How it works
Homework is a shared to-do list for a household with a gratitude layer on top — plus the grocery list and announcements that keep the week running. Setup takes about ten minutes; after that it's a glance in the morning and a tap when something's done.
- 01
Make your household
One adult signs up and creates the household, then invites everyone else with a code. Each person picks a color and a shape that becomes their mark everywhere in the app — on tasks, balances, and thank-yous. Kids who don't have email get a child account — no inbox required — that a parent manages and can later graduate to a full account. More on how kid accounts work →
- 02
Set up rooms and tasks
The fastest way in is the household setup wizard — a couple of minutes of quick questions right after you sign up. It asks who's in your household, whether you have pets, how you want bedrooms and bathrooms handled, and whether you'd rather tackle chores a little each day or in bigger batches on set days, then fills in a starting set of rooms and tasks for you. You can also skip it and build everything yourself. Either way, nothing it creates is locked in — every room, task, and due date it sets up can be renamed, reassigned, rescheduled, or deleted afterward.
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Homework●●●Swipe through a few of the wizard's actual screens — 6 of its setup questions. - 03
Customize your tasks
Group work by room — Kitchen, Bathrooms, Yard — and add the tasks that actually recur. Each task gets a rhythm; there are four task types:
Repeats a set number of days after you finish it — the countdown starts fresh from the completion date, not a fixed calendar day. “Wipe counters” every 2 days is next due 2 days after you last did it, whether that lands on a Tuesday or a Saturday. Good for chores that just need to happen regularly — vacuuming, watering plants — without caring what day of the week it falls on.
Due on a specific day (or days) of the week no matter when it was last completed — like “every Tuesday” for trash day. Miss it and it doesn't get pushed later; it just becomes due again on the next matching day. Good for anything tied to an external schedule, like trash pickup or a weekly meeting, where the date matters more than how long it's been.
Due on one specific date you pick — like scheduling “Change the furnace filter” for October 1st. Once it's done there's no automatic next date: you'll be asked to pick the next one yourself. Good for things that come up occasionally without a predictable pattern, like seasonal maintenance or an appointment reminder.
A single task with no repeat at all — complete it once and it's done for good, like “Assemble the new bookshelf.” Check it off and it disappears from your list instead of coming back later.
- 04
Decide who does what
Assign a task to one person, rotate it between several, or leave it open for whoever's free. Nothing is locked to a “chore chart” — you can reassign or claim a task in a tap. There are three ways to assign one:
One person is responsible every time the task is due. You pick who when you set up the task. Good for something that's really always someone's job, like mowing the lawn or paying the bills — it shows up on their list and no one else's.
Hands off to the next person each time it's completed, cycling through whichever household members you choose. Good for sharing a task everyone should take a turn at — emptying the dishwasher, walking the dog — without it becoming any one person's daily job.
Open to whoever gets to it first — no fixed owner, no one waiting their turn. Good for a task where speed matters more than fairness, like letting the dog out or grabbing the mail.
- 05
Do the work, mark it done
Your Today screen is deliberately narrow — just the tasks assigned to you that are due today, plus any announcements you need to see. It's built for focus; the whole household's list lives on the Tasks page. Marking a task done adds a Gratitude Coin to your balance, and missing one just leaves it on the list — no red, no nagging, no streak to break.
- 06
Say thank you
When someone helps, hand them coins and a short note. It's the part that isn't about scorekeeping: being noticed. Kids can thank parents just as easily as the other way around.
- 07
Spend coins on real things
Anyone can offer a reward — a chosen movie, breakfast in bed, ten minutes of catch, or a tracked cash allowance. Pool coins toward a household goal like a trip and watch it fill together.
Homework●●●Tasks
- Clean out the fridgeChris · Today
- Wipe counters & stovetopBrad · Tomorrow
- Change the wax warmerAnyone · Sep 25
Homework●●●Settings
My color
Marks tasks and rewards as yours across the app.
My shape
A second way to tell who's who at a glance.
A mark of your own
Everyone gets a color and a shape
When you join a household you choose a color and a shape. From then on they're your signature everywhere in the app — the icon next to tasks you own, the tint on your rewards, the marker on your balance. It means you can tell at a glance whose turn something is, and it works even for family members who read the screen the same way you read a name tag: by the picture, not the text.
The grocery list
So the right person buys the right thing
Add an item the fast way — type a name, hit add. Then, when it matters, open the item and give it the detail that usually only lives in one person's head:
Brand, store, and packaging
“Kirkland only.” “Trader Joe's.” “The big tub, not the cups.” When the stand-in shopper goes, they're not guessing in the aisle or texting photos home — the note is right there on the item.
Sort and filter by store
Tag items with the store you get them from, then narrow the list to just that store. Heading to Costco? See only the Costco list, in the order you walk it — you can drag items to match the aisles.
Past Items, sorted by how often you buy
Check something off and it moves to Past Items — things you've bought before, ordered by frequency so your regulars sit at the top. Re-adding milk for the hundredth time is one tap, not re-typing. And the list prunes itself: anything you haven't bought in 3 weeks drops off, so that weird thing you bought once won't haunt your list forever.
Homework●●●Groceries
Press and hold an item to drag it into your walking order.
- Dave's Killer BreadDetails
- Sugar-free vanilla creamerDetails
Dave's Killer Bread
- Brand
- Dave's Killer
- Store
- Dillons
- Notes
- thin-sliced, blue bag
Past items
Tap to add back. Items disappear after 3 weeks unbought.
- Dog food3× boughtDetails
- Eggs2× boughtDetails
- Coffee beans1× boughtDetails
Homework●●●Today
New announcement
Thursday: leftovers night
Announcements
Keep everyone on the same page
A parent can post an announcement that shows as a banner on everyone's Today screen. Two ways to use it:
Schedule the week ahead
Set a start date and a repeat — “every Thursday” — and post the dinner plan for each night in advance. Each one surfaces on its own day and steps aside when the day passes.
Post one for right now
“Leaving in 20 minutes.” “Package on the porch.” Post it as a one-time note, and optionally tick send a notification to the household so it goes to everyone's phone, not just the app.
A few things that come up
Do reminders nag?
One optional morning digest of what's due, and an optional evening nudge if things are still open. That's it — no per-task alerts, no badges counting up.
Is it just for parents and kids?
No. Roommates, couples, and multi-generation homes use it the same way. Child accounts are a feature, not a requirement.
Do coins have to mean money?
Only if you want. Most families keep them as a currency of small kindnesses; some map them to a real allowance for older kids.
Who can post an announcement?
Household managers (the adults). Everyone sees them; only managers create, edit, or schedule them.