Life Admin Life Hacks

In this episode, Mia and Dinah interview Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual and co-founder of The Nearness, about infusing meaning and ritual into daily routines to transform how we approach life admin tasks.The inspiration for his book, The Power of Ritual, came from his secular upbringing and his curiosity about intentional living. Casper highlights the need for intentional community-building in a world with fewer traditional religious structures. The conversation delves into the scarcity of meaningful rituals in modern life, with weddings becoming one of the few grand moments. Casper shares an example of his personal ritual, the "State of the Heart Order of the House" meeting, as a way to bring intentionality into daily life. Rituals are defined as habits with added layers of meaning, serving to remind us of what's important and fostering gratitude. Casper suggests reframing daily habits, like brushing teeth, with intentional practices to turn them into rituals. He suggests starting with habits that already have some joy or meaning. The three key steps to create meaningful rituals are: intention, attention, and repetition. Intention: Begin by understanding why you perform a certain task. What is the deeper purpose or meaning behind it? Attention: Pay close attention to the task at hand. Engage your senses, and be fully present during the ritual. Repetition: Establish a consistent rhythm for your ritual. It doesn't have to be daily; it can be weekly or as suits your lifestyle. Casper shares personal examples, like using a moisturizer application as a daily ritual for reflection. He highlights the importance of creating a communal aspect to rituals, where people can share their experiences and challenges. Find ways to make tasks less lonely by involving others, such as co-working sessions for administrative tasks. Rituals connect us and make us feel part of something bigger, even in a virtual setting. Consider how rituals can bring people together, foster support, and add meaning to routine tasks. How a tech sabbath embraces traditional sabbath ideas in a modern way How to go 'ritual spotting' Connecting with nature and moments of transcendence to bring more spirituality into our lives during daily activities  LIFE ADMIN RESOURCES Casper ter Kuile's website  The Power of Ritual  The Nearness SHARE  Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook,  Insta or Linked In pages to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

Much loved the world over, Swedish-born Kristina Karlsson is the Founder of kikki.K,  Founder & Creative Director of Dream Life,  author of bestseller  Your Dream Life Starts Here and host of the Your Dream Life podcast. which has over 2.5 million downloads in more than 160 countries. In the episode, Kristina: discusses how her journey began when she moved from Sweden to Australia, searching for her life's purpose. Her partner's suggestion to write down her dreams led her to create her own business, Kikki.K, which offered beautifully designed stationery products. emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals and dreams. She advises people to start with a dreaming exercise to determine what they would do if they couldn't fail, if they had all the resources, and if their health and energy were at their peak. From there, she encourages breaking down those dreams into actionable steps. suggests creating an ideal week or time-blocking your schedule to allocate time for various activities, whether personal growth, work, or family. She also emphasizes starting small, dedicating just a bit of time each day or week to work on goals. advocates for having a dedicated home for everything. She believes that this simple practice can save a lot of time that might otherwise be wasted searching for items. discusses how she combines both paper and technology in her organizational approach. The key is to find a system that works for you/ talks about the power of rituals to create a productive and fulfilling life. She suggests incorporating morning rituals, like spending even just 10 minutes on personal growth activities, to set a positive tone for the day. She also recommends having dedicated time slots during the week for working on dreams and goals. regularly reviewing and adjusting your routines and systems is essential to staying on track and improving productivity. her perspective on achieving work-life balance, emphasizing the importance of avoiding burnout and focusing on self-care. that daily self-care practices, such as meditation, writing morning pages, and going for walks, play a crucial role in maintaining balance. Kristina's morning routine involves meditation, writing, and taking a walk, which helps her find clarity and inspiration. that she doesn't view work-life balance as a strict separation but rather focuses on integrating her passions into her daily life. her interest in health and longevity, mentioning that she's studying to become a health coach and is passionate about inspiring others to pursue their dreams and live healthy lives. the significance of creating space for oneself, mentioning that she dedicates Sundays to unplanned activities and relaxation, which allows her to recharge and cope with life's challenges more effectively.RESOURCESThe Dream Life StoreFollow Kristina on InstagramSHAREPlease head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook,  Insta or Linked In pages to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

