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As an adult, it’s inescapable. ‘Life admin’, that series of never-ending chores like finding insurance, banking organising grocery shopping and servicing the car. It’s a slow tide of responsibilities that we never seem to have enough time for, but that we need to get done nevertheless. Some of us get stuck in endless to-do lists that we never tick off. Others resort to using holiday time to tackle those jobs. But there is a better way to keep on top of all those jobs – here are some ways to minimise their impact on your day.

Have a Life Admin Blast

Instead of doing all those little jobs separately, where they can derail the rest of your day, band them together into a chunk on a designated time, like a Saturday first thing. Or if you have a lot of tasks, you may need to dedicate 15 minutes a day to clear down your to-do list. This will help to reduce a giant pile of tasks to something more manageable quickly. If any of your functions are too large to complete in 15 minutes, cut them into smaller steps that you can accomplish quickly.

Learn about prioritising

If the sheer amount of tasks makes it hard to work up momentum, consider ordering your to-do list by priority. Draw a quartered square with ‘Impact’ running up the side from Low to High, and ‘Effort’ running along the bottom from Low to High. Then categorise your tasks like this:

‘Quick Wins’ (high impact, low effort)

‘Major Projects’ (high impact, high effort)

‘Fill-Ins’ (low impact, low effort)

‘Thankless Tasks (low impact, high effort)

This will let you know in what order to approach things – try to tick off a few Quick Wins for the feeling of satisfaction, and some of the Major Projects – even if it’s a case of breaking them into smaller steps. The others should be left until last.

Make It Simple

Many of us make life harder than it needs to be by not taking full advantage of all the automation the online world offers us. Investing a little bit of time upfront in one of your life admin bursts can mean you don’t have to waste more time in the long run. You can:

• Make sure regular direct debits are set up to auto-pay from your accounts. Most online banking will allow you to set this up in a few clicks. That way not only do you not have to waste time each month making a recurring payment, but you’re not in any danger of missing a payment.
• Set up an account with a supermarket online to get your shopping delivered. You can set up a recurring order to cover the basics like bread and milk and then you only need to add special items on top
• Book an MOT online or any kind of car servicing rather than phoning round garages
• Set up with an online comparison site to find the best cost on insurances – most will then send you a renewal reminder
• Look into what life admin you can outsource – everything from the ironing to meal prep delivery services can free your time up – at a price

Keeping on top of your personal task list can be easy with a few simple steps.