Live Sprints, in plain English
A timed cleaning burst, alone or with everyone in your household. What the phases actually do, what happens when the clock runs out, and why doing it together makes starting easier.
A short timer, a shared list, a clear stop
A sprint is a fixed-length cleaning session. You pick a duration, you accept the list Tidywell builds or untick parts of it if you're going solo, you start the clock, and you tick things off until it ends. That's the whole shape of it. The point isn't to finish the list. The point is to start, and to stop without guilt when the timer says so.
Duration is one of three options: 15, 25, or 45 minutes. Pick whatever feels survivable today. A bad day's 15 still beats a perfect plan you never started.
Body doubling, if you haven't heard the term
Body doubling is the ADHD-known trick of doing a hard task next to someone else who's also doing a task. They don't help you, they don't watch you, they're just there. For a lot of brains, this lowers the activation cost dramatically. Starting alone feels like climbing a wall. Starting next to a flatmate or partner feels like starting.
Household sprints are designed for this. Two people in two different rooms, same timer, same list, ticking things off in real time. You're not really cleaning together. You're cleaning at the same time, and that turns out to be enough.
Six phases, from setup to summary
A sprint moves through the same six phases every time. If you're solo, two of them get skipped. If you're with your household, you'll see all six.
- 01
Config
Pick the duration, the kind (solo or household), and, on a solo sprint, which of the chosen tasks to include. The list starts as today's due tasks in priority order, plus any open "Whenever" tasks, topped up with tasks from the rooms furthest from clean if that doesn't fill your duration. In Room Days mode there's a fourth control, Today's room only, which narrows the sprint to the room scheduled for today. On a household sprint that scope is shared with everyone who joins.
- 02
Lobby (household only)
You get an invite code. Anyone in your household can join by typing it in. The lobby waits until you tap Start.
- 03
3, 2, 1
A short countdown so everyone hits Go at the same instant. Useful when two people are in two rooms.
- 04
Active
The clock runs. You tick tasks off. In a household sprint, the list updates live for everyone.
- 05
TIME'S UP
A short coral flash and a bell sound. The timer stops. Whatever you did is done, whatever you didn't is still there.
- 06
Summary
How many tasks finished, how long it took, and (in household mode) the leaderboard. Then back to your normal Today list.
Solo sprints skip the lobby and the leaderboard. The flow is config, countdown, active, summary. No invite, no waiting room, no sign-in needed.
Solo or household
When you start a sprint, the first choice is whether it's a solo run or a household one. They behave differently and they're priced differently. Solo is in every account. Household is on the Premium plan.
Solo sprint
Free- No lobby, no waiting. Tap start, the countdown runs, you're in.
- No sign-in required. Works on a fresh anonymous account.
- Personal stats on the summary screen: tasks finished, coins earned, and time spent.
- Good for a quiet 15 before bed, or a 45 on a Saturday morning.
Household sprint
Premium- Lobby with an invite code so other members can join.
- Shared task list that updates live as people tick things off.
- Any adult can add a custom task mid-sprint and it appears for everyone. Child profiles don't get the input.
- Live leaderboard during the sprint, final standings on the summary.
Why household sprints need an account
How a household sprint actually works
Once you start a household sprint, a few specific things happen that solo doesn't have. Worth knowing them upfront so the first one isn't confusing.
The invite code
Joining once it's already running
The list updates live
Mid-sprint custom tasks
What happens when the clock hits zero
A lot of people brace for something dramatic when the timer ends. Tasks getting auto-completed, the list getting wiped, anything not done becoming a black mark. None of that happens. The behaviour is much gentler than people expect.
TIME'S UP doesn't auto-complete or delete anything
The timer just stops. Whatever you finished is finished. Whatever you didn't is still there, exactly where it was, in the same state, on your normal Today list.
An incomplete sprint isn't a fail. You did 4 things instead of 7, and 4 things is 4 things. The other 3 are still on tomorrow's list waiting calmly, no penalty, no streak hit, no scolding.
The bell sound
Then the summary
The leaderboard, and why it's gentler than it looks
In a household sprint, the active screen shows a small live leaderboard. It ranks members by how many tasks they've completed in this sprint. The numbers update as people tick things off, and the final order is shown again on the summary screen.
