Your job as a caregiver: enter the things the person needs to see, publish them to the household, and approve the iPhone or iPad that will display them. The care receiver does not have to manage dates or edit the list.
1. Set up the caregiver once
- Install and open the ListMyDay app. Choose Set up as caregiver.
- If you are creating a household, enter a Household name under Create new household and choose Create new household. If someone has already created the household, enter the private invitation under Connect your household, then choose Join household.
- For a new household, save the displayed recovery key somewhere private and safe. Then choose I saved the key — continue.
- The app opens the Caregiver dashboard. You can now enter items. Your device needs a working connection to publish them to the shared household.
If household creation is unavailable, ask the person operating your ListMyDay service for a caregiver invitation. The recovery key is powerful: do not give it to a care receiver or enter it into the receiver's normal pairing screen. On ordinary days you should not need the recovery key.
2. Find your way around the Caregiver screen
The caregiver home page scrolls vertically. The main areas are:
- Tasks & reminders: choose the Tasks tab to add, edit, and delete ordinary items (not birthdays). Choose Schedule to browse dated occurrences; the Schedule can still show birthdays on their actual dates. It starts with 30 days; use Show 30 more days to browse farther.
- Birthdays: a separate tab for every family birthday, sorted January–December by month and day, regardless of birth year. Tap Add birthday, or tap a saved birthday row to edit it. Draft birthdays are marked Draft · not on display.
- Display appearance → Configure display: adjust text size, background, contrast, tomorrow preview, privacy, past-due lookback, time zone, and quiet hours.
- Pending approvals: permit a new receiver device to request access, then compare and approve its verification code.
- Weather settings for the display → Configure weather: set the city and temperature units for the receiver.
- Authorized displays: check connected devices, renew access, or revoke a device that should no longer see the board.
- Top-right circular-arrow icon: refresh device and approval information. Top-right gear icon: open Server Settings for connection status, help, and data management.
3. Add your first item — step by step
- On the Caregiver page, find Tasks & reminders and tap Add item.
- Under What should appear?, tap Type and choose the type that describes the information. See the table below.
- In Short, clear title (or Person's name for a birthday), enter a short phrase the care receiver can understand at a glance. Add optional information in Details or instructions.
- For a task that needs someone to do something, use To do and leave Action is needed on. For information only, use a non-task type and turn off Action is needed if shown.
- Under When?, choose the date or first occurrence, set any time, and select a Repeat rule if needed. Birthday automatically repeats yearly.
- At the top of the form choose Publish to board to share it with approved receivers. Or choose Save draft to keep it private on your caregiver device while you finish editing.
- Return to Tasks to find ordinary items, or Birthdays to find birthdays. Confirm the item is listed, then check the care receiver's board after synchronization.
Example: one-time task
Type: To do
Short, clear title: Put the recycling outside
Details: The blue bin goes beside the front door
Action is needed: On
Repeat: Does not repeat
Date: The intended day
Choose Publish to board. On that day, the receiver can tap Done today after doing it.
4. Choose the right item type
All six options are found in the Type picker in the Add item form. These are suggested uses; what you write in the title and details is up to you.
| Type | Use it for | Example title | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appointment | A meeting, call, visit to a clinic, or other event at a set time. | Video appointment with counselor | Enter the date and time, optionally a secure HTTPS appointment URL, and choose a reminder lead time. The receiver can see the scheduled event; iOS appointment notifications require device permission. |
| To do | Something the receiver should do, once or repeatedly. | Water the plants | Can show a Done today button, repeat daily/weekly/monthly/yearly, and optionally have a completion deadline time. Unfinished recent occurrences may appear in PAST DUE. |
| Visit | Someone coming over or another visit to remember. | Alex visits this afternoon | Appears on the date you choose. Useful when the person needs to know who is coming without treating it as a task. |
| Important | A timely notice or piece of information worth seeing that day. | Trash pickup is delayed until Thursday | Appears on its selected day or repeat schedule. It is not automatically treated as an appointment or an overdue task. |
| Birthday | A person's birthday; use the separate Birthdays tab. | Taylor's birthday | Enter a person's name and birthday date once. The caregiver list sorts birthdays by month/day, not birth year; the receiver groups today's and tomorrow's birthdays without taking task slots. No Done button or appointment notification. |
| My day | A short overview or context for the day. | A quiet day at home | Appears as a day-context statement on the receiver's board, separate from actionable tasks. |
5. Dates, repeats, deadlines, and exceptions
Repeat options
- Does not repeat: one date or one timed event.
