Hate adulting? This one's for you.
Life admin days are here to clear your mental load.
I am amazingly productive when I’m avoiding my to-do list. So much so that I have had the privilege of staring at the task “dentist” for the past three months. Just me?
I always think that once I write a task on my list, it’s no longer sitting in my mental load. And yes, I’m that person who thinks of about 35 things I need to do and then jots them down right before I fall asleep. And that does help. But the reality is that until I actually mark that sucker off as DONE, I don’t feel any true relief.
Even with what feels like plenty of motivation to knock out the mundane tasks, I still just don’t do it. Why would I when there’s so much other work to be done and fun to be had?
Enter: a glorious (I kid you not) life admin day.
This isn’t a novel concept, and everyone’s version looks different or goes by a different name. For me, it changes depending on the season I’m in. For a while, it was a life admin block where I’d commit to knocking out just one task before diving into deep work. For another season, I’d take an entire day off and devote it to crushing the whole list. Currently, it’s a mix, because my schedule is pretty flexible and I don’t work Fridays (I know, pure shenanigans).
My method
I block my calendar and throw elbows. This keeps me from getting distracted by other “more pressing” tasks (when dentist has been on your list for three months, laundry is not, in fact, the most pressing matter).
I use generative AI to organize my day. I know, I know, there’s a push for more analog living and AI is supposedly going to replace us all. Spoiler alert: I do AI research as my job, and sci-fi becoming reality is still a long way off. AI is, however, an excellent tool when used wisely. No, it can’t do my laundry (bummer), but it can help me organize my day and create a realistic game plan. It could probably schedule my dental appointment too… but I’m not quite ready to trust it that much yet 🤣
I do the thing. Once I’ve got my handy dandy AI-generated gameplan, it’s go time.
What this looks like in action
Let’s take today as an example. I’m not working, I want some time for myself, and I want to knock a few things out. I also want this to be low-pressure and I want to feel okay if I don’t get everything done, aka: zero over-scheduling and lots of grace.
So, I blocked my day, chatted with generative AI, and now I’m sitting at a coffee shop doing the thing ☕
I’m going to share a small portion of my chat, but you can see the full deal here. Even with your best, most detailed starting prompt, expect a little back and forth like adding tasks, clarifying logistics like distances, and making sure the day is actually realistic and achievable.
The feels:
I’m about thirty minutes into my coffee shop work block, and I can already breathe easier. I’ve committed to getting my ish done, and it feels great.
AI built the plan, which means it includes way more buffer than I ever would have given myself (read: all the coffee and snacks).
By the end of today, I will tangibly feel the cleared mental space. Oh, and that feeling when you check off a to do item. Yes please!
And of course, I’ll now get to shift from putting off scheduling my dental appointment to dreading it 🤣😬
Okay, but can we make it social?
I read an article the other day about someone hosting a life admin party. I KNOW. It immediately brought to mind a regular text one of my Colorado besties and I used to send each other: wanna go to a coffee shop and ignore each other?
We don’t have to adult alone. We all have mundane tasks to get done. Rather than seeking accountability solely from a robot, how about we use it to build our schedules and then team up to knock things out together?
Quiet productivity. Shared space. Making it happen.
Who’s ready for a little life admin coffee date? ☕️
Reading: Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan.
This one is a sweet read so far. A terminally ill boy asks his logic-driven sister to find out where Narnia came from directly from CS Lewis, an instructor at her college. As an engineer, so many quotes have challenged me already, and I’m only halfway through!
Reason is how we get to the truth, but imagination is how we find meaning.
[A good story] takes us out of ourselves and lets us view reality from new angles. It expands our awareness of the world.
Listening to: Band of Horses.
I was listening to Noah Kahan like all the cool kids and realized he sometimes gives Band of Horses vibes. The Funeral, No One’s Gonna Love You, and Is There a Ghost are currently on repeat.
Loving: Lunchtime yoga class.
Need I say more?
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