The Art of Manliness - July 15, 2024


Stop Drowning in Tedious Tasks by Taming Your Life Admin


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

214.05266

Word Count

10,300

Sentence Count

586

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

Life admin is the little tasks we have to do to keep our lives moving along. Life admin is typically pretty tedious and annoying, but staying on top of it is essential to reducing the stress and chaos that would otherwise burden our relationships, muck up our schedules, and prevent us from participating in all the fun and fulfilling parts of life.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We're at McKay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast,
00:00:11.180 filling out paperwork, making travel reservations, paying bills, shopping for groceries,
00:00:16.760 returning packages. These are all examples of life admin, the little tasks we have to do to
00:00:22.080 keep our lives moving along. Life admin is typically pretty tedious and annoying,
00:00:26.340 but staying on top of it is essential to reducing the stress and chaos that would otherwise burden
00:00:30.560 our relationships, muck up the gears of our schedules, and prevent us from participating
00:00:34.660 in all the fun and fulfilling parts of life. Fortunately, there are ways to better manage
00:00:38.840 your life admin. Here to share some of them is Dinah Rowe Roberts, the co-host of the Life Admin
00:00:43.660 Life Hacks podcast and the co-author of a book of the same name. Today on the show, Dinah explains
00:00:48.600 what lists you should be keeping, including the 10-minute time killers list, why you should do a
00:00:52.460 regular hour of power to stay on top of things, how to schedule your life admin, how to keep track
00:00:57.140 of and divvy up chores between you and your spouse, how to get all of your meal planning and grocery
00:01:01.280 shopping done in less than 15 minutes a week, how to streamline your kids' schedules and your
00:01:05.420 vacation planning, and much more. After the show's over, check out our show notes at
00:01:09.100 aom.is slash lifeadmin. Dinah Rowe Roberts, welcome to the show.
00:01:25.820 Thanks so much for having me.
00:01:26.860 So you are the co-host of a podcast called Life Admin Hacks. You've also co-authored a book with
00:01:32.680 the same name, and it's all about life admin. I love thinking about and improving how I manage my
00:01:38.340 own life admin. For those who aren't familiar, what is life admin?
00:01:43.460 Well, life admin, it's really the homework of life. So it's not chores, which in Australia we call
00:01:50.000 housework, which is really traditionally, you know, the cooking, the cleaning, and the laundry,
00:01:54.080 but it often is supporting those things. And it's not parenting. It's not about the actual physical,
00:02:00.500 emotional, social development of your child. It's actually a third piece of the domestic labor
00:02:05.740 puzzle. It's all of the scheduling, the booking, the shopping, the paperwork, the planning.
00:02:11.400 It often facilitates chores and parenting, but it's its own beast. It's its own thing.
00:02:16.600 Yeah. The way I think about life admin, it's like the mental work that you have to do to do those
00:02:21.120 physical activities, right? So if you're planning a trip, the thing is like the trip, like that's the
00:02:25.840 activity. The life admin is all the stuff you have to do to make that trip happen, planning the
00:02:31.060 itinerary, rental cars, scheduling flights, things like that. Yeah. It's often a hidden burden and it
00:02:36.820 can generate a significant portion of what people call the mental load, the kind of thinking, the
00:02:41.840 planning, the anticipating that you need to do to make life work. Well, let's give some more
00:02:46.320 examples. What's some more examples of life admin that people might see in their lives on a regular
00:02:50.180 basis? Yeah. And I think then it's really important or it's interesting or helpful to think about life
00:02:56.260 admin being like two types of life admin because there's everyday life admin. It occurs cyclically,
00:03:02.600 seasonally, daily, weekly. So things like planning the grocery shopping, doing the meal planning,
00:03:08.260 paying the bills, all those things that just happen over and over again, never ending.
00:03:13.020 And then you've got what we call like life event admin. So, you know, if you have an event,
00:03:18.640 you get married, you have a baby, those sorts of things, they trigger enormous amounts of life admin
00:03:24.240 as well. So it can be helpful to think about having those two types of life admin and thinking
00:03:28.840 about dealing with them a little bit differently. Why does it feel like we're always drowning
00:03:32.940 in life admin? Like what is so insidious about it that it just seems like it's just always piling up?
00:03:39.100 Yeah. I think that has changed in recent times because of technology and choice. And I think that
00:03:47.640 the more choice we have, the reality is the more life admin it creates. So I think that's certainly a
00:03:53.860 factor. I think another thing is that the costs of communication are lower. And so what we find is
00:04:00.000 our providers bombarding us with emails and text messages and all those things. So we're getting
00:04:05.820 more and more information that we have to figure out what to do and what to process with. And life
00:04:12.020 admin grows with growing responsibilities. So as we move through life, things like buying a home,
00:04:18.300 having kids, it increases the amount and complexity of life admin, just if you've got less time,
00:04:24.320 because you've got more parenting, caring, work responsibilities. So I think that that's often
00:04:29.840 why people, particularly in a sort of middle age, feel like they're drowning in life admin. And I think
00:04:35.120 part of that is very few people have thought about setting up systems for life admin that really
00:04:41.880 optimize how to deal with it. And even though you might do it in your professional life,
00:04:45.980 a lot of people don't do it in their personal life. And so they haven't got the systems to
00:04:50.580 adequately know what to do when something hits them. And I think that makes it feel quite chaotic.
00:04:56.360 Well, another thing too, I've heard about what might be increasing life admin,
00:04:59.460 we've written about this on our site, there's a book by I think it was a sociologist about shadow
00:05:03.780 work. You've heard about this idea of shadow work? Right. So shadow work is the stuff that used to be
00:05:08.880 done by professionals or like companies, but companies have shifted it to the consumer. So I mean,
00:05:14.660 like planning a trip is a perfect example. Used to be just, you call a travel agent or even the
00:05:19.780 airline and be like, Hey, I want to go here. And they'd be like, all right, they just figured out
00:05:23.580 for you. But now it's like, you have to go through just tons and tons of different itineraries to
00:05:29.120 schedule a flight and to the airline's defense. They say, well, you just have more options. You can
00:05:33.600 actually figure this out on your own. We're giving you that choice, like you said earlier,
00:05:36.820 but they're also saving themselves maybe some, some of the hassle of having to pay an employee to do
00:05:42.740 that for you. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think, you know, often we want to take that control
00:05:47.560 into our life. You know, we feel like we want to be in charge and that gives you that choice,
00:05:52.240 which, you know, has upsized, but with more choice comes more work, more responsibility to
00:05:56.680 make those decisions, do the research, understand what you're looking at. And so that definitely
00:06:01.200 creates more life admin. And the other thing I've noticed too, is that sometimes it feels like
00:06:05.520 life admin, because there's can be a seasonality to it. You can get hit with a whole bunch of stuff
00:06:11.820 all at once. So you see this, if you have kids in school, seems like at Christmas, right before
00:06:17.780 Christmas and right before summer holiday here in the United States, that's when everyone tries
00:06:22.320 to cram everything in and you're signing up for things that are going to be happening three months
00:06:27.100 later. And so the last two weeks of school, before school goes out for vacation, it's just like,
00:06:33.020 I'm constantly like, there's forms to fill out. I'm trying to manage schedules. Like this kid needs
00:06:37.360 to be here and this kid needs to bring this thing. I don't know what happens. Everyone just decides
00:06:41.380 to do everything at once. It causes all the life admin to pile up on you at once.
