Task Assignment Algorithm

Cohabit's assignment algorithm aims to assign tasks to users in a way that is fair and efficient, but secondarily takes the amount of cleaning each user is doing that week into account. This means that over a year, you can be certain that you will have completed an equitable amount of tasks, but there may be minor inconsistencies from week to week.

How it works

At the end of each week, we run the assignment algorithm to assign tasks for the following week. To be eligible to be assigned tasks, members must have an active cleaning status (this can be checked from member pages and their previews).

To ensure that no tasks are left behind the algorithm will assign all unassigned tasks due in the following week and the past. If this results in a heavy load of tasks in a given week, it's easy to reassign tasks manually. The algorithm with never reassign a task from another member.

Sticky assignments

If you want one member to retain a task (for example, if you want John to always do the Changing the bedsheets task), you can set the task assignment to "sticky" on the task page. This overrides the algorithm and always retains the task assignment.

Manual triggers

Should you add a task or member mid-week, you can manually trigger the assignment algorithm on a zone-by-zone basis from a zone's page. This will assign tasks for the current week, but will not reassign tasks that have already been assigned. The option to do so will automatically populate in the "Suggestions" section, so long as there are unassigned tasks due that week.