'Just do it poorly.' The life admin hack you need to hear today.

With 'adulting' comes a hell of a lot of paperwork, tax stuff and life admin. And with all of these things, there is a mental load associated – am I doing it all well? Why can't I be better at this important thing? Am I falling behind?

This is something Flex Mami — an author, media personality and radio host — can relate to.

She posted an Instagram reel on this very topic that has many people talking, and she raised an important point about practical self-improvement tools.

"I was watching a TikTok the other night, and the sentiment was just get it done poorly — all those things that you can't [fully] commit to for your own self-betterment."

Examples she gave included cleaning your house, getting your laundry done or exercising. She noted that it's better to give it a go and maybe do it poorly or not 100 per cent, than to not do it at all.

"Just do it poorly! And then at the very least, you've made some progress on it," she said.

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With Flex Mami's advice in mind, we've been thinking non-stop about productivity and 'life hacks'. So to add a bit of extra guidance, we spoke to colleagues and friends in the Mamamia community, who shared with us 34 adult life hacks you probably didn't know about.

Because that's what this conversation is all about – making life admin and all that comes with it just that little bit easier.

Car hacks.

1. There's a petrol pump marker that shows which side the petrol tank is on.

2. Keep a spare bottle of water in the side pocket of your car. You never know when you'll need a) hydration or b) water for your wipers.

3. When cleaning your car, use a cotton mop so you can reach the top. It's like using a long-handled paint roller. You can use it for all over too.

4. Keep baby wipes in the car for kids, spills and to clean dust off the interior.

5. Keep hand sanitiser in the car if you are travelling in case you need to stop at dodgy public toilets with no soap.

Home hacks.

6. Get a fancy water bottle and glass for your home desk so you're incentivised to drink water.

7. Buy a lint roller if you have a pet and keep it somewhere near your front door. Gets rid of the hair on the go.

8. Use a squeegee to get rid of dog hair on carpet/upholstered stuff.

9. Put an extra keyring on the main key for the house/set of keys so the highly used key is hanging out further than the rest. It makes it easy to grab it and that key will likely always fall into your hand to use quickly.

10. Buy good quality bedding, sheets, towels, etc. Good ones last much longer.

11. Store sheet sets in the matching pillowcase to keep the linen cupboard tidy.

Kitchen hacks.

12. The cutlery basket in the dishwasher has sections to separate all the forks, knives and spoons so it takes less time to unpack.

13. Boil cinnamon sticks and let them simmer if you've cooked something smelly and can't get rid of the odour.

14. When putting the bins back in after the garbage truck has emptied them, put them into the order ready for next week — as in, rotate the green/yellow/red into the front of the queue. That's how I remember if it's green week, or recycle week, whichever is in front.

15. Roll your lemon on the bench and then poke a hole in the bottom (where it would meet the branch!) with a skewer and squeeze — you get all the juice and none of the seeds or pulp!

Watch: Need some life hacks? Julia Morris is here to help. Post continues below.

16. When you're cooking, do a double batch, portion it out and freeze. Great for those nights you just can’t.

17. Cut an avo in half vertically, not horizontally. Use half and squeeze the unused half TIGHTLY into a glass and store it in the fridge, so NO O2 can get in. Your avo will remain bright green and unblemished for at least a week or more.

Laundry hacks.

18. Bleach bath your white clothes first, leave them to soak, then put them through the machine together on a quick cycle. Whiter whites!

19. Cold water is best to remove stains (e.g. coffee, blood, etc). Washing by hand in cold water immediately after the spillage is best.

20. You only need a third of a scoop of washing powder! One box lasts longer so it saves you money and is better on your clothes and washing machine (less scum buildup!).

21. Hang clothes on the line in sections for each person. Then fold the clothes straight into the basket (no ironing needed). It's easier to put away room to room.

22. Don't waste time hand washing anything — just put it in a delicates bag! Also, never buy anything that needs ironing.

Food and shopping hacks.

23. Meal planning! Writing out the list of meals you will make in your notes and then all of the ingredients you need before you go shopping.

24. Always have a notepad handy in the kitchen to write down the things you need from the grocery store as soon as you know you need them. If you open a new pack of something (say for example dishwashing detergent), write it down on your list so you buy it next time you’re doing groceries rather than running out.

25. If you leave something in the fridge at a friends' house or at work, put your keys in the fridge (or on top of it) so you don't forget to take the food out of the fridge when you leave.

26. Organise your shopping list by where things are in the supermarket (for example, all the vegies and fruit, meat, then stuff in the aisles). It makes the shop way less chaotic.

27. When you're at the supermarket and trying to work out which thing is of better value, even when something is on promo, eg. toilet paper, there's small print under the price that says how much it costs per 1000 sheets.

28. Go to the supermarket at the end of the day — that's when everything is getting reduced and on sale. And find out when they introduce new specials, e.g. for Woolworths, it's Wednesdays.

29. If you want to take advantage of Boxing Day Sales early at somewhere like David Jones, go in store on Christmas Eve afternoon and they've already started marking down everything in preparation. Also in the days before that, they discreetly mark all the tags with a 'code' that actually says what the price will be.

Listen to Mamamia Daily speak on this topic. Post continues after audio.

Money hacks.

30. For tracking receipts create a folder on your phone (in your camera roll) and add photos of receipts to one main folder. For missing receipts use the search feature in your camera roll searching for 'receipts'.

31. Paying your mortgage weekly instead of monthly shaves off four and half years off from a 30-year loan, plus significant savings from having to pay less interest. The art of compounding interest!

32. Schedule BPay payments on every payday to pay a portion of all your bills — electricity, gas, rates, whatever. Then when your bill comes, if you owe anything it won't be much.

Personal hacks.

33. When you need to have a difficult conversation with someone, write down everything you want to say in an email. Totally let it rip, then save as a draft. Do not return to said email until you have slept on it. Then edit once you're calmer. Can also be adapted for texts or writing with a pen and paper. The key is not to send it until you've given yourself the space to look it over. Chances are, just getting everything off your chest will make you feel better and then you can still have the difficult conversation in a kinder manner and get a better result.

34. Learn how to make yourself orgasm! Masturbation is awesome for stress relief, period pain and headaches.

What adult life hack makes your life easier? Tell us in the comments!

This article was originally published on August 17, 2021, and has since been updated.

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia/Instagram @flex.mami.

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