Life Admin Life Hacks

  This episode will help you understand your mobile phone bill and switch plans in under an hour! This episode talks about the paradox of choice when it comes to choosing from the more than 300 mobile phone plans available. Mia and Dinah talk about the things you need to consider including: Network reliability Network coverage  Value for money Contracts or Pay as You Go Phone included or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Data limits. Dinah talks about the steps she went through to change plans including: Looking at usage information for the past few months to assess what plan she needed Assessing what networks she was willing to consider.  How she used comparison a site to quickly choose the best plan Assessing if getting a new phone as part of a plan was good value for money. LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK Mia talks about using the secure vault in her Password Manager to fill in Immigration and Customs forms while she was on the plane.  LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about she needed to reinstall her Password Manager on her computer and that it made her realise how much she how relies on it. POWER TOOL Trip it - Travel itinerary app RESOURCES Open Signal - website providing information about network reliability Whistle Out - website comparing mobile phone plans SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

Prioritise and plan your social life. This episode talks about some of the things you need to think about when you are organising your social life including: the value of social connection consciously organsing your social life prioritising how to spend your time to nurture your important friendships people priority vs event priority tools to help make organising your social life less of an admin burden. Mia talks about the evidence on the value of social connection and research around the number of real friendships. Dinah talks about the framework she uses to organise her social life with reference lists and her shared calendar at the core. Mia talks about how to get ideas for what to do and where to go and her strategy to having regular and traditional events to keep her social life on track. LIFE ADMIN HIGH OF THE WEEK Mia talks about using Airtasker to outsource some of her admin. LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about how she organised a group gift and that she is chasing payment from others. POWER TOOL Hurry Slowly Podcast - Episode on Errand Paralysis RESOURCES Doodle poll - to pick the best choice for a group of people  Whats App - to setup groups to making organising group events easier SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

Decide if you need a credit card and if so, choose the best one for your purchasing and payment habits. There are over 200 credit cards on offer in Australia, and this episode talks about how you can get the right credit card for you. Things to consider include: your spending habits your ability to pay off the outstanding balance each month your credit score the types of credit cards and benefits available. Mia and Dinah share their top tips including: knowing yourself and your spending habits considering how much effort it takes to maximise rewards and benefits comparing the key features including annual fees, interest rates, sign on and ongoing benefits, and taking into account traps like capped monthly points putting reminders in your calendar for the best time to review your credit card arrangements calling your bank to see if you can get a better deal to avoid shopping around using comparison sites to quickly compare and choose a new credit card that is better than your current one setting up a direct debit to pay the statement amount automatically each month. LIFE ADMIN HIGH OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about how her Password Manager made it much simple to find her son’s lost school iPad Mia talks about her daughter’s netball coach's website and WhatsApp groups he has set up to organise games and training like a pro. LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about a school app that duplicates content and has a really poor user experience. POWER TOOL Dinah talks about the Pineapple Project podcast, an ABC podcast hosted by Claire Hooper and in particular Series 3 - Tidy. RESOURCES MoneySmart.gov.au - criteria to help compare and choose Credit Score - Ways to access your credit score for free Credit Card Comparison Site - Canstar  Credit Card Comparisons - Frequent Flyer Rewards - Choice Podcast - Pineapple Project - Series 3 - Tidy  SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

This episode will help you understand why you may need to help others with their life admin and some of the legal and practical considerations you need to consider if you take on that role. We consider some of the things you need to think about when you need to help someone else with their life admin, including: what the signs are or the events that may happen that trigger your need to assist someone with their life admin the types of life admin you may need to help with how to avoid family conflict and maintain family harmony. Mia interviews Stephanie Rendell, a lawyer who works in elder care planning and talks about: what life admin you can do informally and when you need to put formal documents like Powers of Attorney in place things to consider when appointing a third-party financial administrator considerations for reimbursement and remuneration in Power of Attorney activities record keeping obligations if you take on someone’s Power of Attorney services that Elder Care Lawyers can provide including Substitute decision-makers, Caring agreements, Advanced Care Directives, Wills and Elder Care abuse. Mia and Dinah talk about some of the practical things you can do to make it easier to manage and share the work of taking on someone else’s life admin including: Establishing a shared digital calendar for medical and other appointments Establishing a shared email address for bills and statements, to create transparency among family members Establishing shared password management systems Establishing shared To Do Lists to allocate and track tasks Setting up roster systems and Scheduling monthly teleconferences to discuss the situation and share the activities. LIFE ADMIN HIGH OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about securing her favourite shopping list and meal planners to restore order to her fridge. Mia talks about how easy it was to nominate the days she wanted to take as purchased annual leave by using her shared calendar and the relief of having all the childcare over the school holidays for the year sorted. LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about how she has still failed to manage to establish a system for the digital photos from a recent long trip. POWER TOOL Podcast - The One You Feed RESOURCES Stephanie Rendell, Associate - Head Of Wills And Estates, RNG Lawyers Episode 1 - Shared Calendars Episode 2 - Going paperless Episode 3 - Managing passwords and form filling data Episode 4 - Mastering To Do Lists SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

