Chore Charts, Revisited.

When I first read _Cheaper By the Dozen_ in my elementary school years, I was impressed by the father's bizarre devotion to efficiency. I remember little else about the book, but this impression has stuck with me my entire life.

So it is kind of funny to me that I think my children will look back at our lives and will hopefully be amused by my own undying devotion to creating The World's Best Chore System. My dedication to this goal has led me from index cards to wall charts to computer-based task lists to my newest iteration in the form of excel spreadsheets, 3 ring binders, and stickers.

I am obsessed with time and task management and am always looking for new methods of organizing activities, with an element of chaos and a goal of rewards and relaxation. My life has always been full of various activities that are as time consuming as they are fulfilling, so I have never been able to judge the success of my time management skills by the state of my immediate surroundings. Projects are always halfway done, the house is never in a pristine state, and I have a difficult time convincing myself to slow down, relax, and enjoy myself in the perpetual undone state of things. Combine that with children who have my tendencies towards slobbishness, and homeschooling and working and trying desperately to focus on creative endeavors...and you see the need for a good task management system.

There are several components to my system, and any one of them could (and probably will) warrant an entire blog post that will expose entirely too much of my bizarre way of dealing with the world. For this post, I would like to talk about my ever-changing chore charts, and the most recent iteration of them that I have just finalized.

In most task management systems you read about, the focus is on managing unique tasks that spring up, are handled, and are over. What I like to focus on instead are recurring tasks. So, the first step in creating a chore chart is to define all of the recurring tasks that need to be delegated. What I do is divide the house into zones. Such as:

• Kitchen
• Bathroom
• Bedrooms
• Outside
• Hallway
• Laundry Room
• Living Room
• General

I then brainstorm all of the possible chores that need to be done in each of these zones, trying to focus on breaking it down to an elemental level, such as:

Once I have all of the individual tasks for each zone identified, I define the frequency that the task should recur, such as:

I do all of this on an Excel Spreadsheet, with each zone on it's own tab. Most tasks recur frequently, but there are other tasks, such as organizing the silverware drawer, mopping, washing windows, etc. which occur monthly, quarterly, or less frequently. I also include general maintenance, such as tiling the floor, painting, replacing appliances or furniture, and "wish list" items, just so I can keep track of the needs for those things along with the rest of the tasks that recur in that area.

Once I've defined the zones, the tasks, and the frequency of the tasks, I add a column in my spreadsheet to assign a point value for each chore. This speaks to my reward system, which I will discuss in a future post, and takes into account the duration in time that the chore requires, and allows for a range of points based on the thoroughness with which the chore is completed. In the end, my chart looks something like this:

Once I'm done with all of these steps for all of the zones I've identified, I divide up the zones per person. For example, using my previous zones:

• Kitchen, Laundry room, Bedroom - Mom
• Bathroom, Outdoors, Bedroom - Monk
• Living Room, Hallway, Bedroom - Cole

And each person also gets a "general" chart on which miscellaneous chores and opportunities are listed with associated frequencies and scales.

All of these charts are printed (as you can see, they are on a grid, which allows for tracking of when each chore has been completed, and pretty much allows for an entire month's worth of chores to be printed at once) and put into a three-ring binder with a tab for each person and their assigned chore chart behind their tab. The tab also serves as a "bank" for stickers that are earned for completion of chores and extra responsibilities, to be used as currency in the reward system I will discuss in my next post.

In addition to these recurring chores, I also assign each child "morning chores" - which are things that need to be taken care of every day without fail. These are:

• Unload the Dishwasher
• Take Out the Compost
• Bring In the Laundry
• Feed the Pets
• Take Out the Trash

These chores are divided up so each kid has a certain number of them to do based on whether it's an odd or even day. In other words, Monk might be responsible for unloading the dishwasher and taking out the compost on odd days, and for Bringing in the laundry and taking out the trash on even days...and vice versa for Cole. One child is in charge of feeding the cats, and the other is in charge of feeding the dog.

And that's pretty much the start of it. Once the chores are in the binder, the kids and I can select what we want to do on any given day, and keep track of what has been done. We can also find fun ways to motivate each other to do our chores, which is what I'm going to talk about in my next post...so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I'm curious...what sorts of chore charting or methods for staying on top of recurring tasks do you use? Are you the kind of person who does certain things on certain days, or do you prefer an element of chaos? How do you deal with rewards based on actual work done? Are there any challenges in your household to accomplishing everything you need to accomplish on a regular basis? What do you do to motivate your family to get things done?