This quiz is adapted from Life Admin by Elizabeth Emens, on sale January 1.
What follows is a series of questions about how you relate to life admin—the office work of life. Choose the answer that is closest to how you act or feel. Some questions may not apply to you, but imagine you are dropped into this situation. What would you do?
There are no right or wrong answers, no admin personality is best, and most people are a combination of personality types. The aim of the quiz is to understand oneself better in relation to life admin.
Most people are a mix of admin personalities. You are a combination of the following admin types:
Admin Avoider: Not doing life admin despite feeling (more or less) bad about it.
Admin Denier: Not doing life admin and feeling pretty good about it.
Each of the personalities has strategies to teach us for dealing with admin. To learn more or to take the complete quiz, pick up a copy of LIFE ADMIN by Elizabeth Emens, on sale January 1, 2019!
Reluctant Doer: Doing life admin despite not feeling so good about it.
Super Doer: Doing life admin and feeling pretty good about it.
You generally don’t see admin as a problem, or even as a thing; you do very little of it and don’t feel bad about that.
You may also exhibit traits of these other personalities in some contexts:
You avoid admin as much as possible and don’t feel good about it, either because the consequences of your non-doing catch up with you or because you feel bad that other people are doing it for you.
You take care of the admin that needs doing, but you wish you didn’t have to.
You are getting the admin done—by doing it yourself or explicitly delegating it to others‚ and you feel basically on top of it and therefore pretty good.
The term life admin—in other words, the office work of life—includes managerial tasks, like making decisions and delegating, and secretarial tasks, like scheduling, filling out forms, and paying bills.
If you currently live alone, how would you divide up shared admin if you had a partner or housemate?
Madmin mind is a mind spinning with so much life admin that it feels like it’s in overdrive.