Parklife

THREE WAYS TO LIFT YOUR LIFE ADMIN GAME

Life admin, the homework of adult life, is ceaseless and crazy-making. It starts when you get your first job, it leaps if you buy a property and once you have a child, it bounds to the next level. Birth certificates, Centrelink forms, birthday parties, daycare, kinder and school newsletters, the logistics of extracurricular activities...life admin can very quickly become overwhelming. As a parent juggling paid work and two kids under three, I remember a distinct moment when I was hanging out laundry at 11pm while mentally making a grocery list for tomorrow’s shop, thinking there must be a way out of the chaos. The good news: there is. Getting your life admin under control is not just about being more motivated or organised, it’s mostly about tools, timing your to-dos and templates.

Tech tools

Our lives are more complicated, technology has advanced and yet often the tools we use to manage life admin haven’t evolved. The three tools that offer the biggest bang for buck to reduce and automate your life admin are:

• A password manager, like Keeper or

LastPass, to autofill online forms and apps across all your devices. This will save you time all day every day, offering convenience you have to experience to believe. Identity theft aside, a password manager will change your life by freeing up headspace too, since you no longer have to remember all those versions of your favourite password. • Cloud storage, like Google Drive or oneDrive, so you can go paperless and digitally file your bills, tax records and other important documents. No more paper clutter, environmentally responsible, and easy online access wherever and whenever.

Bonus: shredding all that stuff in your folders is sooo satisfying. • A shared digital calendar, using Google

Calendar or Outlook for example, so there is a single source of truth displaying who needs to be where, when. When everyone in the household has access to a family calendar, it makes it much easier to share drop offs, pick ups, and check your availability and commitments on the fly.

Timely to-dos

You probably already have a to-do list, and it’s possibly very long. It’s likely full of tasks that have been there for months, both big and small, and you’re wondering how you’ll find the time to get them all done. Sound familiar? It’s time to rethink your list.

Productivity experts suggest categorising tasks by how long each one will take: • Two Minutes Too Easy: these are tasks that will take less than two minutes to do, and they don’t actually belong on a list. If one of these tasks comes your way, such as an email requesting you pay a bill or your child handing you a permission slip - do it right there and then. Don’t leave it for later or add it to a pile: it’s most efficient to deal with it now. Once it’s done you don’t have to think about it, procrastinate about it or file it. • Ten Minute Time Killers: these are tasks that take up to ten minutes to do, and can be done during downtime or in the white space between other activities. Examples here might be researching your closest indoor climbing centres for an upcoming playdate, reserving a bunch of books at the library or filling out a quote form to get the carpets cleaned. Next time you find yourself standing in a lengthy queue, killing time between meetings or waiting while your child finishes swimming lessons, knock over one of these tasks. • Hour of Power: these are chunky admin tasks where you need to concentrate, such as updating your superannuation investment option, shopping around for a better mobile plan or organising a house move.

Add these tasks to a separate list and set aside a time each week that is dedicated to doing them. Schedule a recurring slot in your shared digital calendar, and enjoy the peace of mind that comes when you know you have ample time to deal with each and all of them.

Tailored templates

There is a lot of repetition to life admin tasks: weekly meal plans, grocery lists, forms requiring the same information again and again. Instead of reinventing the wheel each time, use templated tables, checklists and reference lists as shortcuts. Create a document in your cloud storage or password manager that includes all the data you usually need to fill out forms: your family members’ Medicare and Centrelink numbers, doctors contact details, emergency contact details, for example. Build a master shopping list on your phone, on a print out on the fridge or within a supermarket app, and use it as a base. Set up a checklist with the steps you need to plan a birthday party, so you can refer to it several times a year. If it’s a task you’ll do regularly, consider whether a template will help save yourself considerable time.

Upgrade your life admin tools, lists and templates to reduce your mental load and discover more time for the things that matter most.

