Book Review: Life Admin Hacks — A Game Changer for Busy Families
Book Review: Life Admin Hacks — A Game Changer for Busy Families
As a busy mum juggling family life, work, and everything in between, I’m always on the lookout for ways to streamline my life and reduce the chaos. Life Admin Hacks has been nothing short of a game changer for our family. The book is packed with practical strategies to get on top of those life admin tasks that often fall by the wayside, and I wanted to share how it’s transformed our approach to managing time, tasks, and household responsibilities.
Chapters on Calendars and Lists: Total Game Changer
The chapters dedicated to calendars and lists have genuinely changed how we function day-to-day. The authors introduce the concept of a single point of truth — one master calendar where everything is tracked and updated. For our family, this has been revolutionary – no more missed appointments or clashing schedules! We’ve implemented this system using a shared family Google Calendar, and it’s made coordinating activities and responsibilities so much easier. If its not in the calendar, its not happening!
I’ve also taken their advice on to-do lists to heart, moving all my lists into a Google spreadsheets that I can access from my phone. This small change has been a huge win. Now, I can add tasks, create checklists, and update reference lists on the go, whether I’m in the carpool line or between work meetings. It’s not just about staying organised — it’s about having everything at my fingertips whenever I need it.
Life-Changing Organization for a Type-A Personality
As a self-confessed Type-A personality, separating my lists into reference lists, checklists, and to-do lists has been literally life-changing. Before, everything was mixed together, and it felt overwhelming. Now, my to-do lists are for tasks, my reference lists hold important info (like gift lists or meal plans), and my checklists help me track ongoing processes. This system has also been a game changer for my work life — having a clear, structured approach means I’m more efficient and less stressed, both at home and at work.
Check out our free gift reference list here.
This has also meant that my actual to-do list is much smaller – once I separated out all the lists into appropriate forms e.g. checklists/ reference lists. I find too now I don’t carry nearly as much mental load (still a struggle though, lets be real) because that information is brain-dumped into the appropriate list at that time. For example I see something good as a gift while out and about or while chatting – I add that directly to the gift reference list for the person or general ideas and then task is done!
Family Meetings and the “Hour of Power”
Another brilliant idea we’ve embraced from Life Admin Hacks is the weekly family meeting. Inspired by this book and the Barefoot Investor’s and How to Give your Kids A Million Dollars recommendations for kids’ pocket money/ investing, we now meet once a week to discuss our week ahead, manage the kids’ pocket money, and do meal planning as a family. We call it our “family meeting”, in the book they call it the “Hour of Power.” This meeting has become a cornerstone of how we operate as a family. Everyone has a say, and we use it as a time to plan meals, assign chores, and ensure we’re all on the same page. We have visual family rules and family food goals which we also review in this time. You can learn more about why we love visuals so much in this blog.
Again – our kids are under 5 years old so besides their pocket money and asking for pasta and dessert their meal planning isn’t 10/10 BUT our plan is over time and ask they grow they will have been included and it will be ingrained in our family routines. When they are old enough they can take over some meal planning and cooking themselves (or so I hope!!).
Monthly Jobs Finally Getting Done
Before reading Life Admin Hacks, monthly jobs like cleaning the dishwasher or washing machine often fell through the cracks. Now, we have a system! These small but essential jobs are divided into manageable tasks, and we tackle them at the beginning of each month. Having this organized system means nothing gets missed, and these jobs finally get done without feeling overwhelming.
I normally try and smash these out the first weekend of the month – however with the Christmas craziness I haven’t done them yet (off I go after I write this!).
The Password Manager: A Skeptical But Grateful Convert
One area where I was initially skeptical was the book’s recommendation to use a password manager. I wasn’t convinced at first, but after taking the plunge, I’m already seeing how it’s going to save me time and energy in the long run. Sure, it takes time to set up, but now that I’m inputting information as I go, I can already feel the weight lifted. Plus, knowing that my husband has access to all the important logins and accounts has given me incredible peace of mind. It’s one of those changes that I can tell will make an even bigger impact as time goes on. We went with Password 1 but the book recommends a few others as well.
We are slowly talking about this with our parents too, as something they might like to consider as they get older and a way for us to support their family admin if (heaven forbid) something was to happen for them.
Final Thoughts: A Must-Read for Busy Mums
If you’re a busy mum or anyone managing life for more than 1-2 people, I can’t recommend Life Admin Hacks highly enough. It offers simple yet powerful systems that help bring order to the chaos of family life. Paired with the Barefoot Investor’s recommendations for pocket money and date nights, we’re well on our way to having our life admin sorted. These tools are helping us streamline, reduce stress, and free up more time for what matters most — spending time together as a family.
If you don’t have time to read it all – just the chapters on lists and calendars would be my recommendation! Check out our other blogs that may be helpful here!
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