- Every day: for a daily routine. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are separate scheduled occurrences.
- Every week: choose the weekdays using the day-of-week switches displayed in the form.
- Every month: repeats on that day of the month. A date such as the 31st does not occur in shorter months.
- Every year: repeats on the selected month and day. The Birthday category chooses this automatically and does not show the Repeat picker.
For other repeating items you can turn on Stop repeating on a date and select a Last day. The Occurrence exceptions section lets you Skip this occurrence or change the title, details, and possibly time for just one selected date. Save or publish the item afterward to keep the changes.
No specific time is useful for all-day information. For a To do item without a scheduled time, turn on Has a deadline time if you want to show Complete by on the receiver board. Completed (hide entire item) is different from the receiver marking one day's task Done: it hides the entire item, including future repeats.
6. Three more examples you can follow
Repeating routine: watering plants every Monday and Thursday
- Choose Type → To do and enter Water the plants.
- Set Action is needed to on and select the first date.
- Choose Repeat → Every week; switch on Monday and Thursday and switch off the other weekdays.
- Choose Publish to board. The receiver sees the task on those dates and completes each occurrence separately.
Appointment: video call at 2:00 PM
- Choose Type → Appointment, enter a title such as Video appointment, and select the date and start time.
- If appropriate, add the end time under Ends, and an optional Appointment URL (https://…).
- Set Remind before appointment to the desired lead time. On the receiver, an adult must permit iOS appointment notifications.
- Choose Publish to board. Check that the correct day and time appear. Notifications are not emergency alerts.
Birthday: a yearly family reminder
- Choose Birthdays → Add birthday. This preselects the Birthday type.
- Enter Person's name, optional note, and the Birthday date.
- Choose Publish to board. You do not need to choose a repeat rule. The receiver shows the person in Birthdays today or Birthdays tomorrow, as appropriate.
February 29: a birthday on February 29 is shown on February 28 in non-leap years, and February 29 in leap years. No age is calculated. If receiver privacy mode is on, the person's name and note are replaced by Private birthday.
Managing birthdays in a large family
The Birthdays tab is the caregiver's birthday address book. It is separate from the ordinary Tasks list; there is no need to scroll past dozens of annual entries to find a task.
- At the top of Tasks & reminders, choose the Birthdays segment, next to Tasks and Schedule.
- Tap Add birthday to open the birthday editor. Enter the person's name, optional note and birth date. Choose Publish to board, or Save draft to keep it off the receiver until ready.
- The list sorts birthdays by calendar month and day, then by name for shared dates. It does not sort by birth year. Existing birthdays and unpublished birthday drafts appear automatically without being re-entered.
- Tap any birthday to edit its name, note or date, then publish. Use the trash icon (or swipe left) and confirm to delete the entire annual birthday series.
On the receiver, birthdays appear only when relevant to TODAY or TOMORROW. They are collected into Birthdays today or Birthdays tomorrow within the matching day. A group shows up to three names initially; tap Show N more birthdays to reveal the others, then Show fewer birthdays to collapse it. The group's names never consume the normal first-three TODAY or first-two TOMORROW item slots. Birthdays still have no Done button or overdue status; private-room display shows Private birthday instead of names.
7. Find, edit, delete, or keep an item private
- Under Tasks or Birthdays, find the item and tap its row to reopen Edit item. You can change its text, dates, and applicable recurrence options, then choose Publish to board.
- Use the Schedule view to locate items by date. Change the Starting date or choose Today; use Show 30 more days if the date is farther ahead.
- To delete, tap the trash icon next to the item, swipe left on the row, or open Edit item and tap Delete item. Confirm the deletion. For a repeating item this removes all future occurrences, not just one date.
- Save draft leaves the item on the caregiver device, marked Draft · not on display. Open it later and choose Publish to board to share it.
Deleting an item is not the same as marking a single task occurrence Done. The receiver uses Done for the specific date; caregivers use Delete item to remove the full record. Publishing and deleting require a successful server synchronization to affect the receiver.
8. Pair an iPad or iPhone as a care receiver
- On the caregiver home screen, scroll to Pending approvals. Tap Allow a new display for 10 minutes.
- A short 8-character pairing code appears. Give it to the person setting up the receiver device. This code only identifies the household.
- On the receiver, choose Set up as care receiver, enter the pairing code, and tap Connect display.
- The receiver displays a separate six-digit verification code. Compare it to the request in the caregiver's Pending approvals list. Tap Check for approval requests if necessary.
