The reader's edition
The Fair Play Deck: the summary
The Fair Play Deck is a card deck by Eve Rodsky, published by Clarkson Potter in October 2020 and based on her book Fair Play. It turns the work of running a home into cards that a couple can sort and share between them. The publisher describes a single sitting of about an hour: the two partners lay out the task cards, keep only the ones that apply to their household, and take turns choosing the tasks each of them will own completely. They also claim Unicorn Space cards, which stand for time for each person's own pursuits. Owning a card means holding all of it, which the system calls C.P.E.: Conception, Planning and Execution. There is also a card for maintaining the Fair Play agreements themselves. One independent reviewer, Donna Zuckerberg, recommended the deck with notes, observing that it assumes a two-parent household. Rodsky holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from Harvard Law School, worked in foundation management at J.P. Morgan and then founded the Philanthropy Advisory Group. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children. Read a chapter at a time, with a printable action book at the end.
- Eve Rodsky
- 2020
- 4 chapters
- 5 min read
- 9 takeaways
This is HourLife's reading of The Fair Play Deck, in our own words. It is not a substitute for the book.
Chapter 01
Before you start
The book in a minute
Tap a paragraph to highlight it. Turn pages with the arrows, the arrow keys, or a swipe.
The Fair Play Deck is a card deck by Eve Rodsky, published by Clarkson Potter in October 2020 and based on her book Fair Play. It turns the work of running a home into cards that a couple can sort and share between them. The publisher describes a single sitting of about an hour: the two partners lay out the task cards, keep only the ones that apply to their household, and take turns choosing the tasks each of them will own completely. They also claim Unicorn Space cards, which stand for time for each person's own pursuits. Owning a card means holding all of it, which the system calls C.P.E.: Conception, Planning and Execution. There is also a card for maintaining the Fair Play agreements themselves. One independent reviewer, Donna Zuckerberg, recommended the deck with notes, observing that it assumes a two-parent household. Rodsky holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from Harvard Law School, worked in foundation management at J.P. Morgan and then founded the Philanthropy Advisory Group. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.
Below are the 9 ideas HourLife readers vote up most, each in our words with a note on what it asks of you, and then the steps that put them to work.
Chapter 02
What readers keep
The takeaways
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1
HourLife takeaway
Owning a task means holding all of it: noticing it, planning it and doing it.
The deck calls this C.P.E., for Conception, Planning and Execution. Whoever holds a card holds all three parts of that task. Doing a chore while the other partner remembers it and plans it leaves the invisible part of the work exactly where it was.
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2
HourLife takeaway
Half a card is still someone else's worry.
If one partner does the shopping but the other has to notice the fridge is empty and write the list, the second partner is still carrying the task in their head. C.P.E. is a way to name that gap out loud instead of resenting it quietly.
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3
HourLife takeaway
Start by deciding what your home actually needs.
In the publisher's description, the couple lays out the task cards and keeps only the ones that apply to their home. Setting cards aside is part of the work: a task nobody needs done is one nobody has to own.
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4
HourLife takeaway
Divide the work in a planned sitting, not in the middle of an argument.
The publisher describes the couple sitting down together for about an hour. A set time with the cards on the table is a calmer place to settle who does what than the moment a task has just been forgotten.
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5
HourLife takeaway
Taking turns makes each task a choice, not a default.
The partners take turns choosing the tasks they will own completely. Turn-taking means every card ends up where it is because someone picked it at the table, not because it drifted to whoever noticed it first.
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6
HourLife takeaway
Time for yourself belongs on the table with the chores.
The deck's Unicorn Space cards stand for time for each person's own pursuits. Claiming them in the same sitting as the household tasks treats that time as part of the agreement, not as whatever is left over.
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7
HourLife takeaway
The agreement needs an owner, like any other task.
Donna Zuckerberg's review notes that the deck includes a card for maintaining the Fair Play agreements themselves. A fair split drifts unless someone keeps it up, so keeping it up is work too.
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8
HourLife takeaway
A deck is a starting point, and not every home fits its shape.
Zuckerberg recommended the deck with notes. She found that it assumes a two-parent household, and she questioned why the woman ends up holding the card for maintaining the agreements. Both are worth raising at the table rather than accepting as given.
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9
HourLife takeaway
A card count is not a time count.
Reader reviews say that close to half the cards concern children and that cleaning is a single card. Cards vary a lot in size, so an even number of cards in each hand does not guarantee an even load.
Chapter 03
Put it to work
Your action book
Do the setup steps once, then keep the habits going. The setup changes your week; the habits keep it changed after the first good one.
The download puts this whole reading and a printable action book in one PDF: the setup checklist, then a page of real calendar days for each habit, starting on the day you choose.
Set up once
Book the hour
Put one hour in both calendars for the first sitting, at a time when neither of you is tired or rushing. Phones away, cards on the table.
Sort before you deal
Go through the tasks together first and set aside every one that does not apply to your home. Only then start choosing.
Say C, P and E out loud
For each task you take, say what noticing it, planning it and doing it means in your house. If a part stays with your partner, you have found a half-owned task.
Name your Unicorn Space
Each of you writes down one pursuit of your own and a regular time for it. Agree how the other will cover home duties during that time.
Choose who keeps the agreement
Decide together who holds the task of keeping your agreement up to date. Make it a choice you both make, not the role one person falls into.
Keep it up
Hand over whole tasks
When a task moves from one of you to the other, hand over all three parts with it. No reminders and no checking up afterwards.
Hold a short weekly check-in
Fifteen minutes once a week: what slipped, what felt heavy, and whether any task needs to change hands.
Guard each other's Unicorn Space
Treat the other person's time like an appointment. Cover the home without being asked, and don't cut the time short.
Chapter 04
The last word
Before you go
Pick one step from the action book and do it today. An idea from a book starts to count once it changes what one ordinary day looks like.
Take the whole card, leave room for each other, and deal again when life changes.
That is the end of our reading. Where to go from here, or go back to the full The Fair Play Deck page.
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