“Whenever there is a big family thing, like a birthday party, there’s a workback schedule. T-minus four weeks, I’m the one that has to be cognizant of the workbacks.”

—Anna, 33, Product Marketing, Seattle, WA.

—Kaitlyn, 33, Resource Manager, Seattle, WA.

“Take something like birthday party. You have two sets of choices. Do we do Option A or Option B? [My partner] just doesn’t care...so I go and look at a bunch of things.”

THE INVISIBLE WEIGHT OF COGNITIVE LABOR

DRAG AND DROP EACH TASK TO THE CORRESPONDING WEEK

4 WEEKS

3 WEEKS

2 WEEKS

1 WEEK

DAY OF

I have to generate the invite list.

How many people can we invite?

There are friends we’ll definitely want to be there. Let’s check with them.

We need to pick the best date for the party.

Who to invite.

Adding invite to calendar.

Deciding which gift to buy.

Researching which gift to buy.

Figuring out the budget for the gift.

Deciding on party favors.

Researching which party favors buy.

Asking what kind of cakes the birthday person wants.

If baking the cake, knowing which ingredients are needed.

If baking the cake, researching the kind of cake to bake.

If purchasing the cake, researching where to buy cake.

If purchasing the cake, ordering the cake in time.

If purchasing the cake, picking up the cake.

Deciding on cake size.

Deciding on invite medium.

Generating the invite.

Sending out the invite.

Did any of the tasks surprise you? Are you able to categorize these tasks based on the formal definition of cognitive labor?

let’s plan a party!

Making labor visible —

One surprising insight that popped up in my discussions was amount of cognitive work it takes to plan an event.

Let’s makes the work visible and see what it really takes to plan a successful event. Organize and prep for your party below.

The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor, Allison Daminger (2019).

Cognitive labor comprises the work of: anticipating household needs, identifying options for filling them, choosing among the options, and monitoring the results.

Many people that I talked to were unaware of the definition of cognitive labor. Giving individuals the vocabulary to engage in this topic will, hopefully, be a catalyst in making others aware of this other dimension of household labor.