Nine files to free your mind - How I organize my family life in Octave and how you can do the same

That number might seem overwhelming. It should, even. Except that I no longer carry them all alone in my head. They live in a shared system, where everyone knows what their responsibilities are, and nothing gets lost.

This system is based on a simple idea: dividing family life into nine departments. Each becomes a folder in Octave. Each contains its own lists, routines, and purchases.

Here's how it works — and how you could implement it at home.

1. Why create departments

One can try to manage family life without structure. Most mothers do so by default. But information always ends up accumulating in one place: their head. Dentist appointments, school forms, groceries to buy, dog's vaccine, bills to pay, birthday gift to choose. Everything mixes, everything overlaps, and nothing is truly shared.

The solution is to create clear categories — not too many (otherwise you get lost), not too few (otherwise everything still gets mixed up).

After several years of adjustments, I've found that nine departments cover all of family life without duplication or gaps. This number works. Seven is too few. Twelve is too many.

2. The nine departments

Finance and administration. Task lists related to deadlines (insurance renewals, payments, tax declarations), reminders for recurring payments.

Meal organization and preparation. Weekly grocery lists, freezer inventory lists, preparation tasks (taking chicken out of the freezer, planning the menu).

Care and health. Task lists related to appointments (to make, confirm, attend), upcoming vaccine reminders, personal wellness routines, pharmacy shopping lists.

Housekeeping. Lists of recurring household tasks (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal), shopping lists for cleaning products.

Education and school management. Back-to-school task lists, supply shopping lists, children's routines (morning, evening, homework).

Leisure, holidays, parties, and special occasions. Preparation task lists (luggage, reservations), gift shopping lists.

Heavy work and outdoor work. Seasonal task lists (pool opening, winter preparation, maintenance), equipment shopping lists.

Transportation. Car maintenance task lists (tire change, garage appointments), registration reminders.

Pets. Veterinary task lists (vaccines, deworming), food and accessories shopping lists.

3. HOW TO CREATE THEM IN OCTAVE

This is where theory becomes practice.

Step 1 — The binder. In Octave, the Lists section allows you to create a BINDER. Mine is called Family Life. This is your main container.

Step 2 — The nine folders. Inside the binder, create nine FOLDERS, one per department. Name them with the same titles you want your family to use — this is the beginning of a shared vocabulary.

Step 3 — The lists. In each folder, then create the LISTS that resonate with you. These contain the concrete tasks.

Example at my house.
In the Meal organization and preparation folder, I have three active lists: Monthly groceries (56 tasks), Meal tasks (reminders like "take chicken out of the freezer"), and Meat inventory (7 tasks).

In the Housekeeping folder, I have Housekeeping tasks (69 recurring items), Seasonal sorting and tidying, and Cleaning products shopping list.

In the Education folder, I have Back-to-school tasks, Routines (children's), and Back-to-school purchases.

No need to create everything at once. You can start with just one folder, and grow at your own pace.

4. The two main advantages

Advantage 1 — A shared vocabulary

The first benefit is immediate. When everyone in the family uses the same words, "it's in the health folder," "it's in the meals folder," communication becomes ten times smoother. Everyone knows where to find the to-do or shopping lists.

Children also eventually learn the vocabulary. They know that gift suggestions are in the Holidays, leisure, and special occasions folder. That their school supplies are in the Education folder. The language becomes shared, and that alone is a huge mental relief.

Advantage 2 — Distribution of responsibilities

The second benefit is the most powerful, but it needs to be understood correctly. Each folder can have a person in charge, but being in charge doesn't mean doing everything. It means planning, delegating, and tracking the progress of the folder.

It's a bit like a department head in a company. They manage the thread of the folder, know what's in progress, coordinate, and delegate, but they don't perform all the actions themselves.

At our house, Phil coordinates chores, transportation, and health. I handle finances, meals, housekeeping, and school. We share leisure and holidays. We each delegate tasks, sometimes to the other, sometimes to the children, but the person in charge maintains the overall view.

This nuance changes everything. It transforms mental load into coordination work, work that is named, visible, and can be shared.

5. A concrete example of a week at our house

Let's look at a typical week at our house.

The Meals folder is active every day. Monday morning, Octave reminds me to take the chicken out of the freezer for Tuesday. Tuesday evening, the weekly grocery list fills itself automatically from the menu I created in the meal section. Thursday, I notice that the meat inventory is low; I delegate the order to Phil, who receives it in his own feed.

In the Education folder, the Routines list, for the children, triggers every morning and evening. Brushing teeth, preparing school bags the night before, putting away the day's clothes. Nine daily tasks that, once established, empower the children without us having to repeat ourselves a hundred times. They see their routines in their own Octave view and check them off as they go.

And sometimes, it's just for oneself. My "wellness routine" list is in private mode. Sixteen tasks, hydration, movement, care, that I wanted to establish without having to announce or justify them to anyone. There are things we keep to ourselves, even in a shared system.

The fact that these routines coexist with the 138 family tasks without competing with them is perhaps the system's greatest gift: every person in the house can have personal, invisible routines alongside the common thread.

6. Where to start?

The classic trap is wanting to structure everything at once. That's the best way to give up in three days.

My recommendation: start with just ONE folder. The Housekeeping folder is an excellent entry point. It's where the concept of a "shared vocabulary" is most quickly seen, and where the sharing of the load can be implemented most rapidly.

Once that folder works well for a few weeks, add a second. Then a third. You'll see: the system settles in naturally, at your own pace.

You don't need nine folders running from the first month. You need one well-used folder that proves to the whole family that it works.

Family mental load is not inevitable. It results from a lack of structure and a lack of shared language. When you give the whole family a common vocabulary and name coordination responsibilities, the load stops being invisible. It becomes work that is shared, not because actions are perfectly divided, but because the overall view is no longer borne by one person.

To see concretely how my own lists are structured in Octave, I made an Instagram reel:
watch it here →https://www.instagram.com/dominiqueberneche/reel/Da3HHk1Erqk/

The Octave app is available for free. Create your first folder and see for yourself.