The vibe
It's a thermometer, not a scoreboard
Tidywell ranks by tasks completed, not minutes worked or effort weighting. So the person who knocks out five small wipes will sit above the person who's halfway through a deep oven clean. That's deliberate. The leaderboard is meant to nudge momentum, not crown a winner. The teenager doing a flurry of tiny things is doing exactly the right thing.
Solo sprints don't have one
Choose tasks
You wanted to start a timer and pick a few tasks. That is exactly what Choose tasks does.
When you set up a sprint, Tidywell has already built the list for you: today's due chores in priority order, any open "Whenever" tasks, and, if that doesn't fill the time you picked, a few extra tasks from the rooms furthest from clean. The setup screen shows you the totals but never the names. Choose tasks is the only place you can see which tasks are actually in there, and untick the ones you don't want today.
It works on a solo sprint. On a household sprint the row is still there but it can't be opened, because every member's device works the shared list out for itself.
It isn't a Premium feature. Solo sprints are free, and solo is exactly where this works, so everyone has it.
How to open it
- 1
Open the Home tab.
- 2
Tap Sprint in the quick actions, the one with "Clean together, beat the clock" under it.
- 3
On Start a sprint, pick your Duration: 15 min, 25 min or 45 min.
- 4
Under Who's sprinting?, leave it on Solo.
- 5
Tap the Choose tasks row a little further down. It reads something like "6 of 9 tasks · ~31 min" and ends in a ›.
If you arrived at a sprint by tapping a join banner or a sprint invite notification, you land in the lobby or the countdown instead, so there's no setup screen and no Choose tasks row.
What the sheet shows
Illustration of the Choose tasks row on the setup screen and the sheet it opens, using the app's own labels. Not a screenshot.
- The title Choose tasks, with a line under it like "6 of 9 · ~31 min in this sprint".
- Your tasks, grouped under your own room names, in the order Tidywell picked them. The list scrolls if it's long.
- Each row: a checkbox, the task name, and its estimate written like 12m. Everything starts ticked.
- Done, a full-width sage button, closes the sheet.
- Select all, a small link under Done, re-ticks everything. It only appears once you've unticked something.
- If nothing is due at all, the list is replaced by: "Nothing due right now. Close this and use "Add a custom task" to put something in."
Picking your few tasks
- 1
Tap a task to untick it. It fades out, and nothing else in the list moves.
- 2
Untick as many as you like.
- 3
Watch the line under the title: it counts what's left and adds up the minutes as you go.
- 4
Tap Done, or tap the dimmed area above the sheet. Both do the same thing, and your ticks were applied as you made them, so there's nothing to confirm.
- 5
Tap Start 25-min sprint, or whichever duration you chose.
What changes in the queue
Back on the setup screen, Today's queue now says fewer are ready, the big tasks number drops, and so does the coral min est. number.
If Tidywell had topped your sprint up, the "Tidywell topped this up to X min from your home" note disappears once you untick the tasks it added. And when your remaining minutes fall below the duration you picked, an amber line appears, something like "Only 3 tasks (~12 min). Add a custom task below or just start anyway."
That amber line is information, not a stop sign. You can start anyway. You can even start with nothing ticked at all, in which case you get a running timer and an empty queue.
Good to know
- Unticking doesn't free up time for something else. The list is worked out once for the duration you chose, so removing a task removes its minutes and nothing arrives to take its place. That's deliberate: refilling made the list shift under people's fingers.
- Unticking isn't deleting, deferring or completing. The task is untouched and still sitting on Today.
- You can't pull in a task from elsewhere in your home here, only untick what's listed. To add something new, close the sheet and use Add a custom task... on the setup screen. It then appears in the sheet, ticked, under your first room.
- There's no "untick everything" button. Select all is the only bulk action and it goes the other way.
- Your selection isn't remembered. Close the sprint screen and next time everything is ticked again. If you leave a sprint running and come back to it, though, your choices are still in place.
- Changing the Duration rebuilds the list. Anything you'd unticked stays unticked, and any newly added tasks arrive ticked.
- On Household the row reads "Household sprints share the whole list so everyone sees the same tasks." and tapping it does nothing at all, no message and no prompt. Switch back to Solo and your selection is where you left it.
- It all happens on your phone, so it works with no signal.
- If you have Show time estimates turned off in Profile → Settings → Cleaning preferences, the counts stay and the minutes vanish from both the row and the sheet. The sprint is still filled by minutes behind the scenes.
- Child profiles don't see this. Kids join a sprint someone else has started; they don't set one up.