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Reward chart for adults: a coin log and a reward menu
A reward chart for adults works as two sheets. On the coin log, every job gets a date, a number of coins and the signature of the person who checked it. The reward menu lists what those coins buy, at prices you set together before anyone starts.
- Pages
- Six: the coin log on pages 1, 3 and 4, the reward menu on pages 2, 5 and 6
- Paper
- US Letter and A4, portrait, print at 100%
- Versions
- Blank PDF, filled-in example PDF, fillable PDF you can type into
- Design
- Minimal, Warm and Color for each sheet
The coin log and the reward menu
Each sheet comes in three designs. Every design is in each download, six pages in all. The IOU cards from the same set have their own page.
What is on the reward chart for adults
The coin log has columns for Date, Task / reward, + / − Coins, Issued by, Signature and Balance, with Earned, Redeemed and Closing balance at the bottom. A job adds coins only after the other person signs it. A reward you buy is a minus: spending, never a fine.
The reward menu has eight rows for Reward, Coins and Details / when, and a How we redeem box. Under it the sheet says “Agree the price before you start”: nobody argues about a price set on a calm Sunday.
How to price a reward in coins
Price the cheapest reward at about one job, and nothing above what a week of jobs earns. In the example, a job earns 2 to 5 coins: choosing the playlist costs about one job, a favorite homemade dinner about three.
Put at least one reward within reach in the first two days. In a study by Kaitlin Woolley and Ayelet Fishbach, an immediate bonus for reading, rather than a delayed one, raised the number of people who kept reading after it stopped by 35%. A larger bonus, rather than a smaller one, raised it by 19%.
Prices from the example reward menu
A reward system for adults: what to reward and what to leave alone
Put coins on the jobs nobody enjoys: the pantry reset, the tax folder, the call to the insurer. A review of reward experiments by Edward Deci, Richard Koestner and Richard Ryan found no harm there:
“rewards do not undermine people’s intrinsic motivation for dull tasks because there is little or no intrinsic motivation to be undermined.”Deci, Koestner & Ryan · Review of Educational Research, 2001
- Leave out what you already like doing. In the same studies, rewards cut interest in tasks people found interesting. If you love your morning run, it stays off the log.
- Leave out care for each other. A hug or a kind word priced in coins stops being one.
- Keep it two-sided. An adult reward system where one person always issues and the other always earns is a boss and an employee. Both names go in Issued by over a week.
Reward chart ideas for adults
- Time: an hour to yourself, a Saturday lie-in.
- Choice: the movie, the restaurant, the next walk.
- Food made for you: breakfast in bed, a favorite dinner.
- A job taken off your plate: a week without dishes, the next grocery run.
- A small outing: the bookstore, a class, a day trip you plan.
Price time and a job taken off your plate highest: they cost the other person the most.
How to print the chart
US Letter in the US and Canada, A4 elsewhere; portrait, 100%, one-sided. For one design only, print pages 1 and 5 (minimal), 3 and 2 (warm) or 4 and 6 (color). To reuse the menu, put it in a plastic sleeve and use a whiteboard marker.
When coins pile up or run dry: tuning an adult reward system
The first two weeks show whether your prices are right. Look at the Closing balance at the bottom of the coin log and ask what it says.
- Coins keep piling up unspent. Nothing on the menu is worth the price. Lower the most wanted reward, or replace the one nobody has bought with something you actually want.
- The balance stays near zero. Prices are too high for the jobs, or the jobs are too few. In the example a job earns 2 to 5 coins, so a 10-coin dinner takes about three jobs. If yours takes ten, cut the price.
- One person earns, the other only signs. That is the boss and employee pattern. Put a few jobs on the other person’s side and have the signer switch each week.
- You forget to log. Pick one time to fill in the log, the same evening as the check-in, and put the sheet where you will see it.
Set a date to review the menu and write it at the top of page 2. When you reprice, change the sheet first and the habit second, so nobody feels the rules moved after a job was done.
If you are using it alone, the contract with yourself gives you a written reason to keep going. For small favors that do not need a balance, the IOU cards do the job.
Questions about reward charts for adults
Isn’t a reward chart childish for grown-ups?
Not this one. There are no stars or stickers: you choose the rewards, set the prices and sign each entry.
Does it work as a reward system for one person?
Yes. Write your own name in Account and Issued by, and price the menu before the week starts so you are not deciding while tired.
Does a reward chart help adults with ADHD?
It is a planning sheet, not a treatment. If you try it, keep one cheap reward reachable within a day or two, as the earlier-reward rule above suggests.
Is there a reward chart app for adults?
Yes. Alpacto keeps the same log on two phones, with coins for what gets done and rewards from a list you both wrote. It is on iPhone and Android.
What if a reward stops being fun?
Cross it out and write a new one. A reward nobody buys for two weeks is priced too high or not wanted.
Are the coins real money?
No. Coins are agreed points, spent only on your own reward menu.
Other free printable sheets
Save the reward chart to Pinterest
Pin it now and print it on a quiet Sunday, when the two of you have ten minutes to agree what each reward costs.
This chart lives in Alpacto
The same log and menu as an app: coins counted automatically, rewards from a catalog you wrote with prices you set, and nobody has to be the one who reminds.