MISERY LOVES COMPANY

The rise of "Admin Nights" in pursuit of productivity.

- BY PATRICIA MARX

"Bring your laptop and all the boring tasks you've been avoiding. Cancel subscriptions, book appointments, clear your inbox, sort bills. Way less painful when you're not doing it alone."

The invitation, posted on Meetup, was intriguing, though not entirely persuasive—it felt like being invited to a get-together to floss your teeth. The event was held on a chilly Sunday, from 2 to 7 P.M., in Dumbo, Brooklyn. I came with my to-do list (abridged, annotated, and redacted):

1. email SS, SP, KK, JD, R

2. notarize comptroller form

3. return spray bottle buy other spray bottle

4. Lithgow tix

5. unsubscribe Substack

6. memorize S Amer [project to memorize world map, one continent at a time; not yet begun]

7. smell yogurt

8. tell not to tell about

9. smoke detector!

10. turn off airplane mode

11. consolidate to-do lists

12. I prefer UPS less salty [don't know what this means]

13. write will [on list for eighteen years; maybe it's keeping me alive]

14. write to-do piece!

Each of us has about a hundred and fifty tasks to deal with on any given day. So say the psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and the journalist John Tierney, who have co-written a book titled "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength." But not all hundred and fifty make it onto our to-do lists, Tierney—whose to-do list includes a yearly reminder to celebrate Pi Day—told me in an email.

Lists promise containment. Thank God for