The Difference Between Mental Load and Emotional Labor

"The English lexicon is always evolving to accommodate our lived reality. In the last decade, we have seen many terms find their way into the mainstream that help us describe the full experience of home life. As it relates to household labor, we now use a range of terms to describe the various parts and pieces, like physical tasks, emotional labor, invisible load, mental load, and cognitive labor."

"Physical tasks are things you actually do with your hands: cook dinner, wash the car, change diapers, dust bookshelves, do grocery shopping. These are things that check a box - when you complete each task, you can tick it off a to-do list and move on to other things. They have a clear start and stop and, after they are done, they provide us a sense of completion."

The English lexicon has expanded to include terms—physical tasks, emotional labor, invisible load, mental load, and cognitive labor—that describe different aspects of household labor. Overlap and conflation among these terms has made distinctions unclear and created a need for shared vocabulary. Physical tasks consist of manual actions like cooking, washing the car, changing diapers, dusting, and grocery shopping, and they typically have clear start and stop points. Physical tasks are often categorized as inside versus outside or routine versus intermittent, and some people find them pleasurable or stress-relieving. Clear definitions help differentiate these components while excluding gender implications.

Read at Psychology Today