• Tech has clearly advantaged consumers: More consumers today have access to banking, healthcare, and government services than ever before.
• But it puts the work on you: Psychologists and policy researchers have highlighted the “life admin hell” that has emerged from the many services and apps filling our lives today.
• Less is often more: One factor in stress is how overwhelming it can be deal with the many notifications and services in your life. But no app is going to sell you on deleting itself.

• Banking: Using a 2019 report, consumers on average have 5.3 bank accounts—that means at least 3 different apps, just as many support centers to call into and passwords to keep track of.
• Health: It’s not unusual to have up to 4 different health insurance apps, even if you’re covered by a workplace plan. Type BlueCross, Aetna, or Humana into the App Store search and you’ll surely see what I mean.
• Government: Whether it’s the IRS, Social Security, U.S. Customs, TSA, or just your DMV, increasingly web and mobile apps are the choice between a long line and longer line.

Modern technology has undeniably provided significant advantages. More consumers today have more access to banking, healthcare, and government services than ever before. The era of queuing at the bank or waiting on hold to schedule a doctor's appointment is seemingly behind us, replaced by sleek interfaces and instant access.

But let’s pause and reflect: while these technological marvels aim to simplify our lives, they often shift the administrative burden onto us. One journalist even called her findings a “life admin hell” that we’re all living, after she found that many people face an overwhelming nature of juggling countless apps and services just to keep life moving smoothly.

Consider this: each shiny new app promises to streamline a specific aspect of our life, yet the cumulative effect can be anything but streamlined. The barrage of notifications, the deluge of services, and the sheer number of accounts we must manage can turn our smartphones into stress-inducing devices.

One person I interviewed recently faced this exact conundrum. She had health insurance through her employer, which required using three different apps: one for primary medical insurance, another for dental, and a third for vision care. One week, she developed a toothache, which quickly crescendo’d from a dull annoyance to throbbing pain. She opened the dental insurance app, but it was down for maintenance. Switching to the primary insurer's app redirected her back to the dental app. Frustrated, she called customer service, only to be told she needed to use the dental app.

After downloading an alternative app recommended by her insurer and creating another account, she finally booked an appointment. But at the dentist’s office, she was told she needed a specialized dentist. She had to go home, open the primary insurer’s app to find an in-network specialist, and then use the new app to check if the specialist accepted her insurance. By the end of the day, her tooth was still aching, and she was exhausted from navigating a digital labyrinth. Unfortunately, this isn’t an unusual example. Just look up Aetna, Blue Cross, or Humana up in the App store, and you’ll see evidence of the insanity that is health insurance apps.

Banking may be worse.

According to a 2019 report by the Mercator Advisory Group, the average consumer in the U.S. has a total of 5.3 accounts across various financial institutions. This translates to at least three different banking apps per consumer, just as many support centers to call into, and multiple passwords to remember. It's no wonder that managing finances can feel to many people like a full-time job.

Plus, there’s the government tech headache.

Dealing with government services is no exception. Whether it’s the IRS, Social Security, U.S. Customs, TSA, or just your local DMV, increasingly, web and mobile apps are the choice between a long line and a longer line. While these apps can save you from physically standing in line, they often come with their own set of frustrations, like remembering various passwords and navigating complex interfaces.

Ultimately, while apps offer convenience, they also contribute to the growing phenomenon of life admin. Managing our digital lives has become a significant task, one that’s constantly demanding our attention and energy.

#1. Take a beat away from tech to consider your life admin situation

While apps are essential to life admin today, to reduce the time and effort life admin is taking you, the first step for many people is to turn away from tech temporarily to ask themselves: What are the different problems I'm trying to solve in my life admin?

The state of the apps on your phone and browser aren't necessarily all contributing to solving those problems.

Take your credit cards as an example. If you’ve been actively proliferating credit cards for the sake of getting rewards, you may have willingly taken on complexity. But what if your life situation has now changed? Is it time to step back, examine your slew of cards—and their respective apps—and decide whether you still want to chase rewards? Maybe it’s more time-efficient and lesss confusing to simplify at this point.

Don’t underestimate that you may need to give yourself dedicated time to think through your life admin. Get off the screen and turn to a pen and paper to write out what the questions above and consider your answers for yourself.

#2. Devise an intentional life admin toolkit

Of course, apps can and should be part of your life admin solution—but just trust they won’t solve it for you.

Some apps are pretenders, and just add complexity. D

Deciding what your core life admin toolkit looks like can be clutch. What app do you use for your to-do list or reminders? Can you get to just one primary banking app? Consider organizing your apps to have a go-to screen or app/bookmarks folder to house your key “toolkit” apps.

#3. Embrace “less is more” in a digital world

Just like parts of our homes can easily become cluttered and unmanageable, so too can the digital parts of your life become over-complicated. For example, I've met many, many people paying all three of the tech giants, Apple, Microsoft, and Google for some kind of cloud storage.

For some this might be optimal and convenient: You might use iCloud for photos, Microsoft OneDrive for the majority of your files, and you have a Google Drive subscription because you're a longtime Gmail user with many years of archives. But for others, it's just redundant clutter. Simplifying can make it easier to find things and reduce the mental costs of having to navigating and interact with three distinct services.