00:06:46.200 Yeah, a hundred percent. I think that often can come in like waves. And I think there's a great
00:06:50.200 saying. I can't even think exactly what it is, but something like, you know, you can't catch the
00:06:54.240 waves, but you can learn how to surf. And I think that's really what we're trying to help people do
00:06:59.100 with their life admin is actually, you need to actually have systems so that you can ride the wave
00:07:03.860 as it comes in and comes at you so that it doesn't turn your life into chaos.
00:07:08.160 Okay. So let's talk about some of your tips for how we can keep from drowning
00:07:12.080 in life admin on a daily basis and surf the bigger waves when they come in.
00:07:17.680 What do you recommend people do to capture the life admin they have coming into their lives?
00:07:24.120 So one of the things we suggest to people, particularly when, you know, you've got other
00:07:28.240 members of a household is thinking about setting up a dedicated email address for your life admin.
00:07:34.800 So that means it won't get mixed up with kind of your personal emails, which are probably,
00:07:39.600 you know, much more on the social side or work emails. And what it means is if you have a partner,
00:07:44.780 you can actually move your life admin into neutral territory and sort of operate it like you would
00:07:50.000 a shared inbox in a work situation. And that really means that all of your life admin in terms
00:07:55.240 of the electronic stuff comes into the same spot. And you can both share the responsibility of
00:08:00.700 triaging everything that hits you through that inbox.
00:08:04.260 Okay. So it'd be something like in our instance, it'd be like mckayfamily at gmail.com. I don't have
00:08:08.680 that address. So if anyone tries emailing me there, they're not going to get anything. So you'd use
00:08:12.940 that email when you sign up for cell service, when you're doing stuff with your kid's school,
00:08:19.240 et cetera. That's the email you'd use. So all that communication would go there.
00:08:22.480 Yeah. So that's what certainly my husband and I have. We have a shared life admin email address
00:08:27.940 and everything to do with our shared life admin hits that email address. And so what it does mean
00:08:34.340 is that I can happily go away for a week and know that I don't even have to look at that email address.
00:08:39.420 He can take care of it. Or if I'm having a busy time at work, you know, the same thing. And it really
00:08:44.520 means that we can really seamlessly share that inbox and all of the actions that come out of it.
00:08:49.280 That's a good idea because I know sometimes I'll use my email address for something like
00:08:55.620 travel reservations or something with school. So I get the email, but my wife doesn't or it's vice
00:09:02.020 versa. So one of us just ends up out of the loop. So we might have to try that. Okay. So have a shared
00:09:07.800 email address for life admin stuff. If you're married, what about, what do you do to capture stuff
00:09:13.740 that just pops up during the day? You know, stuff where you're like, I need to remember that, or I need
00:09:18.640 to do that. What do you do to, with those sorts of things?
00:09:22.320 Yeah. So I think in terms of the actual doing of it and capturing other things, we really like to think
00:09:27.660 about life admin tasks in terms of actually how much time is required to get them done. And that really
00:09:33.580 helps you think about when you're going to do them. And maybe we'll come to that a bit later, but in terms
00:09:37.540 of anything that you can't do immediately. So we do love to adopt the, you know, two minute too easy.
00:09:43.540 If it hits your inbox and you can do it straight away in less than two minutes, do it, get rid of
00:09:47.840 it, file the email, delete the email, move on. But if it's something that's going to take a little bit
00:09:52.620 longer than that, we recommend setting up a to-do list that we call 10 minute time killers for those
00:09:58.140 kind of 10 minute tasks. So those are tasks that, you know, might take, you know, like maybe something
00:10:03.520 a little bit more complicated, but they're not going to take a lot of thinking time.
00:10:06.800 And if you have a separate list with all of those tasks on them, it means that if you have a bit of
00:10:11.860 idle time, you can easily tackle those tasks. And, you know, usually that's the time that people
00:10:17.480 might scroll social media or, you know, those kind of, you know, if you're in between meetings or you're
00:10:22.720 waiting in a line or you're kind of watching TV. So those tasks don't need to be scheduled, but if
00:10:29.080 you've got them all in a list, you can know what to attack and you can add things that are 10 minute
00:10:33.800 time killers as they occur to you as you go. You just use a simple reminder app on the iPhone to
00:10:39.460 easily add items that I think of to that list as I go. And then I have another list, which has got
00:10:45.480 more chunky life admin tasks in it that we call the hour of power. So if they're more complicated,
00:10:50.940 like comparison shopping and those sorts of things, and that means they're separate in a separate list.
00:10:55.800 And I have a scheduled time once a week to tackle those chunky life admin tasks. So I know if I add
00:11:01.300 something to that list, I know when I'm going to be able to get to it. So we have a shared 10 minute
00:11:06.120 time killer list between my husband and I. And so things in that list get allocated to one of us,
00:11:11.560 but we can also see what the other tasks are that the other person's got to do. And then the same for
00:11:17.220 an hour of power list. What do you do with paper things? I mean, I know you're big on, you have a whole
00:11:21.900 chapter about just reducing the amount of paper that crosses your desk, but occasionally it's going to
00:11:27.220 happen, you're going to get something. What do you do with that stuff? Yeah. So if it's something
00:11:32.140 that just needs to be filed, I'm big of like scanning photographing immediately and trying
00:11:37.580 to destroy it. So I'm a big fan of going completely paperless, but if it is a form that needs to be
00:11:44.140 filled out, I would still add it to the list in terms of the 10 minute time killer, if it's going to be
00:11:48.920 a 10 minute list. And then we just have a little paperwork spot in the house. But to be honest,
00:11:53.760 very little paperwork hits our house anymore. So once you've really made the effort to go
00:11:59.020 paperless, you find that actually there's a really little paper still happening out there.
