Life administration is real work

Personal to-dos take time, so best to build them in

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that life administration is real work that takes
real time, So a smart schedule takes that into account

(00:26):
and builds it in. Lately, I've been hearing from a
lot of people who confess that they are falling behind
on their personal to dos. Some things are quick. It
is easy enough to use that app from your hair
salon to schedule an appointment for Saturday, but some things
are more involved. I recently registered my five year old

(00:50):
for kindergarten next year. This involved tracking down his birth certificate,
a recent utility bill, my real estate tax bill, and
his immunisation record, plus filling out a lot of different
information online. People sometimes wonder why these things just aren't
getting done. Sometimes people assume that chaos is the inevitable

(01:13):
result of having a lot going on, but I don't
think that's true. I think what's generally happening is that
people aren't scheduling any sort of time to do these things.
People figure they'll get to them at some point, or
they'll fit around the edges of everything else. But when
some people can take a chunk of time at work

(01:34):
when they're sitting at a desk and have a phone
and such. But if your work involves doing medical procedures
or driving a bus or installing refrigerators, that might not
really be feasible. Perhaps this personal work can be done
at home, but sometimes when people are home they are
taking care of small children. It is a cruel truth

(01:58):
that it is hard to focus on registered during a
five year old for kindergarten when the five year old
is asking you to get him a snack every three minutes.
To make progress on your personal to dos, you need
to recognize that life administration is real work and it
takes real time. As with all work, it is more

(02:20):
efficient when you aren't constantly being interrupted, so you need
a regular time to do it. For many people, this
might mean a slot during the week and on the weekend.
You could block out thirty minutes after the kids go
to bed on Wednesdays and then a one hour block
on Saturday while you and your spouse trade off kid coverage.

(02:43):
Or perhaps it's thirty minutes Tuesday night and thirty minutes
Thursday night. You want to designate a time so it's
not always an option and you feel guilty when you
aren't doing it, But when you get to that time,
you've managed your energy and you know it's time to
get going. This will work for most things, but some

(03:04):
personal tasks can only be done during business hours. For instance,
if you have a billing issue with your dentist that
needs to get resolved, you might need to call between
eight and five when they are open. If that's the case,
then maybe designate one window during the work week. If
you've got a work from home day, maybe you take

(03:25):
your lunch break and do it. Or perhaps if you
start work at nine, you could use the window from
eight to nine when a lot of places are open.
Or if you work until four pm but your day
care is open until five thirty, you might be able
to use the four p m To five pm window
once every week or two. Keep a running list of

(03:46):
personal to dos, and then split the list between things
that are more flexible and things that have to be
done during business hours. But don't just assume that these
things will happen at some point. Life administration is real work.
It takes real time. Even once I had all my documentation,

(04:09):
registering my kid for kindergarten still took thirty minutes. It's
not a ton of time, but it is not zero either,
so best to build these things in in the meantime.
This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

(04:38):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(05:00):
listen to your favorite shows.