'I was drowning in life admin, so I threw an admin party with friends to fix it.'

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I have many strengths, but life admin is my kryptonite.

I have inattentive ADHD, which my psychiatrist reassures me makes struggling in this particular arena incredibly common.

I can be a capable single mum, run a household that's clean, keep the laundry done and the fridge stocked, work full-time, and maintain an impressively full social calendar.

But I've also been known to forget to check the mailbox for three months. To drive around in an uninsured car with lapsed registration. To let bills pile up until my phone is disconnected.

Watch: The problem with 'rawdogging boredom'. Post continues below.

I've gotten much better. There's been improvement. I've learnt to set calendar reminders weeks before deadlines (of bills). I even have a reminder to check the mailbox.

I am always on top of the big stuff. But when it comes to keeping on top of health check appointments, freelance invoices, kids' school and sport admin, Centrelink comms and tax? It feels like climbing Everest in stilettos.

Then I found out a new way to get it all done.

I'm an extrovert with serious FOMO (fear of missing out) who thrives on company, so when I stumbled across the concept of life admin parties, something clicked. This is my jam. I need this in my life.

We're all drowning.

What I've come to realise is I'm not alone. And it's not only ADHD coded. We're all drowning in life admin because it has gotten objectively harder.

Remember when you could pay a bill that physically arrived in the mail with a card and a phone call to an actual human if you had questions? Those days are gone.

Now everything is online or via an app, each with four hundred different customer numbers and password iterations to remember.

There's two-factor authentication for nearly everything, so if, like me, you forget the password to your 25-year-old Hotmail account that your electricity bill is connected to? You're done for.

I recently got logged out of my banking app that I normally access with Face ID. It asked me to enter my customer number before I could even attempt a password. But I didn't know it.

I searched through emails and digital bills. I called customer service. The robot redirected me to a website that didn't provide the customer number.

I had to physically go into a bank branch to retrieve my customer number just to log into my banking app.

That's one draining incident in an endless maze of bureaucratic nightmares. And that's just internet banking.

Add to this the mental load of tracking school communication across multiple apps, managing subscriptions you forgot you had, chasing health insurance claims, and remembering which email address you used for which service five years ago. It's exhausting.

What is a life admin party?

A life admin party is a relatively new concept I first read about in the Wall Street Journal article How to Turn the Bureaucratic Grind of Life Into a Party.

It's a small social gathering where people meet specifically to tackle boring life tasks together, turning drudgery into something structured, communal, and surprisingly fun.

It tackles arguably the biggest roadblock to life admin (after passwords and multi-step authentication): procrastination. Because you have time blocked, and have accountability.

The beauty is in the shared struggle. Friends bring bills, insurance problems, subscription cancellations, tax paperwork, forms, and digital clutter.

You sit together with snacks and drinks, work through your lists, and create a kind of nerdy resistance to endless bureaucracy.

There's emotional and practical support, and that overwhelming backlog of "adulting" suddenly feels lighter.

How I hosted mine.

Admin and swimming, like peaches and cream. Image: Supplied.

For my life admin party, I chose a Sunday morning. My brain fires on all cylinders in the morning; by nighttime, it's cactus.

I invited two friends who are also single parents and didn't have their kids that day. We started with coffee and an early swim at the beach. Caffeine is essential, and getting that natural hit of dopamine and serotonin from an ocean dip can only help.

We had laptops or phones, music playing, more coffee and orange juice (not mimosas). For me, keeping alcohol out of the equation is safer for motivation and focus.

We sat at an outdoor table in the shade. Being outside near sunshine made it feel less like work and more like a social morning.

We each had a list of tasks we needed to achieve. Mine included, but was not limited to:

• Getting up to date on freelance invoices

• Tackling kids' school admin (I'd forgotten the password to one of the apps where all communications and permission forms live, and it was becoming problematic)

• Booking a mole mapping appointment, I'd been putting off since February

• Making a dentist appointment for myself (my kids' health appointments are always up to date, but mine require remedial-level support)

My friends had health insurance claims to submit and international flights and accommodation to book. BAS statements (I don't even know what they are). There was a lot on each list.

Each time we completed a task, we announced it to the group and high-fived. Yes, it's as naff as it sounds, but it made achievements feel like wins. When it comes to powering through life admin, turning it into a dopamine hit is everything.

We took breaks when needed and went for a swim in the pool. All up, we spent about four hours working through what often feels like the hardest thing in our lives: managing the administration required to be a functioning grown-up.

Then we rewarded ourselves with another beach swim at the end, coming full circle.

Why it worked.

Apres admin: beach rewards. Image: Supplied.

We all agreed that what would have been an otherwise dreary Sunday—sitting in solitude inside, paying bills and doing tasks that had been put off for months—was actually fun. Because a problem shared is a problem halved.

Body doubling (working alongside someone else) is a well-documented productivity hack, especially for people with ADHD.

Having friends there created accountability without judgment. When someone else is working on their unglamourous tasks, it's easier to stay focused on yours.

There was also unexpected practical help. If you don't understand something, there is another human to ask for help, other than just relying on ChatGPT (to be fair, I leaned in on both). These small wins added up.

We're doing it again.

We've booked another life admin party in two months because there will always be more admin to tackle. The tax return is next on my hit list.

This is more than a productivity hack. It's a way of blending self-care and community, reclaiming days otherwise lost to solitary procrastination, doom-scrolling and replacing them with connection, mutual help, and a sense of shared struggle.

For anyone else drowning in the never-ending tide of passwords, portals, and procrastination, I highly recommend it. Bring snacks, bring friends, bring your overdue tasks. You might actually enjoy yourself.

And if you complete even just a handful of things on your list? Well, that's progress and a win in my book.

Feature Image: Supplied.