Mia Northrop - Life Admin Hacks: The step-by-step guide to saving time and money, reducing the mental load and streamlining your life

MIA NORTHROP (right) and DINAH ROWE-ROBERTS met at high school in Melbourne, studied together at university, and remained fast friends through marriages, dynamic corporate careers in London, Dubai, New York and Vancouver, and the arrival of children. Their combined experience in senior strategy, commercial, digital and customer experience roles did nothing to prevent the onslaught of life admin, which became their passion to solve.

Today, they run Time & Grace, helping individuals and employees transform their life admin from chaos to a state of control and calm. They coach, write, speak and facilitate workshops about life admin, and together they host the podcast Life Admin Life Hacks.

We would like to thank our Life Admin Life Hacks podcast listeners, who have provided motivation and inspiration throughout our projects journey. Special thanks also to Courtney, our podcast producer.

Thank you to everyone we interviewed for the podcast for your ideas, inspiration and expertise: Donna Wilde, Kristen Adnams, Jodie Lister, Tracey Spicer, Carly Jacobs, Ellen Jackson, Anna Hacker, Amantha Imber, Justin Hiew, Sally-Ann Lyons and Arthur Marusevich.

Big thanks to Sylvana Scannapiego, Veronique Diallo, and Jack and Catherine Heath, who believed in this book and generously helped with advice.

We have many friends in our Brains Trust who read each chapter of the book as it emerged, and offered thoughtful and critical feedback over many months. We are most grateful to you, especially Andrea North, Tess Ritchie, Nicole Avery, Claire Dicarlo, Monique MacRitchie, Cailtin Anstee, Corrie Pikul, Jennifer Holmes-Miller, Nicole Gillard, Ruth Kaufman, Catherine Hennessy, Rebecca Conci, Justine Jones, Yasmin Milton, Kyla Miller, Joyce Watts, Janine Craig, Jodie Lister, Rasa Blansjaar, Jock Reed-Hill, Donna Wilde and Paul Lang.

Thanks to the beta readers of the second draft, who helped to edit this book and make it much better... and shorter. Veronique Diallo, Amy Faram, Andrea North and Tracey Shupp, thank you for your time and perspectives.

Many thanks go to the Inner City Writers Group, whose enthusiastic critique helped Mia hone her craft on short stories and novels, before non-fiction distracted her away.

We also want to thank our nearest and dearest for their pep talks and support: Mum, Dad, Colette, Jamie, Chelsea, Annabell Chartres, Justin, Skye, Louis, Bianca, Lauren, Miles and Richard.

Our gratitude goes to the team at HarperCollins Mary Rennie, Rachel Dennis and Jess Cox for recognising the potential for this book, patiently partnering with us through the publication process, and deftly handling all our bulleted-list punctuation faux pas.

A suggested guide for tasks to tackle in your Hour of Power.

Dont forget that you can download editable templates of the sample checklists and comparison tables found throughout the book by visiting lifeadminlifehacks.com/resources or scanning this QR code.

At some point, you gotta let go, and sit still, and allow contentment to come to you.

Elizabeth Gilbert

It didnt happen overnight, but it did happen. My life admin is in flow; it has a rhythm to it, which is a steady beat at a comfortable pace rather than the hectic syncopation of experimental jazz. Im not majoring in minor things; instead, my headspace is freed up to be creative and mindful. Learning how to organise and minimise my life admin has given me back time and saved me money.

Its also got me through the logistical tasks of separation and the ongoing administrative demands of coparenting. When youre running a household solo and sharing parenting responsibilities with an ex, your habits and tools will keep you grounded, clear and confident rather than stretched.

With the right system and shortcuts, anyone can banish self-doubt and confusion, and step onto a sustainable path of optimisation. Its so rewarding to know others can also drop their mental load and pick up the parts of life more worthy of their time and attention.

When Mia and I started this journey, I was doing almost all our households life admin. Things were falling through the cracks, and it was costing us money and giving me some sleepless nights.

Fast forward to now, our households life admin systems are humming... mostly... and things usually happen on autopilot. For my family, the Life Admin Life Hacks podcast and this book have led to a lot of change. Our life admin foundations, which are shared with my husband and, increasingly, our children, are in place. I can barely remember the agony of life without a password manager and cloud storage. Schedules and lists are firmly in neutral territory and my husband is truly sharing the mental load.

Not everything is perfect. We still order Uber Eats when the timeslot for online grocery shopping gets eaten up by an urgent deadline at work; we recently missed an email about booking parentteacher interviews; and we still pay too much for our internet.

But things are much better for all of us. So. Much. Better.

One outcome of this project I hadnt expected (which gives me even more joy) is hearing how these hacks have changed the lives of others. I get messages on Facebook, emails and even anecdotes from people I meet. Its incredibly gratifying to know our ideas have helped people, just like you, saving them time and money and, more importantly, improving their peace of mind and household harmony.