Chore rota .ics file: adding your chores to an iPhone or Outlook calendar

An .ics file is a plain calendar file that most calendar apps can read. A chore rota exported this way puts each person's own chores into the calendar they already check, with no account and no app to install. This page shows what the file holds and how to add it on an iPhone, on a Mac and in Outlook.

Worked example: 4 people, 4 chores, 4 weeks

Hana, Will, Zoe and Mark rotate the kitchen, the bathroom, the bins and the floors, starting Monday 4 January 2027.

Four housemates, four chores, four dated weeks
Week starting	Kitchen	Bathroom	Bins	Floors
Mon 4 Jan	Hana	Will	Zoe	Mark
Mon 11 Jan	Will	Zoe	Mark	Hana
Mon 18 Jan	Zoe	Mark	Hana	Will
Mon 25 Jan	Mark	Hana	Will	Zoe

Each chore moves on by one person every week, so after four weeks everyone has done each chore once. That is the whole fairness rule.

What is inside Hana's file

Hana's personal link has a button, "Add to my calendar (.ics)". It downloads a file named chores-hana.ics that holds four all-day events: Kitchen on 4 January, Floors on 11 January, Bins on 18 January and Bathroom on 25 January. Each event sits on the first day of the chore week, carries a short note saying which week of the rota it is, and is marked as free time so it is not meant to show her as busy. Will, Zoe and Mark each get their own link and their own file with their own four events.

iPhone and Mac (Apple Calendar)

On an iPhone, open your personal link in Safari and press the button.
Open the downloaded file. The phone shows the events and offers to add them to Calendar; choose the calendar they should go in.
On a Mac, open the Calendar app, choose File, then Import, and select the file.

Outlook

In Outlook on the web or the new Outlook, open the calendar and choose "Add calendar", then "Upload from file".
Select the .ics file, pick the calendar to add the events to and choose Import.
In classic Outlook for Windows, choose File, then "Open & Export", then "Import/Export", and pick "Import an iCalendar (.ics) or vCalendar file (.vcs)".

Menu names change between versions, so yours may be worded slightly differently. In every case the events are imported as copies: if the rota changes, delete the old events and import the new file, because nothing updates by itself.

Make your own file

The generator is free for up to 4 people and up to 4 weeks, which is exactly the size of this example. Enter the names and chores, pick the start date, press Make rota and send each person their link. The schedule is held inside the link itself, so anyone with a link can read the names and chores in it.