00:12:03.900 Let's talk more about lists. So you have the two minute, two easy list. Actually, that's,
00:12:08.540 that's actually not really a list. Those are things that just kind of come up to you and you do them
00:12:11.680 right then, but you do have the 10 minute time killer list. And then you have the chunky admin
00:12:17.700 list where you'll do stuff for your, in your hour of power. And we're going to talk about that
00:12:22.820 here in a minute, but beyond the to-do list, you also recommend keeping checklists and reference
00:12:29.680 lists. Walk us through those. Yeah. And I think when we started this whole life admin journey,
00:12:34.600 both my co-author and I, Mia and I, we both had kind of our lists were like a mishmash of all of
00:12:39.980 these three things. And I think that that's often what happens to people and it makes it really hard
00:12:44.300 to sort of figure out what to tackle next. So if you think about having those three categories of lists,
00:12:49.280 to-do lists we've talked about, but the second one, checklists, checklists are things that help you
00:12:54.160 remember how to do things you do over and over again, efficiently and comprehensively. So you write
00:13:00.360 the steps down once, and then you refer to it every time you need to do that. So for me, the checklists
00:13:05.940 that I use most often are like the things to do before you go on holiday, you know, so all of the,
00:13:11.720 you know, organize the pet sitting, organize the mail collection, et cetera, et cetera. But you might
00:13:17.240 also have checklists for things like what to take when you take your child to daycare or something
00:13:22.840 like that. And those checklists really help you not remember important steps in that task.
00:13:28.540 In terms of reference lists, these are kind of the things that you often find on people's to-do
00:13:33.940 lists, but they're not actually things that they have to do. They're more like suggestions or
00:13:39.160 recommendations or, you know, like sources of information. So the reference lists I've got on my phone
00:13:45.980 or in my reminders app is gift wish lists for family members. So thinking about things I might
00:13:51.600 buy for the next birthday or Christmas, I've got reference lists of podcasts to listen to,
00:13:56.780 and one of TV shows to watch and one of books to read. So, you know, the next time someone ask you
00:14:02.940 something like that, you'll have a whole list ready to go and you know where to put that information and
00:14:07.260 refer to it when you need that information.
00:14:09.900 Yeah. So I keep that too. So I keep a list of things to, I need to read, movies I want to watch,
00:14:14.680 which podcast I want to listen to. Another list I keep is, this is a new one, restaurants we want
00:14:20.720 to go to. You know how like, you know, lots of times you're driving around town and you see a
00:14:24.280 new restaurant, like, oh, I want to try that out. It looks cool. And then the next time when you're
00:14:28.880 trying to figure out where to eat that night, you end up forgetting about that restaurant you saw.
00:14:33.880 So we've tried to make it a habit. Whenever you see a cool restaurant, put it on a list so we can
00:14:38.080 check it out. The gift list is a good idea. My wife is really good about doing that.
00:14:41.880 Another kind of list that my wife and I keep is a things we want to talk about list. So this is for
00:14:48.560 whenever we're about to see a friend that we haven't seen in a while, we're about to catch up
00:14:53.620 with them. We have a list of things we want to make sure we hit with them and ask them about when we
00:14:58.180 see them. Yeah, that's a really good one. I actually read an article about that recently in terms of
00:15:02.060 improving social connection and how important that is. So yeah, that's a great idea.
00:15:06.880 So you can use just the Notes app to make these lists. You use the Reminders app on iPhone?
00:15:12.580 Yeah, and I think that you can get a little bit caught up in trying to get the most complicated
00:15:16.380 app out there. And I think all of our advice really when it comes to technology is use what
00:15:21.520 you find really easy to use. It doesn't need to be super complicated as long as you know how to use
00:15:27.040 it. And you, particularly if you're sharing that technology with someone else, you have a shared
00:15:31.440 understanding of how you're going to use it together. That's way more important than having lots of
00:15:35.680 bells and whistles in the particular app. Okay, I don't, I've never used the Reminders
00:15:39.740 app because I use Todoist. That's the app that I like to use. You can share things on that with
00:15:44.620 other people? Yeah, so I mean, the Reminders app on iPhone is pretty good now in terms of the
00:15:50.240 sharing functionality. But I mean, there's loads of great apps out there. Todoist is a great one.
00:15:54.840 And so if that's something you're familiar with, that's usually the one to stick with. Because if you
00:15:58.300 like it, you're going to use it. And if you don't like it, you won't use it. So yeah, we really
00:16:02.720 encourage you to find one that feels good to you in terms of its functionality and even aesthetics.
00:16:07.380 So that works for you. And think about making one that you can use with a voice assistant,
00:16:11.780 because that's really helpful. I don't know about you, but I often remember things when I'm driving
00:16:16.280 in the car or when I'm going for a walk and being able to just ask Siri to add them to my list. It
00:16:21.960 reduces my mental load because I've added it to the list and I can forget about it and move on.
00:16:26.080 Yeah, I think with Todoist, you can sync it with Siri. So you can talk to Siri and
00:16:31.480 Siri will add it to Todoist. But sometimes it doesn't work. So I'll have to check out Reminders
00:16:37.720 app. So I want to go back to this idea of the hour of power. So you categorize your life admin as the
00:16:45.100 two-minute-too-easy. So if you can do it within two minutes, just do it. Don't wait. I think David
00:16:50.500 Allen from Getting Things Done has that same idea.
00:16:52.560 Yeah, exactly.
00:16:53.460 Then you have the 10-minute time killer. So those are things you can do in 10 minutes that don't
00:16:58.340 take a lot of mental bandwidth to do. You'll have that there to do it. The hour of power. So tell us
00:17:04.160 more about this. So you're going to dedicate an hour, is it each day, each week to doing those life
00:17:09.120 admin that are a little bit more complicated?
00:17:11.560 Well, I think obviously how many of the hours of power you need will depend on where you're at,
00:17:16.160 like in terms of how in control you are and I guess what's going on in your life. So if you're in a
00:17:21.060 time of your life with a lot of life admin, you might need a few of those hour of powers scheduled
00:17:25.440 in your calendar. But for me, I actually usually have an hour of power once a fortnight. And it's
00:17:30.880 really this dedicated time slot for tackling these substantial items that require concentration.
