Life Admin Life Hacks

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 TOOL

Find penguins app  – travel journal app that can help you make a photobook on the go

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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]

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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 TOOL

Book: Fair Play by Eve Rodsky – minimum acceptable standards for shared and delegated household tasks

RESOURCES

Life Admin Life Hacks episode on To Do Lists

Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Scheduling

Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Gift Giving

Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Decluttering

BBC Good Food Christmas Dinner Planner 

Martha Stewart The Ultimate Holiday Dinner – Our Guide

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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

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This episode will help you set up your systems to make tax time as minimal as possible.

People whose lives are otherwise in good shape can suffer a mental block when it comes to tax. This episode will give you tips to get motivated and preparing your tax return more efficient.

Mia and Dinah discuss:

• motivations for doing your tax by the deadline
• the benefits of using an accountant or tax agent 
• why you might want to see your accountant before tax time
• thinking about your tax refund as a payment for the work you need to do
• options for setting up an online filing system to keep tax records
• using scheduling to set aside a time to do your tax return
• rewarding yourself when you get your tax return done.

LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK

• Mia discusses how she organised her son’s birthday in one Power Hour : finalised the guest list, booked the venue, bought gifts and invited family for a separate get together
• Dinah talks about how she cleared out the 16,000 unread emails in her personal email account

LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK

• Mia talks about a  visit to Centrelink to sort out her Child Care Subsidy
• Dinah talks about the difficulty in banking a cheque 

POWER TOOL

Book - Mentors: How to Help and be Helped by Russell Brand

RESOURCES

myDeductions - ATO app to save your receipts

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This episode will clarify the options you have to manage how you and your children use their screens.

There are all kinds of connected devices in our homes: tablets, smartphones, laptops, televisions, gaming consoles and more. Dinah and Mia give you some tools and tips to help keep your children safer online and also help provide screen time limits.

Mia and Dinah talk about resources like Common Sense Media that you can use to decide on which games and apps to download for your children. They also discuss how as your children get older it is more important to make sure you have enabled the parental controls on all the devices they access.

They discuss tips relating to:

• Setting up individual profiles for your children and using family sharing settings for Apple and Google
• Using Screentime in Apple devices (iOS 9 and above)
• Using Content & Privacy Restrictions in older Apple devices
• Using parental controls for your PC and gaming consoles
• Setting up profiles for Netflix and other streaming accounts
• Password protection and staying one step ahead of your digital native children.

They also discuss some options for improving security at the router level including upgrading your router or adding additional gadgets to control all the devices connected to your home internet connection.

LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK

Dinah’s daughter had cooked dinner based on the family meal planner without being asked

Mia is currently applying for a new role at work and she is able to use the CV she had prepared by an outsourcer earlier this year

LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK

Dinah talks about channel confusion caused when groups of friends move between various communication channels like email, WhatsApp and text messages.

POWER TOOL

10% Happier Podcast Episode on Digital Minimalism When - The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink

RESOURCES

Australian Parents Council - Recommended Screentime Raising Children - digital safety and screen time strategies eSafety - Office of the e-safety commissioners Common Sense Media - Aged Based Media Reviews Guide to Screentime functionality for Apple Devices Parental controls for older Apple devices that don't support Screen Time Circle - Screen time management and parental control device that controls wifi access and displays usage history

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Dinah and Mia discuss their adoption of meal planning and hacks to make grocery shopping more efficient. This episode features an interview with meal planning expert, Nicole Avery, from Planning With Kids and Planned and Present.

Nicole gives some great tips about:

• developing a system to share the load (eg shopping)
• involving the family to suggest meal ideas
• taking into account your family’s schedule
• cooking in bulk to create leftovers for lunches
• making every meal work more than once
• meal preparation ahead of time
• enlisting family members to help with putting the groceries away
• where to find inspiration for recipes
• how to get your family to try new meals
• how to accommodate family members dietary requests and allergies
• how to get started and use simple rules to make choosing meals easier
• keeping it simple and not over complicating the plan.

Mia and Dinah talk about some of their techniques including:

• using criteria to guide your plan (like Friday pizza night, fish night, breakfast for dinner night)
• weekly planning vs monthly planning
• buying in bulk for staples
• using subscription services for toilet paper and pet food
• having magnetised shopping lists and meal plans on the fridge
• how to get inspiration for meal ideas.

LIFE ADMIN RESOURCES

Nicole Avery’s website – Planning with Kids

Nicole Avery’s Meal Prep Primer course

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Get the hacks to buy appropriate, thoughtful gifts that are within budget and in time for the occasion, efficiently.

