What are essential tasks?
Essential tasks are the basics that maintain a functional, usable home.
Essential tasks are the ones that maintain a basic, functional state of your home. If these don’t get done, things stop working — dishes pile up, trash overflows, floors get gritty.
Think of essential tasks as the baseline. They’re not about perfection or deep cleaning — they’re about keeping your home usable and livable day to day.
Examples of essential tasks:
- Do dishes
- Empty trash
- Sweep or vacuum floors
- Clean toilet
- Clean sink (bathroom)
- Clean tub/shower
- Do laundry, fold, and put away
- Tidy up clutter
- Wipe down dining table
Examples of tasks that are typically not essential:
- Dust surfaces
- Clean mirrors
- Organize closets or drawers
- Wipe cabinet fronts
- Clean oven or microwave
- Vacuum upholstery
To mark a task as essential, open it and turn on the Essential switch under Extras. Pressing and holding a task’s row offers Mark as essential without opening it.
Note
What counts as essential is up to your household. The examples above are defaults — adjust them to match how your home works.
Related articles
Filtering by essential and non-essential
Narrow the Tasks tab to essential tasks only, from the view options in the bottom left.
How to edit a task
Change a task’s title, room, rhythm, applicability, earnings, and more. Changes save as you make them.
The Tasks tab
The Tasks tab shows all your available tasks in one place.