It’s no secret that sharing household responsibilities makes for a happier marriage and home. A study in 2007 showed that 62% of people who were married ranked sharing household chores as “very important” to them. When compared with historical data, that category had the highest percentage point increase, having gone up 15% from 47% where it was back in 1990. Additionally, sharing household responsibilities with kids is predictive of success later on in life as it imparts a sense of duty in other aspects of life.

Given how essential sharing responsibilities are to a happy family, here are three tips you need to know that will make this division of labor a reality!

List, Estimate, and Delegate All Home Tasks

When you’re at work, your boss likely tracks your time and efforts using a task management system. They do this because they want to see where their employees’ time and energy is going. If the team isn’t maximizing output, they switch and delegate until everyone is succeeding.

In a family, no one person should be “the boss,” but you are all a team, and your home is a “business” in the sense that you invest time and money into it and expect results. Therefore, list all the home tasks out, estimate how much time each will take, and delegate all tasks aiming to keep the estimated times for all parties as equitable as possible.

For example, maybe laundry will take him 60 minutes once a week, and vacuuming the house will take an hour for her. This division would be fair. Or, maybe the kids take over the laundry, and now dad can cut the grass. There are ways to divide chores so that they’re fair for everyone.

List everything, estimate the times, and delegate for an even expectation. NineBx lets you create and share lists amongst the whole family within the app, so you can each add daily tasks to these lists and share estimates of how long each one will take for load balancing.

Revise Your Task To-Do List Frequently

Of course, over time, the division of labor that you once had may not make sense anymore. Maybe the kids are growing up, and they can handle more responsibility. Or perhaps the grandparents are aging and cannot help around the house quite like before.

Revise your shared responsibilities as often as necessary to make them fair and equitable. NineBx’s to-do list makes revising these tasks a breeze. If it’s helpful, dedicate some time every month on your NineBx shared schedule to discuss how each of you feels about the division of labor and any changes required. Remember, you’re all on the same team working towards a common goal – if anyone notices an imbalance, it’s much better to discuss it and resolve it early rather than let it fester.

Trade Places at Home

Often, we gain empathy and appreciation for others when we trade places with them. Once you have divided responsibilities, try trading places every once in a while. Look at your shared schedule and to-do lists within NineBx and try “taking over” each other’s tasks occasionally. For example, the person that usually cooks dinner can look after the child for a change. Or maybe your children are old enough that they can cook dinner!

Not only do you gain empathy for each other, but you also increase resilience as a team. Using the business analogy, you wouldn’t want one member of a team that has all the knowledge to perform a role. You’d want someone who could be the backup in a pinch. Try shouldering other household members’ responsibilities. You’ll know if the sharing of duties is fair!

Keep Your Home Happy by Sharing Responsibilities

The happiest homes are the ones where all family members share responsibilities and duties. List them all out, divide them, renegotiate as necessary, and occasionally trade places. Finding the right balance is essential to a life of bliss, so take the time today to work on dividing labor in a way that works for your whole family!