00:17:37.220 So it might be things like comparison shopping, a utility service. It might be planning a birthday
00:17:43.000 party or that kind of thing. And what we really recommend is scheduling this recurring time slot in
00:17:48.380 your calendar so that you know when you're going to get to those tasks. Because that is a thing that
00:17:53.040 will take off the kind of stress and anxiety because you're like, okay, I know I'm going to get to that
00:17:56.780 at this time every week. And we also encourage people to think about giving it like a powerful
00:18:01.880 name to claim the space. So I know that Mia, who's my co-host, she likes to call her Set Me Up Sunday.
00:18:08.300 So that's really helping her thinking about, you know, setting herself up for a really good week because
00:18:12.660 she's tackled any of those chunky tasks that have been weighing on her mind.
00:18:16.100 Yeah, I do an hour of power. Friday is the day I do it. It's like every Friday I do it.
00:18:22.600 Usually it's an hour. I just set aside an hour. If I can't get it done with an hour,
00:18:26.520 then I move on to something else. But usually I can get most of it done within an hour.
00:18:30.620 Yeah. I mean, usually if you set yourself a time limit, you can get most of those tasks done within
00:18:34.720 an hour. And I think it's really helpful to kind of give yourself a boundary. Like I'm willing to invest
00:18:39.080 an hour in my life admin and then I'm going to move on because the reality is it's boring,
00:18:43.060 it's tedious, but it's important. So, you know, truly trying to knock off those tasks in as
00:18:48.220 shorter time as possible means you can get back to the things you really want to do in life.
00:18:51.960 Something my wife and I do every now and then, we call it a reset day where we take a whole day
00:18:56.700 to just do stuff that's been piling up. We do it when we need to, when we feel like,
00:19:01.520 oh my gosh, there's just so much going on. We need a reset day. So we'll just take a day.
00:19:06.200 Usually it's during the week because the kids are at school and they're not around. And so we just
00:19:11.240 get through stuff as much as we can during that entire day.
00:19:14.820 Yeah, I think that's a really good idea. Like I think when you realize that things aren't feeling
00:19:18.620 good, really scheduling that time in your calendar and committing to actually getting rid of those
00:19:23.300 things that are stressing you out, it's going to improve your life overall. So that's a great idea.
00:19:28.740 You have a whole chapter about scheduling your life admins. I think the way most people approach
00:19:32.900 life admin, they just do it on a, well, I need to do this thing, so I'm going to do it now.
00:19:37.920 How do you recommend scheduling out your life admin? So we have the hour of power.
00:19:41.000 That's one thing, but any other tips on scheduling out your life admin?
00:19:44.780 Yeah, so I think a couple of things there. The first one is, I guess, going back to the sharing
00:19:48.540 idea and thinking, okay, in life, there's lots of, you know, in a household, you do need to actually
00:19:54.560 understand what's going on. And so you really do need some sort of cross platform calendar tool that
00:20:00.420 everyone in your household can access. And so in my household, it's not just my husband,
00:20:04.560 I've got two teenagers. So understanding where they're going and them understanding where we're
00:20:09.640 going is really important to kind of dealing with the family logistics. So we're really technology
00:20:14.820 agnostic about it, but you really need to have a tool that everyone in your household can add to,
00:20:20.020 can see, so that everyone can see what's going on and understand what the logistics are of the
00:20:25.120 household. So I guess that's the first thing. I don't know if you've got a shared calendar in your
00:20:28.320 house.
00:20:28.660 So our kids don't have smartphones yet. So we don't have that shared digital calendar,
00:20:32.360 but we do have this giant dry erase calendar that we put on the wall in the kitchen. And we have a
00:20:39.380 family meeting once a week and we go over our schedule and we have our kids write in all the
00:20:44.020 stuff they've got going on. So that's what we do. But I get maybe when they get older and they get
00:20:47.860 smartphones, we'll shift to a shared digital calendar.
00:20:51.120 Oh, it's a great habit to get them into in terms of the analog system to transition into digital. But yeah,
00:20:56.300 that's, it's been a bit of a game changer for us in terms of, I used to feel like I had to ring up
00:21:00.540 my husband and ask permission of, could I go to the movies with my friend? Cause I don't really
00:21:04.280 know what was going on. And so this kind of shared calendar, like gives me permission to actually
00:21:09.580 know what's going on in our family. So we don't have to have those kinds of consultations about
00:21:14.420 who's doing what by when.
00:21:16.060 So what sorts of things are you putting on this shared calendar?
00:21:18.600 Yeah. So family trips, all of the social events, who's being picked up, who's being dropped off,
00:21:23.780 you know, all of those school events that we want to go to. And then my husband and I both put our
00:21:28.900 own social events on there so that we can see what each other's up to. And we know that there's always
00:21:32.860 needs to be an adult home every night to cook the dinner and, you know, supervise. And so really
00:21:38.020 making sure that we know what each other's doing without kind of feeling like we need to ask permission
00:21:41.880 to be able to have a bit of fun in life.
00:21:44.400 We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.
00:21:46.380 And now back to the show.
00:21:52.340 So speaking of syncing up with your spouse, so the shared calendar can go a long way to reducing a lot
00:21:58.960 of the friction of trying to sync your calendar with your family or your spouse. Do you do anything
00:22:04.300 else beyond just having the shared calendar and the shared list to make sure that you guys are on
00:22:08.720 the same page?
00:22:10.320 Yeah. So I think one of the most important things is, and you sort of mentioned it before,
00:22:13.400 this kind of communication. So you really need to think about when you're going to communicate
00:22:17.960 about life admin logistics and thinking about maybe having a meeting or a regular time slot
00:22:24.040 every week where you kind of go through everything, like what's going on in the calendar,
00:22:28.440 what's on the to-do list, what's falling behind, what might we need help with,
00:22:33.080 what are the things we might want to talk about? Like if, you know, we're planning a trip,
00:22:36.800 do we need to talk about exactly where we're going to go or those sorts of things?
00:22:40.420 things. And so for us, we have a regular Sunday night meeting with one another. We have it over
00:22:47.080 a glass of wine if, you know, if we're feeling it or if it's a, if it's a sort of cup of tea kind
00:22:51.680 of night and we really go through all of those things. So check that the inbox is kind of inbox
00:22:56.960 zero, check in on what the to-do list items are and check in on the calendar for the next week.
