"Every so often you come across a book that really does profoundly change how you see the world. Life Admin is just such a book – it will, by force of its own genius, reprogram your life and give you a tool for seeing things as they actually are."

–Tim Wu, author of The Attention Merchants 

Elizabeth Emens was a working mother with two young children, swamped like so many of us, when she realized that this invisible labor was consuming her. Desperate to survive and to help others along the way, she conducted interviews and focus groups to gather favorite tips and tricks, admin confessions, and the secrets of admin-happy households.      

Life Admin tackles the problem of admin in all its forms, from everyday tasks like scheduling doctors appointments and paying bills, to life-cycle events like planning a wedding, a birth, a funeral. Emens explores how this labor is created, how it affects our lives, and how we might avoid, reduce, and redistribute admin whenever possible—as individuals and as a society.   

Life Admin is the book that will teach us all how to do less of it, and to do it better.

PRAISE FOR LIFE ADMIN

“In this timely and necessary book, Elizabeth Emens shines a light on one of the most important productivity topics that no one talks about: the relentless administrative obligations required to organize life outside of work. This book is a must-read for anyone who feels overwhelmed by admin at home.”

–Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism 

“The stuff of life never ends. It piles up in junk drawers, steals our time, weighs on our minds and, if avoided for too long, can have painful consequences. Rather than avoid it, as so many of us do, Elizabeth Emens instead has waded gamely into the muck to discover not only the best life hacks, but how to make it visible, understandable, better manageable and fairer. (I’m looking at you, ball-droppers.) Reading Life Admin is like sitting down with a friend who knows exactly how it feels to be drowning in your To Do list, and throws you a very welcome life line to help you to make your way out.”

–Brigid Schulte, author of the New York Times bestselling Overwhelmed 

“There are many books telling us how to organize a closet or the kitchen. Elizabeth Emens takes on the sorting of our brains.  They say that death and taxes are the only two sure things in life.  But they left out all the in-between—car repair, PTA, doctors’ appointments, home maintenance, making dinner, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  There is calm at the end of Emens’ rainbow, and the deep sense of accomplishment that clarity of focus endows.”

–Patricia J. Williams, The Nation 

WHERE TO BUY

US Hardcover

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
IndieBound

Audiobook

Audible
Brilliance Audio
Amazon mp3 CD
Libro.fm*

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e-Book

Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook
Google Play
Apple iBooks

UK Hardcover

Amazon
Penguin