My husband and I split our household chores based on our strengths and interests. We joke that I'm the CEO of our house, and he's the COO.

The author and her husband split up their household chores based on their strengths.Courtesy of Tiffany NieslanikMy husband and I joke that I'm the CEO and he's the COO of our house.I focus on big-picture things, like meal-planning, and he takes care of day-to-day tasks.By focusing on our strengths and interests, we've found a system that works for us.When it comes to chores, my husband and I often jokingly say that I'm the CEO and he's the COO of our house. I tend to make more big-picture decisions while he carries out a lot of day-to-day tasks, and I usually don't mind carrying the mental load portions of the work while he turns thoughts into actions.This is a division of labor that has happened fairly naturally based on our innate interests. By embracing our strengths — and communicating when we're at our capacity — we've figured out a way to divide all the necessary tasks to keep our household running and avoid resentment.We lean into our strengths at homeI live for a color-coded calendar and anticipate needs like new shoes or doctor's appointments well before they come up. I love to meal plan and am always collecting phone numbers from other parents to set up play dates and get-togethers. My husband, on the other hand, is an excellent gardener, enjoys doing the dishes (something I'll never understand), and can check to-dos off a task list in a slow and steady way that I find seriously impressive.Because of this, we lean into our strengths when it comes to how we divide up household chores. I make the menu for dinners for the week while my husband cooks most nights. I sign the kids up for basketball at the rec center, and he takes them to all the games. I make note of homework that needs to be done or school events we need to attend while he gets them all up and out the door on school days. It isn't a perfect split, but it works for us.Our system helps us avoid household chore resentmentOver the years, we've found that this division of labor has mostly helped us avoid resentment. Because my husband and I are both more likely to be doing chores that come naturally to us, we are less likely to keep mental score of them. If I were the one doing the dishes every night, I'd probably have a chore chart with star stickers to get through it (and to remind everyone how much I had done). Meanwhile, my partner has mentioned several times how "zen" that time is for him.Our system also helps us consider the tasks we take on by the energy costs rather than just the time spent. I personally love to spend an afternoon organizing our pantry and would hate to spend 20 minutes mowing the lawn. My husband is the opposite. When we are in our preferred chores, time passes differently for us depending on what we have to do. Embracing the ones that don't make time drag on for us personally helps us avoid resenting each other.Sometimes, we have to adaptOf course, there are chores that neither of us wants to do. When this comes up, we have to reassess who has the ability, both in time and mental energy, to take it on. Once in a while, we'll split it down the middle. In other situations, one of us will have to shoulder the load.There are also times when I've reached decision fatigue and cannot fathom picking one more dinner, or my husband doesn't want to cook dinner yet again. In those moments, we try to be honest about reaching our maximum capacity for our share of the chores and take over for the other.Read the original article on Business Insider

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