Deal with the admin generated by and organised for children, which starts as soon as you get pregnant and never seems to end. This episode talks about how you can address the many admin tasks you need to sort when you have kids, including: health  daycare, school and school holidays social life including birthday parties extracurricular activities decluttering their stuff - clothes, toys, books, artworks, craft. Mia and Dinah share their top tips including: having a launchpad and visible weekly schedule systems to deal with arts & craft and keepsake items using a form filling app to make filling forms a breeze using WhatsApp groups for school and team communication scheduling out the school holidays using your shared calendar using apps for sporting team management using checklists for birthday party organisation. LIFE ADMIN HIGH OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about a scavenger hunt birthday party she has organised for her daughter which was fun admin Mia talks about sorting out her superannuation at work  LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about the challenge of organising visas for an upcoming trip POWER TOOL Mia talks about using the iOs shortcuts app to develop automated sequences on her phone and the Files App to scan documents to cloud storage. RESOURCES Episode 1 - Shared Calendars Episode 2 - Going paperless Episode 3 - Managing passwords and form filling data Episode 4 - Mastering To Do Lists Episodes 6,7 & 8 - Decluttering School Holiday Program - online web directory Team Stuff  & Team App - sporting team apps SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

  This episode will help you understand what sort of budget you need, get it done more efficiently and actually stick to it! This episode talks about the reasons you need a budget, the tools you can use to prepare a budget, and how to monitor your budget once you have set it up. Mia and Dinah talk about the range of reasons why preparing a budget is important and how it can help you make better decisions about other areas of your life admin.  Dinah talks about how it is important to understand you past expenditure in order to set a realistic budget going forward. They talk about the various options to easily get this information including trying out tools within internet banking and apps that automatically extract data from your bank accounts. They explore how you can set-up a budget based on your expected expenditure and your  goals. They also talk about the reality of sticking to a budget and some of the hacks to make it easier to stay on track. LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Mia talks about how she needs to visit her bank to sort out access to one online banking for one of her bank accounts. LIFE ADMIN HIGH OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about how she has created a spreadsheet of Christmas presents and already bought most of them using online shopping. RESOURCES Pocketbook - budgeting app Money Brilliant - budget app that also recommends product changes The Barefoot Investor - popular money guide SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

Get your regular health checks on track and your health records sorted so you can find them when you need them.This episode provides some practical tips to save you time and give you peace of mind when it comes to: Booking health appointments Getting health checks sorted for your age and stage Filing health records – what to store and how you should store them.Mia and Dinah talk about: The Australian My Health Record and what you can use it for Using your cloud storage to store your health records The value of finding a great GP, dentist and pharmacy Getting your children comfortable with communicating with health professionals Being aware of what health checks you should have based on your stage of life Hacks for making appointments and minimising wait times Helpful phone numbers to keep in your phone.LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK Mia talks about updating the contact information for her children’s extra-curricular activities to her shared email address so her partner can have greater transparency and share the job of making payments.LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about the pain caused by using her work card incorrectly to pay for her Uber Eats.POWER TOOLFind penguins app  – travel journal app that can help you make a photobook on the goSHAREPlease head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

