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It’s no secret that creative people notoriously hate admin. I see this play out in my own working days, when it’s not uncommon to find myself flirting with the fridge, cleaning skirting boards or gutting miscellaneous cupboards to avoid it.

Although procrastination and avoidance are normal symptoms of a supposed “admin day”, it’s doubly frustrating when you eventually tackle the task(s), and realise that everything you’ve been avoiding for the past six months took you a grand total of three minutes and 12 seconds to complete.

Given that 2026 is the year of the fire horse, I am trying to channel that same momentum and high energy into admin. I’m basically looking to make admin fun – wanna join me? Let’s start a movement! Put it on a T-shirt! I don’t actually care – as long as we do something! I just know that my floorboards have never looked cleaner, meanwhile my inbox looks like a bin fire.

I do take comfort in knowing that I’m not alone. In fact, in recent months, “admin dates” have gone viral on social media. The concept is simple: people meet their friends in cocktail bars, coffee shops or restaurants and sit together to tackle their electricity switchover or renew their insurance.

Neuroscience tells us that “body doubling” (sitting next to or with someone) can prompt us to mirror behaviour and, essentially, get stuff done. I see this when I host my monthly co-working days for creatives. Something about being around “doing energy” prompts action. So if you find yourself staring into space and dipping into a jar of Biscoff instead of a spreadsheet, accountability might be your new best friend.

A friend of mine, Cat, runs online body doubling sessions where people can join virtual power hours to tackle admin. You could join a session like this (in person or virtually); message a friend and ask them to keep you accountable; or lean into some rock-and-roll energy and head to a cocktail bar with your pal on a quiet Tuesday to cruise your way through overdue invoice follow-ups or call the dreaded HMRC hotline.

Organisation tends not to be the primary skill of admin-phobes, so I have a newfound love for technology that makes up for this. Automating tasks has been a gamechanger for my squiggly brain. Adobe Acrobat Studio acts like your own personal project manager: tracking, managing and sending off for signatures on documents, so you can spend more time on ideating and creating. And then there’s PDF Spaces, an AI-powered timesaver that nips admin headaches in the bud by keeping documents, notes and links to web pages in one place.

Interestingly, in the way that five-year-olds find joy in running to hide while someone counts to 10, adults (me) are motivated by similar things. Gamifying your tasks by time-blocking them in your calendar and then competing against yourself to see if you can complete them in the allocated time can help drive momentum.

Albeit less thrilling than a game of hide and seek, this technique can help organise tasks and structure your day in a way that feels more efficient. If you want to give your creative brain an extra hit of dopamine, you could also look to colour code your tasks into categories for an extra sprinkling of visual delight.

On my mission to make admin fun, I’ve realised that it’s really not the enemy. Having good processes for admin allows the creative work to flourish. When done creatively, in the company of others, with the right Adobe tools and a sprinkle of gamification we can make the process more enjoyable. So what do you say? Are you with me?

Daisy Morris is the author of Community is Your Currency and founder of content studio and community consultancy The Self Hood

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