Mia and Dinah explore the joys and lows of giving gifts and how to make sure gifts are meaningful without overthinking it. The hacks covered for selecting gifts include:

• setting up wish lists for family members and close friends using your lists app
• simplifying decision making by using categories and themes (eg books, sport, experience, games/puzzles, clothes, accessories, food, plant)
• finding a few favourite online and bricks-and-mortar stores with good quality items
• using social media to identify hobbies or brands the recipient may enjoy
• buying gifts for children’s birthday parties
• planning for Christmas shopping.

They also give their perspectives on Kris Kringles, gift cards, movie tickets and group gifts.

This episode includes hacks on how to make shopping for gifts more efficient including:

• online shopping
• shopping late at night when stores are quiet
• only shopping when you have already decided what you are going to buy
• scheduling in regular shopping trips.

Mia and Dinah also give some advice on hacks related to creative gift wrapping and the task of sending birthday wishes.

RESOURCES

The Five Love Languages – book about how people experience and demonstrate love differently

Geraldine Hickey – from “Upfront 2018” including “Nicole” – stand up comic on the topic of group gift buying

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This episode is all about how to compare and switch home loans to save you money, and features an interview with a mortgage broker.

There are thousands of home loans available on the market, so chances are at least one of them offers

• a lower interest rate
• lower fees
• more flexible repayment options or

features like apps and internet banking that are better than your current mortgage.

Depending on your current loan amount, loan period and other loan terms, the savings to be had can be enormous.

Mia and Dinah talk about the recent changes in the home loan market in Australia due to both falling property prices and the impact of the Royal Commission into banking. This could lead to a rate decrease later this year, which may make it a good time to switch home loans.

Dinah and Mia talk about the key features you should consider when comparing loans including:

• establishment fees
• interest and comparison rates
• redraw facilities
• offset accounts and
• customer experience including online banking and in branch access.

This episode includes an interview with mortgage broker, Donna from Wilde F&I in Melbourne.  She provides some tips on what to consider when comparing home loans and the benefits of using a broker including understanding the products that are out there and the deals that are available. The interview also covers the costs and process of switching and the paperwork you will need such as loan statements, tax records, and budgets. They also talk about what paperwork is important to keep.

LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK

• Dinah talks about finally switching her gas and electricity contracts, which were inconveniently in her husband’s name.
• Mia reviewed her store loyalty cards including switching to more immediate cash back benefits for her supermarket rewards and starting to use the FlyBuys app.

LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK

• Dinah talks about the frustrations she faced when her son’s sporting team rescheduled all its practices after she had already spent time adding all of the information to her calendar and negotiating logistics with her husband.

RESOURCES

Money Smart website – government website with financial guidance on switching home loans

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This episode is all about finding the best offer for your electricity and gas in those states of Australia where you choose your energy retailer.

There are more than 37 energy retailers vying for our business yet many of us never switch, even though prices have risen quite significantly in recent years.

The key considerations for comparing energy providers are:

• Dual Fuel – do you want to consolidate your electricity and gas? Even add your solar? This little convenience as you still receive separate bills and may only get an initial discount, rather than an ongoing one.
• Tariff choice – Single tariff, Block tariff, time of use/flexible tariff
• Daily Supply Charge
• Discount – is it applied on total bill or only on useage?
• Contract Length – up to five years
• Connection and Disconnection fees
• Green Energy
• Administration – Billing and online tools

The recommended steps are:

• Review your recent bills to confirm your current costs, plan details and energy usage
• Visit the relevant energy comparison siteVictoria : Energy Compare
  NSW: Energyswitch
  SA: Energy Made Easy
  National: Powering Forward
  
• Download your usage data
• Compare the providers
• Phone your current provider to ask if they can match the best deal
• Assess if you should switch
• Phone your preferred provider to confirm the plan details and then switch.

LIFE ADMIN HIGH OF THE WEEK

• Mia talks about outsourcing the preparation of her CV to a professional resume writing service and how much more time efficient it was

LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK

• Dinah talks about the time involved in manually moving all the direct debits to her new banking arrangement.
• Mia talks about how she had planned to start working on her digital photos but her pairing plan was foiled, once again.

POWER TOOL

• Outlook Email App – better app to manage email and calendar sharing

RESOURCES

• Government energy comparison sites:Victoria : Energy Compare
  NSW: Energyswitch
  SA: Energy Made Easy
  National: Powering Forward
  

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