Mia Northrop is co-host of Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that helps you find more time, money, peace of mind and household harmony. If you’d like practical nudges to help you get on top of your life admin and stay on track, subscribe to the Monthly Momentum newsletter at lifeadminlifehacks.com.

love a mother

Are you even a parent if you haven’t made a fort or cubby out of every piece of household furniture, cushion, pillow and blanket? And all that time at home thanks to COVID certainly made for more home-based play. Spurred by their own children’s imagination and creativity during lockdowns, parents Olivia and Patrick Rudomino created NooK, a modular furniture system that is also a luxury piece of furniture that kids can actually play with. The Australian design, which recently won a Gold Award at the Good Design Awards, can be used as a seat on the floor, a cubby in the corner, an obstacle course down the hallway or a sleepover bed. It’s a versatile piece of furniture that doesn’t just take up space, it actually complements it. We chat to Olivia about how it all came about…

First of all tell us a little bit about your family and kids.

Patrick and I met when we were in our late teens - it’s a good love story! Our busy family revolves around our three gorgeous kids, Charlie, Carmen and Hugo, our two cute puppies, Tashi and Yeshi, and our newest “baby”, NooK!

NooK was born in lockdown. What’s the story?

Like families around the world, we found the first days of COVID lockdown turned our world upside down! Our kids are extremely active, so having no school, sporting activities or birthday parties suddenly meant we had a lot of time.. at home.. all together! It was an adjustment and it meant a lot needed to change in our home environment. In reorganising our space, we found that we wanted our furniture to work better for this new world – we needed a solution for the kids rooms that was multi-purpose and versatile – and I wanted something that might encourage them to leave my couch cushions in place! This led to a revamp of our living and play area where we trawled the web for a proper solution – something that allowed our children creative freedom, encouraged independent play and was safe and cosy too. We wanted it to be more than simply a piece of furniture – that didn’t just take up space, but actually complemented it. With all this time together, we also found a new way of engaging as a family through NooK – this allowed us to all play together, even our eldest teenager started building with the younger kids. Patrick, who was working a corporate job before lockdown and travelling often, also found that NooK building helped him engage again with the kids. Deciding to move forward with NooK was about creating something that we needed in our home.. and with over 10,000 NooKs now in homes around Australia, we found that a lot of other people felt the same need we did!

Your three kids love being involved in the family business. How do they get involved?

The kids are involved in everything! Both Patrick and I like to be across every aspect of the business and the kids join us in that – whether it is boxing products in the factory, stamping fabric samples or labelling deliveries – we all muck in and get things done! Obviously they love choosing fabrics.. but their favourite activity is definitely working on prototypes for new extensions. We prototype heavily to ensure our products are perfect, so this is such invaluable feedback from both their ideas and watching how they play with items to evolve and perfect them!

You pride yourselves in being not only Australian designed but also made here. How did you find the right suppliers?

At the beginning of the business it was necessary to find local manufacturers, however we discovered pretty quickly that if we wanted to ensure we could meet demand and produce a high quality product we had to do it ourselves! This began a long journey and steep learning curve while we set up our purpose designed NooK factory just near our home in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. We were lucky to be joined by such an amazing team who work tirelessly ensuring our NooKs are as good as they can possibly be! As we head into our third year of operation, we feel we have a really streamlined process and we have managed to keep it both Australia Made and at the highest level of quality – two cornerstones of what we do at NooK.

When you’re not at home making new NooK builds and creations, what do you love to do as a family?

We are so lucky to live near the beach so we spend a lot of time at the beach in the warmer months. We also love bushwalking as a family and we’ll often be found in one of the many National Parks near us. With COVID restrictions winding back, the kids are all extra busy with their sport again also (almost makes me miss lockdown!)

Were exploring Homes & Holidays in this issue. What’s your favourite family holiday destination?

We absolutely love exploring Australia, we definitely prefer the warmth, so any sleepy beachside up in QLD is always a perfect family holiday.. I spent many holidays at Byron Bay when I was growing up so it’s always about recreating that uncomplicated, salty, sandy family time!

What’s your favourite thing about being a mum? Any funny parenting stories you’d like to share?

Seeing the world through their eyes.. showing them your passions and watching them discover their own has to be the most wonderful part of being a mum.. that and their joyful laughs, warm hands slipped into yours and sleepy snuggles!

And finally, where can buy a NooK?

Jump onto our website at nook.com.au!