In this episode, we explore the AI tools Chat GPT and Google’s Bard to expedite your life admin and drop your mental load.We talked about: the key differences between the tools Chat GPT has been trained on data up until 2021and is better at responding to analysis queries Bard is continually drawing information from the internet so it has the latest information and research Bard generates multiple drafts of its response and ChatGPT lets you see alternatives if you thumbs down the response. Bard can also read out its responses and you can click buttons to generate shorter, longer, simpler, more casual and more professional versions. You can also click through to Google search results for your query, which is a good way to fact check whatever Bard told you. You can use the mic to give it an audio prompt. For both, you can click to copy the answer and paste it elsewhere, and you can share responses with others. They both store your previous chats so you can pick up where you left off. Caveats they’re experiments and imperfect. they get things wrong. they hallucinate and make up stuff. fact check the answers if it's important. don’t type in sensitive, confidential info. they save every input they receive and might regurgitate it back to a stranger. human reviewers might scrutinise your conversations to improve quality.Meal planning prompts with ChatGPT and Bard give multiple criteria such as frequency, meal type, ingredients, categories, calorie count, nutrient macros or specific chefs or cooks “Create a weekly dinner plan with a mix of comfort food favourites and lighter options to satisfy cravings while maintaining a healthy balance. Include Jamie Oliver, Yotam Ottolenghi, and Rachel Ray recipes tell it the format you prefer so you can use it readily “ put it in a table format that I can paste into the Notes app in my phone” AI prompts for life admin writing Use ChatGPT and Bard to draft effective letters, emails, messages give the tool enough context: who you are writing to, why, the outcome you are seeking suggest the tone: friendly, professional, formal, sincere/earnest, humorous, apologetic, sympathetic, inspirational, casual, in the style of a specific person ask it to draft 3 versions so you can pick and choose the best elementsAI prompts for travelUse ChatGPT and Bard to get advice about: destinations and top attractions for time of year transport options : faster, cheaper, more direct currency exchange resources visa and passport requirements compare travel insurance policies packing lists for certain destination and activities at a specific time of yearBard is useful here because it links to websites and shows imagesAI prompts for gift giving Bard useful here as it includes links to websites and images “suggest some gifts that cost less than $70 for a man who is turning 53. he likes fishing, skiing, foraging, DIY, barbecuing and family time.AI prompts for book, tv, film, podcast recommendations List titles you like and ask for similar suggestions Compile ‘best of’ lists of award winning titles Collate reading, watching and listening lists to dive deep on a topicBe aware of hallucinations: ask the tools which sites can verify their responses and use those sites to fact checkRESOURCES Bard ChatGPT Pi

Penny Locaso, the world's first Happiness Hacker, discusses embracing emotional diversity, suppressed anger in women, challenges faced by women with excessive responsibilities, the relationship between productivity and happiness, and developing healthy habits for happiness and well-being.

Olivia Clayton, clinical psychologist, discusses the impact of ADHD on organizational skills. She emphasizes the importance of not making assumptions about individuals' experiences. Clayton explains that ADHD affects thinking differently and highlights the challenges faced by adults, such as relaxation, motivation, and time blindness. She recommends seeking an ADHD assessment from a psychiatrist for proper diagnosis and medication management. Clayton also highlights the significance of self-compassion and self-awareness in managing ADHD-related challenges.

Donna McGeorge, a productivity coach, shares insights on managing energy and productivity. She highlights the importance of sleep and space for creativity. Donna recommends creating systems for tasks and belongings to increase efficiency. She provides hacks for controlling email inboxes, such as clearing old emails into a 'done' folder. Donna advises checking emails only 2-3 times a day. The podcast also covers the challenges of life admin tasks and the significance of effective systems. It concludes with discussions on planning and additional resources.

The podcast discusses managing career admin and the impact of trends like remote work and the gig economy. Tips for job moves, importance of LinkedIn, and organizing career records are covered. The value of networking and utilizing career resources is emphasized.