00:23:02.140 And that really helps us stay synced and also helps us talk about something which is important is
00:23:06.860 like the standards of doing something. So I think one of the problems that people get into
00:23:12.260 challenges around is around expecting their partner to do it to the exact same standard or an exact
00:23:18.100 same way that they would do. So in those meetings, we can talk about, okay, well, what's an acceptable
00:23:23.820 standard for doing that? Like what will make us happy, make some compromises, and then I can kind
00:23:28.360 of let go of things and give it to my husband and vice versa so that we can kind of divide and conquer,
00:23:33.860 so to speak, because the reality is there's a lot of life admin in that family and you really want
00:23:38.620 to be able to divide it up and share it out. And those communications really help actually make
00:23:43.920 that happen. It's something my wife and I have done for several years now. We've had a podcast
00:23:48.240 about this and I've talked about it on the podcast a lot. We had the weekly marriage meeting as well.
00:23:52.060 We do it on Sunday. It takes about 20 minutes. Our four parts of the marriage meeting is we get
00:23:56.920 together. First, we express appreciation to each other. So we just say thank you for all the stuff that
00:24:02.020 each of us have done throughout the week. Then we do to-dos and that's just like the business stuff.
00:24:06.480 That's when we discuss life admin. Here's what needs to be done. These are the bills need to be
00:24:10.400 paid. Here's what needs to be prepared in the house. And then we have plan for good times. So this is good
00:24:15.720 times as a couple, good times as a family, and also good times as individually. And then we end with
00:24:22.460 big concerns. So there's like big concerns in the family. That's where we discuss that. And it's really
00:24:28.160 is a big game changer for us. Yeah. I mean, I think it's amazing that you do that. And I love those
00:24:34.680 additional elements. I guess our meeting tends to be a little bit more on the practical side. Maybe
00:24:39.100 that's because I'm a life admin expert, but yeah, it is a huge game changer in terms of, you know,
00:24:44.640 checking in on your own behavior and any resentments you might be holding about not sharing tasks fairly,
00:24:50.000 et cetera. And it really makes sure it brings it out in the open on a regular basis rather than kind of
00:24:54.340 storing up this inner resentment about, you know, if you are feeling like you're holding more of the
00:24:59.100 mental load, it's really an opportunity to kind of express that in a calm way, in a much more
00:25:04.220 productive way than perhaps in the heat of the moment. And then we also do a family meeting once
00:25:08.160 a week. We usually do that Tuesday night is our family meeting night. And that's the same sort of
00:25:12.940 thing. We just discuss like what's going well in the family, what can we improve, and then just discuss
00:25:17.500 the kids' schedule. Speaking of figuring out who does what, any advice on how you determine
00:25:24.300 who does what life admin? Because that can get complicated. And I think the way a lot of,
00:25:30.500 a lot of times how couples approach life admins, they just, they don't really talk about it. Like
00:25:34.240 one person decides to do this, the other person decides to do that, but neither of them are really
00:25:39.060 sure what is and isn't getting done. And I think that often happens because it kind of evolves as
00:25:44.360 your relationship evolves. And often in relationships, one person might have like certain
00:25:50.260 systems. And certainly, you know, in our marriage, I had kind of systems, but they were all really
00:25:56.420 designed for me. And they weren't really designed to let my husband in. And so when I guess we started
00:26:02.540 this whole journey, you know, I was had a lot of resentment that I was bearing all this mental load
00:26:08.100 and doing all of this life admin and feeling this huge burden. But the reality was a lot of it was on me,
00:26:14.140 it was my own behavior, this kind of over-functioning. Like I was over-functioning and then just feeling
00:26:19.720 resentment because my husband didn't know how to do it. But the reality is he didn't have access to
00:26:25.160 any of my systems. He didn't know all the things I was thinking about. So I think the first thing is
00:26:31.180 really to think about agreeing on some tools and systems that you're going to both use and like
00:26:36.140 the rules of the game of how you're going to use those systems. So things we already talked about
00:26:40.100 today, like a shared calendar, shared to-do lists, shared storage, shared email, all of those things
00:26:47.180 really set up systems that enable you to share. And then setting up those systems in and of itself
00:26:53.100 facilitates that discussion of how we're going to handle it when an email comes in, who's going to handle
00:26:57.940 it, you know, in what circumstances, etc. And so those are really the beginning of starting to think
00:27:04.040 about how you can better share the load. And it opens up those conversations for, oh, you know what,
00:27:08.920 I'll take charge of all of the utilities because, you know, I'm really good at that. And do you want
00:27:13.400 to take care of this? And really dividing it up so that it's much fairer and it's open and transparent
00:27:19.560 about who's doing what. And it really gives that conversation about that visibility of who is taking
00:27:24.900 care of what in the relationship. And then, yeah, having those regular meetings can just, as things come up
00:27:29.960 that are new, you can have the conversation like, all right, do you want this or do you want me to
00:27:33.840 take this? And then, yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. So another recommendation you have that I
00:27:39.740 really liked was keeping a folder that has information that you use regularly to fill out
00:27:46.660 forms like health insurance, doctor info, kids, you know, sports info. Tell us more about this
00:27:53.880 reference folder. Oh gosh. How much of your time is like dedicated? So much. I had this,
00:28:00.320 I was having a couple of months ago when I was, you know, filling out the application for our kids
00:28:03.980 school. And like, I filled this thing out before and they asked for the same information, but I had
00:28:08.800 to like go and like, okay, I got to find this thing in this file folder that I, I used last year. I don't,
00:28:14.960 I don't know where it's at. Yeah. A hundred percent. So there's a few different strategies here.
00:28:19.860 So you can either like save all this info in a spreadsheet, like in cloud storage, like in Google
00:28:25.220 drive or something. But for me, I actually have all of that information saved in my password manager
00:28:31.240 and then it's all shared with my husband. So that really gives a little bit more security because
00:28:35.980 it's got like MFA on it. And it also means that it's really easy to fill in online forms because
00:28:41.680 when you're filling in an online form, the password manager just automatically fills it in for you.
00:28:47.360 So really encourage you to think about setting up a system that allows that. And I've even got like
00:28:53.220 the secure, you know, even my password manager, I've even saved all the things like copies of my
00:28:58.300 passport, my driver's license, those sorts of things, because increasingly you need those to fill in
00:29:04.000 forms. So being able to have access to those documents on the go just means that a lot of those
00:29:09.240 form filling tasks can become two minute, two easy tasks because you've got the information at hand
00:29:14.160 and it really just takes that pain away. Oh yeah. The one that I see a lot and I always
00:29:20.020 hit myself in the head, like why haven't figured out how to do this? It's like when you're filling
00:29:23.320 out a form for your, you know, signing your kids up for a sport or a camp and they ask for the
00:29:28.400 doctor's info, like the name and the phone number. Address. And I'm like, oh, I have to get, okay,
00:29:34.600 go Google. Okay. What's the, okay. What's the name of the, okay. I got to Google it. And then,
00:29:38.160 okay. Then I, it'd just be easier if I just had like a, just in a spreadsheet,
00:29:41.760 all that information. Yeah. And emergency contacts is another one that I think I used
00:29:45.700 to fill out all the time. And I'm like, well, haven't I just written this down so I can just
00:29:49.200 copy paste or auto fill. And it is a huge time saver when you think about how many forms you've
00:29:54.400 got to fill in during your kid's life to get that nailed early on. Yeah. One thing I did do,
00:29:59.380 so my in-laws take our kids on a vacation every now and then take them on a trip. So I actually
00:30:04.780 created a folder with like documents that they'll need and that my mother-in-law has access to that.
