Admin overload
ANOTHER DAY
ANOTHER STARTUP STRATEGY
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A dedicated feature/spotlight in our newsletter, including a compelling write-up of your startup’s story and mission, and a link to your website or landing page. Let's us tell your story!I learned something that made me rethink how I spend my time as a founder.
It wasn’t from a big conference or a fancy MBA class.
It was from a throwaway line on a podcast I listened to while making breakfast last week:
“If your calendar is full of admin work, you’re not running your business — your business is running you.”
I paused the toast halfway through.
Because… ouch.
I’ve been wasting days on administrative work.
And worse, I didn’t even notice it happening.
My problem… and maybe you have it too!
Most days, I started the day with good intentions:
Finish a draft of our next campaign.
Follow up with two warm leads.
Finally map out the new onboarding flow.
However…
By 10 AM, I was “just quickly” updating a doc.
Then a collaborator pinged me asking if I could send them the right file link.
Then I noticed our Stripe account needed a small setting change.
The next time I looked at the clock, it was 6:00 PM.
Campaign? — Still a blank page.
Leads? — Untouched.
Onboarding flow? — Sitting in my head instead of in a doc.
I’d been busy all day, but not in a way that actually moved the business forward.
The hidden cost of admin work
The problem isn’t that admin work is bad.
It’s necessary.
But it’s low-leverage work — tasks that keep the business alive but don’t grow it.
The podcast host explained it like this:
Growth work is like planting seeds.
Admin work is like watering plants.
Both matter.
But if all you ever do is water, your garden never grows.
Indeed…
Every hour you spend in admin is an hour you’re not:
Talking to customers.
Improving your product.
Closing sales.
Building partnerships.
If your week is 40 hours, and 15–20 of them go into admin, you’re effectively running at half-speed.
The mindset shift that saved my sanity
For the longest time, my attitude was: “It’s quicker if I just do it myself.”
That’s true once.
But every week, the same tasks come back.
And I was sitting there thinking: “Why am I doing this again?”
I was stuck in an endless loop.
The real turning point for me came when I asked myself: “Okay, if I want this thing to actually grow without me working 80 hours a week, what do I need to get off my plate?”
My answer: 90% of my admin."
What I’m trying right now to escape admin overload
I’m not gonna pretend I’ve cracked this perfectly, but here’s the “admin detox” experiment I’m running.
Feel free to steal, tweak, or laugh at it:
1. Tracking where my time really goes
For one week, I’m literally writing down every task I touch.
Then I tag it:
Growth (G)
Maintain (M)
Admin (A)
The surprising part?
Half the stuff I thought was important ended up being pure admin.
It’s humbling seeing how much time vanishes into inbox replies and tiny “just 2-minute” tasks.
2. Cutting the admin I invented myself
Some of it only exists because I created it.
Like the weekly check-in doc no one actually reads.
Or me insisting on manually approving things when an auto-rule would do.
So I’m slowly killing the busywork I made up.
3. Automating the boring stuff
If something happens more than twice, I ask: “Can a tool do this?”
Onboarding new subscribers → Welcome email sequence. (So every new signup gets the same intro without me manually sending links.)
Scheduling → Google Calendar, Calendly, or Cal.
File sharing → Shared Google Drive with clear folder rules, so people stop asking me “where’s that file?”
Tools are cheaper than people for repeatable tasks.
4. Delegating the rest (in baby steps)
I’m lucky to have an intern helping me right now — just 3 hours a week.
I gave him a couple of recurring tasks that used to eat up my afternoons.
He learned them once, now he just runs with it, and it’s off my plate.
The cool part?
He’s getting hands-on experience, and I get those hours back.
Win-win, right?
5. Protect your prime time
I do my most creative and strategic work in the mornings.
Admin is only allowed after 4 PM.
By then, my creative energy is fried anyway.
Perfect time for emails, forms, and follow-ups.
It’s your turn to escape your admin loop
I get it.
As founders, our default mode is doing everything.
We wear every hat
We touch every detail
We convince ourselves it’s the only way.
But the truth is… our job isn’t to do all the work.
It’s to make sure the right work gets done.
The day I started cutting, automating, and handing off even small pieces of admin, I literally felt What A Startup started moving a little bit faster — and I wasn’t working any harder.
That’s the shift I’m learning to lean into.
Admin tasks will always be there.
But if we protect our “growth time,” we give ourselves a shot at actually building something bigger.
—
Talk soon,
Gracie from What A Startup
P.S.: If you spent more time organizing your Notion than growing your startup this week, I see you.