What this template is for
Running a household with multiple people means tasks are shared, but priorities are not. One parent might have a free afternoon to fix the faucet while the other is focused on getting the kids to practice. A shared to-do list does not capture this -- it treats all tasks as equally urgent for everyone.
This template sets up a family project with six tasks that demonstrate Klara's collaboration model. One person acts as coordinator, creating the project and assigning tasks. Each family member then sees their own independent "Do now" based on their assignments, deadlines, and personal postponements.
Example tasks
| Task | Importance | Effort | Deadline | Recurrence | Assignment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drive kids to soccer practice | 4 | Hours | Wednesday | Weekly | Parent A |
| Fix leaky faucet | 3 | Hours | Next Saturday | One-time | Unassigned |
| Plan summer vacation | 4 | Days | March 31 | One-time (start: March 1) | Unassigned |
| Help with homework | 5 | Hours | School days | Weekly | Parent B |
| Grocery shopping | 4 | Hours | Sunday | Weekly | Parent B |
| Schedule dentist appointments | 3 | Minutes | End of month | One-time | Unassigned |
How Klara handles these tasks
The core concept here is per-user priority calculation. Although all six tasks live in one shared project, each family member's matrix is computed independently.
Parent A sees "Drive kids to soccer practice" as their primary weekly obligation. On Wednesday morning, with the deadline hours away and the task requiring real time, urgency is high. Combined with importance 4, it claims their "Do now" slot. Parent B, who is not assigned to this task, does not see it competing in their queue at all.
Parent B's Wednesday looks different. "Help with homework" (importance 5, Hours effort) dominates their matrix on school days. That importance of 5 is the highest in the template, and the recurring school-day deadline keeps urgency consistently elevated. It reliably claims their "Do now."
Per-user postponement adds another layer. Suppose Parent A sees "Fix leaky faucet" in "Later" on Tuesday but knows they cannot get to it until the weekend. They postpone it to Saturday. The task disappears from Parent A's active view entirely until Saturday morning. But Parent B -- who has not postponed anything -- still sees the faucet task at its calculated position. If Parent B has a free afternoon, they might see it surface in their "Later" or "Maybe" and decide to handle it.
"Plan summer vacation" demonstrates start dates. It has a March 31 deadline but a March 1 start date. Until March 1, Klara keeps it dormant -- it sits in "Skip it" throughout February, not competing with your daily priorities. On March 1, urgency recalculates normally. With a full month remaining and days of work ahead, it enters "Maybe" and gradually rises as March progresses. This prevents a month-away vacation plan from stealing attention during a busy February.
Unassigned tasks like "Schedule dentist appointments" are visible to all family members. A quick task with a distant deadline has very little urgency. Whoever has the lightest workload will see it rise highest in their matrix first. There is no conflict -- the first person to complete it removes it from everyone's view.
Tips for customizing
- Add more family members and assign tasks based on who typically handles them. The algorithm calculates "Do now" per person, so even with a dozen shared tasks, each person sees only one priority at a time.
- For tasks both parents could handle, leave them unassigned. The task surfaces in whichever parent's matrix has more room, effectively load-balancing the household.
- Adjust importance based on your family's values. If homework help is non-negotiable, importance 5 ensures it always outranks chores. If soccer practice is a bigger commitment, raise it to 5.