Personal Admin Is Crushing My Soul. So We’re Doing It Together Now.

I’ve officially entered the phase of life where the necessary but wildly annoying admin tasks required to run a home and family completely shut my brain down.

Opening the mail? No.
That envelope is just a Trojan horse for 75 new to-dos I didn’t consent to.

Updating our address on vehicle registrations after finally ditching the P.O. box?
Please summon my inner strength. I do not remember my DMV password, and their password recovery system feels like it was designed in 2006 by someone who actively dislikes humanity.

Prepping for the tax meeting?
Hard stop.

These tasks aren’t hard. They’re just… relentless. And somehow, the longer they pile up, the heavier they feel. Which is how I found myself feeling oddly emotional when I stumbled across a post about something called Admin Night.

Admin Night Might Be the Friendship Trend We Actually Need

Apparently, “Admin Night” is going viral. And once I read about it, I couldn’t stop thinking about how obvious and brilliant it is.

From UNILAD:

“‘Admin Night’ is going viral, friends are actually hanging out to finally tackle life admin together.
Instead of doom-scrolling or procrastinating alone, people are hosting group sessions to sort bills, appointments, emails, and chores, with snacks, music, and accountability.
It’s productivity meets social hour, and honestly, it might just be the friendship trend we all needed.”

Here’s the thing. I still hate these tasks. Deeply.
But doing them with friends? With snacks? With someone else also yelling at their laptop while trying to reset a password?

That… I can get behind.

There’s something powerful about shared misery and shared momentum. When admin becomes communal, it loses some of its grip. It stops being a personal failure and starts being a very normal part of adult life we’re all quietly drowning in.

Another Underrated Life Hack: Weekend Kid Swaps

This whole idea reminded me of another simple system that works shockingly well. Weekend kid swaps.

Here’s how it goes.

I take your kids for three to four hours on a Saturday afternoon. You use that time however you need.
Grocery shop without negotiations. Open the mail. Tackle admin. Prep for taxes. Take a nap. Sit in silence. Choose your own adventure.

The next weekend, you take mine.

Everyone wins.

The kids are happier because they’re with friends. The adult supervising actually has an easier time because the energy shift is real. Add a kid or subtract a kid and the dynamic changes in a way that feels almost magical.

The kid-free parent gets either a genuine recharge or a long-overdue sense of accomplishment. And no one pays for a babysitter.

A rare, true win-win.

Adulting Still Isn’t Fun, But It Can Be Lighter

None of this makes admin glamorous. These tasks will never be aspirational. But they do become more manageable when we stop pretending we should be able to do it all alone.

If you’re looking for a place to start as the year gets underway, here are a few adulting tasks worth revisiting early:

• Review and update beneficiaries on retirement accounts and life insurance
• Revisit your household budget after the holidays did what they do
• Refresh or create a family emergency contact card (Here’s a template you can use as a starting point!)

None of this is exciting. All of it matters.

And apparently, it doesn’t have to be done solo anymore. Whether it’s an Admin Night with friends or a kid swap that buys you a few quiet hours, shared systems might be the real secret to staying afloat.

We don’t need more productivity hacks.
We need community, snacks, and someone to remind us we’re not failing at adulthood.