This episode will help decide what you should outsource and how to do it so that it actually saves you time and improves your household harmony Mia and Dinah talk about some of the reasons you may want to outsource some of your life admin including: lack of expertise or skill tasks not getting done due to lack of time relationship friction caused by workload imbalance or tasks not getting done. They outline ten steps to help you decide if you should outsource some of your life admin including both the emotional and logical considerations. They also explain where you can look to find outsourcing providers including: task request websites franchise services/agencies; and word-of-mouth recommendations. LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK Mia talks about resubscribing to newsletters in advance of Christmas to make sure she can access sale information but has put in place email filters so they don’t clutter up her Inbox Dinah talks about embracing the digital wallet on her phone LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Mia talks about how she has been procrastinating assembling some furniture and she knows she should outsource the task RESOURCES James Clear, Value of Time Laura Vanderkam - Free Time Makeover Task request websites: Airtasker Fiverr Oneflare Fillable PDF template for Outsourced Suppliers, Services and Trades contact details Use the following sample message to send an email to those whose recommendations you trust to help you source a network of useful contacts. Subject: Your recommendations, please. Hi everyone, I'm making a list of suppliers, tradespeople and service providers to help out with some household and personal tasks. If you're happy to recommend somebody who has provided you with great service in the past, I'd really appreciate it. I'm looking for your trusted: Cleaner Accountant Gardener Dog walker.... Thanks for helping me out. Cheers, [Name] SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

This episode will help make planning your Christmas an ode to joy!There are a lot of life admin life hacks that can maximise your peace of mind, save money and save time around the festive season. In this episode Mia and Dinah talk about: establishing and remembering Christmas traditions using Reference lists and To Do Lists nurturing traditions such as reading Christmas books, buying and decorating a tree, advent calendars, Christmas music playlists, carols by candlelight, gingerbread house making, and sending Santa letters. drawing on your established life admin tools and techniques such as Scheduling, Decluttering and Shared Calendars using Gift Giving hacks to make planning, shopping and wrapping enjoyable rather than hectic planning your festive meal and getting others to help, to make hosting less stressful planning earlier in the year to make the joy last longer.LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about how she effortlessly switched her private hospital cover using the admin hacks she’d previously followed to determine what product features were important to her family.LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Mia talks about the hassle of returning items you’ve purchased and the need for a process to help remember.POWER TOOLBook: Fair Play by Eve Rodsky – minimum acceptable standards for shared and delegated household tasksRESOURCESLife Admin Life Hacks episode on To Do ListsLife Admin Life Hacks episode on SchedulingLife Admin Life Hacks episode on Gift GivingLife Admin Life Hacks episode on DeclutteringBBC Good Food Christmas Dinner Planner Martha Stewart The Ultimate Holiday Dinner – Our GuideSHAREPlease head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

This episode will help make planning and preparing for your holiday more efficient so you can get away smoothly and make the most of your time away While many of the listener survey respondents didn’t feel that booking holidays was life admin, Dinah and Mia firmly believe it qualifies, given all the research, comparing, booking, planning, communicating and organisation involved. This episode includes a heap of hacks in four areas relating to holidays:  planning, booking, preparing and enjoying a holiday. Mia and Dinah give tips on planning a holiday including: booking in advance and taking into consideration public holiday opportunities  setting a budget and saving to meet your goal  websites to use to assess the impact of timing on costs how to efficiently plan trips with friends and family. They discuss tips to do with: Using frequent flyer points using travel insurance provided with credit card accounts Using boutique travel agencies that really know your destination storing all your holiday booking info. When preparing for a holiday Mia and Dinah talk about all the hacks they use to make leaving the house as stress-free as possible including: Packing Lists and other To Do Lists packing techniques Making the most of the facilities in a hotel How to remember all the things you need to do before you head out Getting activities for your kids organised before you leave. While on holiday they discuss Dinah’s hack of giving an allowance to her kids at the beginning of the holiday. LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about finally embracing Siri to add to reminders on her phone Mia talks about reserving library books online to encourage her to read more and foster her daughter's reading habit LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK Dinah talks about the hassles or returning internet  shopping including her dread of the post office POWER TOOL Google Maps Commute RESOURCES The Art of Travel - Alain de Botton  Point hacks website - website on how to earn and make the most of frequent flyer points Seat Guru website - website to find the best seat on planes Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Scheduling Life Admin Life Hacks episode on To Do Lists Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Shared Cloud Storage - Going Paperless Tripit - App to store travel itineraries Lonely Pets Club - Pet Sitting Service SHARE Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.