00:30:09.720 That was nice. Cause I don't think about that anymore. Cause it used to be like, I have to
00:30:13.040 get gathered together every single time. Now there's like a folder there. So I, I, I have
00:30:17.500 learned, but I need to, I need to do better. So you mentioned paperwork. You're big on eliminating
00:30:25.020 as much paperwork as possible. And you said you just scan it with your phone. Is that all you do?
00:30:29.640 So if you get like a bill that's paper, you just scan it and then it goes somewhere.
00:30:33.680 Yeah. So, I mean, I just use Google drive super easy. You can scan directly from the app straight
00:30:38.840 into the folder. So just go paperless, really move everything to the cloud. It means that you'll
00:30:44.480 be able to access it from anywhere, anytime. And it really just saves that. I don't know about you,
00:30:50.640 but I used to have a pile of filing. I was never quite sure whether I should keep it or not keep
00:30:55.600 it. And so now I just kind of keep it. We have a shared Google drive between my husband and I.
00:31:01.620 And so we just add things as we go, makes tax time super easy because all of our receipts are
00:31:07.020 saved in a folder. So yeah, it's been a huge game changer in terms of, you know, just reducing one
00:31:13.020 more task to do in terms of managing paperwork. So you have a chapter about meal planning and
00:31:18.760 cooking. And this, this part of life admin can just suck up so much of your time. Cooking can take a long
00:31:25.380 time sometimes, but it's like preparing for meals can just take up so much time. Any advice on how to
00:31:31.380 streamline meal prep? Yeah. So I think a couple of things there. I think the first thing is to think
00:31:38.140 about establishing like this habit of meal planning. So it, whether it be once a week or every couple of
00:31:45.420 days, depending on, you know, your lifestyle and how many groceries you can buy and thinking about when
00:31:50.620 you're going to do it in your calendar and maybe even scheduling it in so that, you know,
00:31:54.920 you're going to do it then and thinking about, okay, when does that fit with when I'm going to
00:31:59.380 do grocery shopping and that kind of thing. So that you make sure that it's a habit that happens,
00:32:04.800 you know, you can easily aimlessly wander around the grocery store, like picking things up, which
00:32:10.020 can just be a huge time where sand actually, you know, it can often result in a lot of food waste.
00:32:15.660 And then once you've got that habit, thinking about putting that meal plan into a tool that other
00:32:20.760 members of your family can see. So going back to that kind of sharing again. So in our house,
00:32:25.900 it's actually, that's something we do have analog. It's a, you know, magnetized list on our fridge.
00:32:30.360 And that means that the teenagers can also contribute to the cooking, not just the adults.
00:32:35.220 And that meal plan takes into account your household schedule, because there's no point
00:32:39.980 having a meal plan, you know, to cook a complicated meal on a night when you've got three extracurricular
00:32:46.080 activities. You kind of really need to factor your meal plan around your schedule. And then in terms
00:32:51.500 of what to put on it, I think you can sort of waste a lot of mental space trying to think about,
00:32:56.860 oh my God, what are we going to have this Tuesday? So one of the things that we suggest is maybe
00:33:01.140 thinking about having themes for certain nights, because it can just give you one less decision
00:33:05.440 to make. I know a lot of people like to embrace Taco Tuesday, but you might want to also think about,
00:33:11.040 you know, like Monday night might be Italian and Wednesday night might be chicken and Thursday night
00:33:15.440 might be pasta. And then it just means, okay, well, I've got a repertoire within that category.
00:33:21.020 And it's just, you know, I can easily think of something if I've got a category,
00:33:25.080 it really reduces the sort of mental load of thinking what to cook.
00:33:28.720 And then, yeah, you'll have that on the schedule and your kids will never have to ask you,
00:33:32.560 what's for dinner tonight?
00:33:33.880 Yeah. Well, they can have a look for themselves. And on our meal plan, we also have who's cooking.
00:33:38.440 And so we've divided it up amongst the four of us and each of the teens gets a night to cook as
00:33:42.940 well. And so that really shares the load of that. And so I've definitely embraced handing more of the
00:33:48.840 household chores to them, the older that they've got.
00:33:51.860 So with the grocery shopping, that's just like, you just set aside a day for that,
00:33:55.200 that you just try to do it all in one day for the week.
00:33:58.360 Yeah. So in our house, we do our meal plan on a Saturday morning, and then I do my grocery
00:34:04.020 shopping online immediately after that. And the groceries arrive the next day. And so that means I can
00:34:09.620 do it on a Saturday when the teens are at home and I can say, what do you want to cook on your night?
00:34:13.840 So that means that, you know, they're contributing in terms of that. And we do an online shop. I've got
00:34:19.400 a, you know, saved shopping list in my online app. So I can literally get, you know, my groceries done
00:34:24.480 in five, 10 minutes. So the whole thing can be over in 15 minutes and we're set up for the week.
00:34:29.320 We all know what we're doing. Meal plans displayed on the fridge. And it really just reduces any of that
00:34:33.880 friction around thinking, oh my God, what are we going to have for dinner tonight?
00:34:36.900 It's a 15 minute a week task that really just reduces my mental load considerably.
00:34:42.860 Yeah. I like the idea of having team nights. That just reduces a lot of having to think about
00:34:46.920 things. We're going to have to do that. So we talked about kids, how it can increase your life
00:34:51.480 admin significantly. You know, when they're born, there's life admin, but I feel like I've something
00:34:56.000 that my wife and I have been noticing as our kids have gotten older, the life admin has just gotten
00:35:00.840 more and more with them because they're signing up for sports. They're doing camps. There's all this
00:35:05.120 stuff at school. Anything that you found useful there in managing your kids' life admin?