In this episode, we walk through how to decide what not life admin is not worth doing. We discuss the art of prioritizing, delegating, and letting go of non-essential tasks to free up time for what truly matters.  Mia and Dinah kick off the episode by discussing the importance of understanding one’s season of life, values, and goals. By doing so, individuals can identify where to focus their efforts and tackle their life admin more efficiently. They acknowledge that when life admin is overwhelming or time is limited, it becomes even more crucial to determine the areas that require the most attention. They emphasise the need to prioritise and focus on tasks that align with personal values and goals.  Their tips include:  embracing “satisficing” and avoiding the pursuit of perfection in every task. By adopting a more pragmatic approach, individuals can avoid getting overwhelmed and free up time for more enjoyable activities. delegating responsibilities within the household, particularly in sharing life admin tasks. They discuss the challenge of letting go and not interfering or rescuing when someone else is responsible for a task. They highlight the importance of self-control and allowing natural consequences to unfold. If tasks are not completed or done differently than expected, it is essential to resist the urge to intervene immediately. By stepping back and letting others handle their responsibilities, individuals promote shared accountability. rethinking social life admin, particularly regarding organizing social events and maintaining friendships. They suggest being selective with social commitments and focusing on spending time with people who are most important to them. By creating a list of priority individuals and considering personal preferences, they can make deliberate choices that align with their values. managing overwhelming email inboxes by declaring email bankruptcy, unsubscribing from unnecessary subscriptions, and minimizing filing by evaluating the importance of documents.  RESOURCES Book: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook,  Insta or Linked In pages to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

In this episode, we interview author and time-tracking expert Laura Vanderkam.Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including the new Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters, along with Juliet’s School of Possibilities, Off the Clock, I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. She is the host of the podcast Before Breakfast and the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the podcast Best of Both Worlds. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children.We loved chatting with Laura Vanderkam in this episode about time tracking. The topics we covered included: thinking about time management as a strategy to make life more memorable and fun outsourcing – how to make the decision on what to outsource and let go of the guilt – particularly for traditionally female tasks getting your kids to think about time management and to establish good mindsets about time from an early age the nine time management rules from Laura’s latest book Tranquility by Tuesday the benefits of a weekly planning session and why Laura likes to plan on Fridays creating a backup slot in your calendar to make your schedule more resilient the benefit of having two things in your week worth remembering – one big adventure and one little adventure the importance of sleep – and to give yourself a bedtime  – that if you get the amount of sleep you need every single night and you’ll have far more energy and life will feel more in control.LIFE ADMIN RESOURCES Laura Vanderkam’s website Tranquility by Tuesday – Laura’s latest book The 9 rules from Tranquility by Tuesday Best of Both Worlds PodcastSHAREPlease head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook,  Insta or Linked In pages to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

In this episode we discuss the importance of using lists to improve productivity, save time, and reduce mental load. Lists are the secret to successful adulthood. Mia and Dinah discuss the different types of lists: to-do lists, checklists, and reference lists. To-do lists consist of time-bound tasks that require action, while checklists help with recurring activities and ensure efficiency. Reference lists capture suggestions and recommendations and serve as a source of information. Mia and Dinah highlight the importance of having a single source of truth for lists to avoid confusion and to easily share them with others. We recommend going digital by using apps like Notes or Reminders, which provide the convenience of accessing and sharing lists anytime and the added benefits of using voice commands through devices like Siri or Google Home Assistant. Dina and Mia share their personal experiences with using digital lists and how it has improved their productivity. They mention the ability to set reminders, integrate lists with email, and even link tasks to specific people or locations. They recommend choosing a simple app that suits individual preferences and investing time in learning its features for automation. The hosts also discuss the pitfall of including unnecessary items on lists. They suggest distinguishing between tasks that can be done immediately and those that require planning or execution at a later time. They mention the concept of "two-minute time killer tasks," which are better completed right away instead of adding them to a list. Mia and Dinah stress the importance of using lists effectively to free up mental space, prioritize tasks, and streamline daily activities. They encourage listeners to embrace digital tools and develop a consistent system that works for them. By implementing these list hacks, individuals can enhance productivity, save time, and reduce stress associated with life admin tasks. RESOURCES Life Admin Hacks the book Best List Apps - PC Mag SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook,  Insta or Linked In pages to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.