How invisible work can be measured
Most load tests weight work by how often it repeats. That is one dimension out of several — and the least interesting one. Here is the whole model, limits included.
What mental load is made of
Not the number of tasks. Three things turn an ordinary chore into a load the other person cannot see — and each can be priced separately.
How much thinking it takes
A task you have to hold in your head in advance weighs differently from one you can see. You can vacuum when you notice the dirt. Nobody notices that a vaccination is due.
What happens if it slips
An unwashed pot waits. An unpaid insurance premium does not. The bigger the fallout, the more pressure sits on whoever owns it — even when the act itself takes two minutes.
Whether anyone else can take it
Work you can both do can be handed over any time. Work only one of you knows cannot — and that person can't take a day off, even while doing nothing physical.
The formula
Physical and mental load are counted separately. Merging them into one number would mean an hour of ironing and an hour of dealing with an office weigh the same — and that is exactly the mistake couples argue over.
times per year × duration in minutes × your share of doing it
times per year × (thinking × 3 + fallout if it slips × 2 + how irreplaceable you are × 1) × your share of the planning
The 3 : 2 : 1 weights aren't arbitrary — thinking is the part that can be neither postponed nor delegated, so it weighs most. They are configurable: a household that sees it differently can change them in the app.
Every task has three phases
This is why two people can tick off the same number of tasks and carry completely different loads. The last phase gets split; the first two stay with one person.
- NoticingThat the task exists at all and is coming due. This phase is invisible and there is nothing to tick off.
- DecidingWhen, how, for how much, by whom. Even 'just' organising it is work.
- DoingThe only visible phase — and the only one most chore splits ever address.
What the test can't do — and what the app does
A number that doesn't state its limits is marketing, not measurement. The test is the way in; the exact numbers come from the app.
- The test works with what you remember. Memory lies systematically about invisible work — in both directions. That's why it's worth taking separately and comparing; the gap between your views is the finding, not an error. The app doesn't remember — it records who actually did the task.
- The goal is not 50/50. Households differ in working hours, health and life stage. The goal is a split both people call fair — which is why the test gives a profile, not a verdict. The app adds the numbers you can actually negotiate over.
- The test is an estimate, not a measurement. Ten minutes and a single snapshot of the household on one day. Exact numbers only come from tasks actually completed over time — and that is what the app does, across the same domains and the same phases.
If you only pick one: the test shows you the direction, the app gives you the numbers. It counts physical time and mental load across every task in the household, continuously and per person — not from what anyone managed to remember.
Looking for the measured picture rather than our formula? Unpaid work and mental load in numbers
Who built the model
Roman Bednár, an industrial engineer with a doctorate in logistics and production management. Eleven years building industrial applications and setting work standards with the BasicMOST method — measuring how much work is really in an act that looks like it takes a moment. Family Fair Play started from the question of why the same thing had never been applied to a household.
About the author