00:35:12.980 Interesting. I think we've already talked about a few of them. So definitely the visible weekly
00:35:17.160 schedule. So depending on how old your kids are, whether that's, you know, analog, as you said,
00:35:21.620 like the weekly planner on the wall. So everyone knows where they need to be and can start to like
00:35:26.200 get themselves organized as they get older. And the forms, oh my God, the forms of children.
00:35:32.260 So really thinking about not only, you know, getting all that information set up so that
00:35:36.920 they're easy to complete, but also maybe dividing up the form burden between you in terms of,
00:35:43.380 you know, you do soccer and your wife might do ballet or whatever it is so that, you know,
00:35:47.960 you know who's responsible for what in terms of those things. Another thing that I think you can find
00:35:54.980 is with kids comes a lot of stuff. So really thinking about how you're going to deal with
00:36:01.160 like keepsakes. So items like art or other certificates and prizes. So thinking about
00:36:07.660 setting up some sort of system of how you're going to keep those in an orderly fashion and whether that
00:36:13.960 be keeping the physical item or for some people have been just taking a photo of it so that they can
00:36:18.220 remember it and let it go. I think that can be a huge thing. And I guess related to that is really
00:36:24.660 thinking about having a regular rhythm of decluttering. So when you think about the, you know,
00:36:31.460 they grow out of their clothes, they grow out of their toys. So how are you going to start to have
00:36:37.060 a rhythm of, is it every season we go through the wardrobe or, or, you know, every Christmas we go
00:36:42.800 through the toys so that you can really make sure that you don't get inundated with all of the stuff
00:36:47.780 and that you share it with people and hand it on to others who can use it rather than, you know,
00:36:53.360 your house piling up. And, you know, this is in the gray area. Is that a chore or is it life admin?
00:36:59.440 There's quite a bit of life admin involved in potentially selling things or figuring out where
00:37:04.300 to donate it to. So I do think that decluttering is one of those ones that falls in the gray area of
00:37:10.120 whether it's life admin or a chore. Yeah. I've done that with the kids art. So, you know,
00:37:14.240 when your kids are little, they're always bringing home art and you hang it up on the wall. There
00:37:18.740 just comes a point where it's just like, okay, I got to take this down because it's just gotten too
00:37:21.520 much. Yeah. I took pictures of them before I threw them in the trash can. So I still got it,
00:37:27.000 which is nice. Yeah. I mean, you can't keep them all. So you really got to embrace that reasonably
00:37:31.960 early on because, you know, you can't keep the first piece of hair, the first pair of shoes,
00:37:35.940 the first, you know, and so you've got to decide how much is important to keep and what
00:37:40.100 you are going to keep, what's your system so that you can easily add to it over time.
00:37:44.220 You said your kids are teenagers? Yeah. At what point did you start offloading
00:37:48.500 their life admin to them? Like, hey, you got to fill out this form now. I'm not filling out this
00:37:54.000 form. Yeah. So I think that you can give them the sort of what I call the junior version of the
00:37:59.620 game, if that makes sense. So you can kind of adjust it as they go through. So if you do happen
00:38:04.520 to have a paper form, you can get them to fill in what they can if their handwriting's good enough
00:38:09.220 or if it's a digital form, same thing. You can say, I have got this school form here for you.
00:38:13.740 Can you start doing part of it? Because really that's just helping them, you know, teaching them
00:38:18.860 what it means to be part of that. I already mentioned, you know, we've got the kids contributing
00:38:23.720 both to deciding what they want to cook and then, you know, cooking one meal a week. And now that my
00:38:29.360 kids are a bit older, certainly the digital calendar, if they want to go somewhere, they're responsible for
00:38:33.620 checking the calendar, making sure it can work, adding it in so that therefore they're responsible
00:38:39.100 for making that happen. And if they can see that there's a clash, so in particular, my daughter,
00:38:45.320 she's got a bit of an active social life and extracurricular. She'll go, oh, I really want to
00:38:50.000 go to this party. I can see mum and dad are going out. I'll be responsible for finding a ride. So she
00:38:55.620 will contact her friends and organise a ride. And then she'll note that in the calendar that she's going
00:38:59.640 to so-and-so's place and she's organised this ride. So that just means it's one less thing for
00:39:04.700 us to organise. And it's really helping her learn like the realities of life and how to organise
00:39:09.400 yourself. You have a section about the life admin that comes when you're doing comparison shopping
00:39:15.680 for various products and services like a new car, insurance, cell phone service. This is really
00:39:22.740 interesting because your book is geared towards an Australian audience. So I learned a lot about
00:39:26.600 how the Australian insurance industry works. And that was really interesting. I had no clue
00:39:33.080 about that. But what is some general advice? Because I know when we're thinking about buying
00:39:37.420 a new product, you get sucked down this rabbit hole. I was like, well, should I get this one
00:39:43.060 or that one? And I read all the reviews and you spend two days trying to decide on a vacuum
00:39:49.780 cleaner. Any advice there to streamline that? Yeah. So I think the first thing is really thinking
00:39:57.540 about what's your criteria. So thinking about establishing that criteria before you kind of
00:40:03.320 dig too much into the comparison shopping. Because, you know, to make a decision, it's much easier if you
00:40:09.660 know what good looks like. So if you think about, okay, what is going to be my criteria upon which I'm going
00:40:15.680 to decide? And then I actually think you absolutely have to write it down. So get yourself out a piece
00:40:20.780 of paper or, you know, a spreadsheet and put the criteria down the left. So set yourself up a comparison
00:40:26.440 table because that really helps you be able to pick the best offer or the best option rather than going
00:40:33.360 through each option one at a time and you can get really confused. So I think that's probably tip
00:40:37.840 number one. And I think the second one is really to think about limiting yourself to how many you're going
00:40:44.940 to compare. Because in lots of things, there are, you know, infinite possible options. You start to
00:40:52.100 go down this rabbit hole of comparing absolutely every product out there. So really try and think
00:40:57.620 about using some sort of search to find the sort of three that you're going to compare and then just,
00:41:03.980 you know, picking three options. Because the research shows that the more options you compare,
00:41:09.700 the more confused and dissatisfied you'll actually be. And often when you compare a lot,
00:41:14.940 you actually might not make any choice. So really try and limit yourself to how many you're going to
00:41:20.500 compare. And then, you know, particularly if it's not a high stakes decision, compare three,
00:41:25.200 move on, and that will stand you in good stead.
00:41:28.900 Yeah. Something I'll do too is I'll, when it's like a big consumer purchase, like an appliance,
00:41:34.320 I go to consumerreports.org. I don't know if this works. Does this work in Australia?