- If the codes match, choose Access duration (7 days, 30 days, or 1 year) and tap Approve. If they do not match, tap Deny and start again.
- On the receiver, wait for automatic checking or tap Check approval. After approval, the daily board opens.
Later, use Authorized displays to check access expiration, choose Renew, or choose Revoke for a device that should no longer have access. An expired, denied, or revoked receiver may need a new approval.
Do not give the receiver the household recovery key. It is not required for ordinary display pairing.
9. Choose what the receiver sees
- On the caregiver home page, find Display appearance and tap Configure display.
- Set Text size (level 1–5). Levels 4 and 5 are larger for viewing an iPad at a distance. Try Board background and Maximum contrast (white on black).
- Turn Show tomorrow's items on or off. Choose Past due task lookback from Off to 7 days. PAST DUE includes unfinished To do tasks only—not birthdays, appointments, or notes.
- Use Private room display (hide appointment details) when the screen is visible to visitors. This masks personal item titles/details, including birthdays, on the receiver.
- If needed, adjust Time zone and quiet hours. Normally leave the correct household time zone in place.
- Tap Open live board preview to examine the layout; tap Close preview, then Save to send the settings.
Approved receivers normally fetch managed settings during synchronization. The receiver can turn off Use caregiver display settings to keep its own local visual settings. A preview on the caregiver phone is not a full-size iPad readability test.
10. Configure weather and appointment alerts
On the caregiver page, find Weather settings for the display and tap Configure weather. Turn on Show weather on ListMyDay, enter a city and choose Celsius or Fahrenheit, then tap Save. The receiver retrieves the weather; the caregiver screen shows the configured city, not the current forecast.
On the receiver, the date and clock stay together above a separate full-width weather panel. For clear and partly cloudy skies, the sun or moon icon follows daylight in the configured weather city, not the iPad location. Weather refreshes approximately every 10 minutes while the receiver is active and connected. Older readings are labeled accordingly.
Appointments can be configured with a reminder lead time in the Add item form. An adult on the receiver device must enable iOS notifications in Display Settings → Appointment alerts. Weather is not an emergency warning service, and ListMyDay is not an emergency-alert application.
US holiday labels
Open Display appearance → Configure display → Holidays. Select Off, Common US holidays (default), or All US federal holidays. Optionally show holidays in the tomorrow preview and observed weekdays. The ordinary Show tomorrow's items switch must be on for tomorrow's holiday to appear.
The receiver puts Today is Christmas Day under the clock and Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day directly under TOMORROW when applicable. Holiday-only tomorrows are still shown. Dates follow the household time zone. Observed weekday labels say (observed) while the actual holiday remains on its calendar date.
Holidays are calendar context, not tasks: no entries to create, Done buttons, reminders, overdue entries or task slots. Common US holidays include New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The federal preset also shows Presidents Day and Columbus Day.
11. Common problems and what to do
My item is not on the receiver
Check whether you tapped Save draft instead of Publish to board. Confirm the item is scheduled for today or tomorrow and that the receiver is online and approved. Look at Board sync near the bottom of the caregiver page. For more controls, open Advanced board tools; avoid Download server board if you have unsent local changes, because it can replace them.
The receiver still says it is waiting for approval
Compare the six-digit verification codes. Use Check for approval requests on the caregiver and Check approval on the receiver. If the 10-minute pairing window expired, open a new one and repeat the request.
Nothing appears under TOMORROW
Check that tomorrow preview is enabled and that an item actually occurs tomorrow. A one-time item scheduled today will not automatically appear tomorrow; a daily task will.
The screen is difficult to read
Open Configure display, increase the text size, try maximum contrast, and check the actual iPad from its normal viewing position. Larger text may require scrolling.
The connection fails
Use the top-right gear and open Server Settings. Check the server status and internet connection. Do not edit the Server URL or Household ID casually; changing them disconnects this phone from the existing household.
12. Keys, backups, exports, and destructive actions
In Server Settings you can find Help & About, export the household's data as JSON, review server status, and manage device credentials. An export can include private titles and notes—keep it protected.
Reset household data clears working data and device approvals but retains the household's identity and recovery authority. Permanently Delete Household is a different, irreversible operation. Do not use either to troubleshoot a missing task, a pairing delay, or a display setting.
ListMyDay organizes daily information; it does not verify that someone attended an appointment or completed an activity simply because it was displayed. It is not a substitute for emergency or medical supervision.