that date, triage your list and prioritze what’s most important and urgent. Time’s up? Pencils down.
Schedule admin time at work, too. If you’ve got control over your own calendar, carving out dedicated time to do your work-related admin in one or more chunks weekly will minimize context-switching and conserve energy. You’ll be working smarter, not harder. If you work for someone who manages your time, advocate where you can for admin time to be acknowledged, planned for, and respected on everyone’s calendar.
Advocate for humans in the workforce, not just digital solutions. Don’t get me wrong: I love AI and tech in general– but not when they make it harder, slower, or less accessible for those of us who don’t work for your business.
I’d like to see more companies think in smarter, more creative ways about how and when humans step in, and how the administrative work customers, clients, and patients now do can be reduced or streamlined. Remember the days when many companies had a customer service team you could speak with that empowered to be helpful?
If you’ve got strategies to tackle admin that are working well please contact me and tell me all about them.