00:41:38.280 Yeah. So we have something called choice, which is the same kind of thing. So yeah,
00:41:42.740 very similar to that.
00:41:43.680 Yeah. I like that. Cause it's, you know, it's, it's a nonprofit, it's independent.
00:41:47.960 I feel like if you Google like best pillow, you know, you're going to be sent to some website,
00:41:53.180 like good housekeeping. And it's going to be a bunch of affiliate links. They're just going to
00:41:57.080 try to sell you an expensive pillow so they can make some money. So with consumer reports,
00:42:01.400 I can trust it a little bit more. So I've, I've used that to narrow my, my options significantly.
00:42:06.240 I think that's been helpful. So I like that. Yeah. Get three. And then you got to be a
00:42:09.580 satisficer, like what's good enough. And then just go with that.
00:42:13.360 Yeah, definitely. Don't try and find that elusive optimal solution because you might still be here
00:42:18.740 next year. So we've got some friends that have a saying, having fun is a lot of work. And the idea
00:42:26.180 is that if you want to make memories with vacations and outings, there's a lot of admin you have to do
00:42:31.000 to make that happen. So what are some tactics people can use to take the tedium out of our vacation
00:42:36.920 planning? Yeah. So I think when it comes to holidays, like talking to an expert here,
00:42:41.980 it's kind of like my quest in life is to travel as much as possible. So for me, you know, my personal
00:42:47.860 advice is this kind of real merit in taking a year long view on your holiday or vacation plans,
00:42:53.700 because the people, you know, who are always off doing something fabulous are probably the people
00:42:59.160 who made that plan a year ago. So planning for the sort of rolling year ahead lets you sort of do the
00:43:05.400 groundwork early, you get better choices, you get better prices, and also it gives you something
00:43:10.820 to look forward to. So I like to always book my next holiday the minute I get back from one.
00:43:18.080 So as soon as I get back, it's kind of like the next weekend, my hour of power is dedicated to
00:43:23.060 booking my next holiday, even if that's a year out. Because actually the research shows that
00:43:28.000 anticipating those happy moments or those holidays is actually gives you more good feelings and
00:43:33.940 actually thinking about past happiness. And so I love to have the anticipation of the next trip
00:43:39.900 coming up. So I think that's probably my number one tip. And I think secondly, it's really like
00:43:45.360 share the load. So divide the tasks between you because it can be a lot of tasks. So I book the
00:43:51.840 flights, my husband will book the accommodation. And if that feels overwhelming, as we sort of mentioned
00:43:57.020 before, there are still travel agents out there. There's like specialist travel agents. We used one when
00:44:01.740 we came to Disney. It was a huge win. They knew exactly what to do. They helped us with all the
00:44:06.300 hacks. So think about using a specialist travel agent or a travel agent to just, you know, you
00:44:12.020 might pay a little bit more, but this is where you've kind of got to decide what's the most important to
00:44:16.300 you in your season of life. Is it, you know, spending a bit more money or saving a bit more time?
00:44:21.920 And if saving time is really what's, you know, find a good travel agent and they'll look after you and
00:44:26.700 they can book your holidays for you.
00:44:28.160 What about planning social events with friends? That's another thing that can be tedious.
00:44:33.840 Oh yeah. And I mean, you know, when you're the life admin expert, everyone expects you to be the
00:44:39.360 one who's organizing all of the things. So for me, I really, I try and batch the planning. So,
00:44:46.540 you know, if I'm going to be the one organizing it, I'm really thinking about, okay, what suits me?
00:44:51.100 What really works for my calendar? And then I'm looking ahead, you know, maybe a month,
00:44:55.180 two months ahead, and I'm firing off a bunch of emails, texts, you know, WhatsApp messages
00:45:00.020 to my various groups of friends. I'm being really specific with the date and time and venue that
00:45:06.280 suits me. And I'm really saying, this is what's happening. Are you in or you're not in? And kind
00:45:12.160 of letting go of the idea that you have to find, particularly when you're thinking about group
00:45:16.260 events that you just don't have to find a date that suits everyone. There'll always be another time.
00:45:21.000 And if you've batched it and sent out a whole bunch of things, all in like your one hour of
00:45:26.580 power, that means that if a few things don't come off, then, you know, you're not going to be
00:45:30.580 disappointed. So, you know, if your calendar's feeling a bit empty or it's kind of not working
00:45:35.600 for you in terms of the sorts of things you're being invited to, that's where you should take
00:45:39.600 control in terms of batching out those invitations. And I guess going back to what we talked about
00:45:45.420 before, thinking about having a reference list of maybe people you want to catch up with or,
00:45:51.000 you know, things you want to do. And that can help you kind of really think, okay,
00:45:54.960 if you've thought about it in advance, you can start to really think, you know, I've spent some
00:45:59.180 time thinking about what's going to really enrich me. And I'll use that reference list to design my
00:46:04.540 social life rather than just let my social life happen to me.
00:46:07.880 My wife and I, we host a Christmas party or it could be a New Year's party. We've done New Year's too,
00:46:11.960 but we've done it so many times that we've established some check, like having the checklist of,
00:46:15.100 we know we've got to do these things. And then also a reference list of the supplies that we have
00:46:20.780 has come in handy as well. Yeah, that's a great tip. And certainly,
00:46:25.140 I think one of those things is I love having those like regular social events that happen
00:46:29.980 every year in and out, those kind of traditions. We actually in Australia have what we call Christmas
00:46:35.460 in July, because obviously it's hot for Christmas in us in December. And so if you want to have kind of
00:46:41.960 that like, you know, open fire kind of cold Christmas feeling, we have it in July. And we
00:46:47.560 host a Christmas in July every year with the same bunch of friends. And it's a great tradition,
00:46:51.620 just kind of happens on autopilot. So yeah, I really love that too.
00:46:56.660 Well, Dinah, this has been a great conversation. Where can people go to learn more about your work?
00:47:00.780 You can find us on our website at lifeadminlifehacks.com. And you can also find us at the
00:47:06.640 same handle for Instagram and Facebook. Fantastic. Well, Dinah Rowe Roberts,
00:47:10.980 thanks for your time. It's been a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.
00:47:14.860 My guest today was Dinah Rowe Roberts. You can find more information about our work at our website,
00:47:18.060 lifeadminlifehacks.com. Also check out our show notes at aom.is slash lifeadmin,
00:47:22.740 where you can find links to resources where you delve deeper into this topic.
00:47:32.780 Well, that wraps up another edition of the AOM podcast. Make sure to check out our website,
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00:48:06.640 you