Arjun's Daily Match

Match three almirahs and a loader is booked for the morning shift, so the next day's roster gets made while Arjun is playing.

Who this is for

Arjun Deshmukh sells second-hand furniture from a shutter shop near Itwari market in Nagpur, with a godown at the back. Six people work with him: three loaders, a carpenter who repairs and polishes, a tempo driver, and his nephew on the counter. Around ten at night, sitting on a bed he has not managed to sell, he has to work out who comes in the morning and who goes out with the tempo. His wife is asleep in the next room and his phone is at eleven percent.

How the job is done today

There is a diary page folded into the cash drawer with names and arrows on it. Mostly Arjun rings people one by one at night, and half of them do not pick up, so he tells one loader to tell the others. The WhatsApp group has six members and a hundred forwarded good morning pictures, so the message about Tuesday's delivery is somewhere under all that. Two loaders turn up on a day nobody needed them and stand in the lane till eleven. The carpenter, who was needed, was at a wedding in Bhandara and had told Arjun a week ago.

The screens, in order

1. My people — Arjun puts in his six names once, with what work each one does, so the game knows who it is allowed to hand out.
2. Who is away — Before playing, he taps out anyone who cannot come the next day, so those names stay out of the board entirely.
3. The board — This is the game itself, a grid of almirahs, plastic chairs, sofas and teapoys where every set of three fills one job for the next day.
4. Tomorrow's line-up — The finished roster, with each name against its shift, where Arjun can drag one person over another if he disagrees with what the game gave him.
5. Send it — One tap that puts the same short line-up on each person's WhatsApp so nobody has to ask him at night.

What it keeps track of

• My people — name, phone number, what work he does, which days he cannot come
• Shifts to fill — which day, morning or afternoon, godown or delivery or counter or repair, how many people needed
• Bookings — who got put where, which day and shift, whether the game gave it or Arjun changed it by hand
• Lists sent — which day's list, who it went to, at what time

The one decision that matters

The real choice is whether the board is honest. One way, the game deals tiles freely and Arjun finds out afterwards that it has booked the carpenter who is away in Bhandara, so he must go back and fix it by hand. The other way, the board is dealt only from jobs still unfilled and names only from people actually free that day, so whatever falls out of the game is already workable. Go the second way. If Arjun has to repair the result even twice, he will stop playing and go back to the diary page, and the whole thing is only worth building because it is more pleasant than the diary page.

What to leave out of the first version

No scores, no streaks, no levels, no coins. Also no attendance and no wages. The moment the game starts recording who actually turned up and what he is owed, it becomes a form, and forms are exactly what Arjun avoids at ten at night. It books the shift. It does not check up on anybody. Bring in weekly patterns later, once he has played it for a month and knows what he keeps changing by hand.

How you would know it worked

The loaders stop ringing Arjun after nine at night to ask if there is work tomorrow. They wait for the message. On a Thursday morning the tempo leaves at seven with the right two men in it and Arjun is still at home.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I deal in old furniture in Nagpur and six people work with me, three loaders, a carpenter, a tempo driver and my nephew at the counter. Every night I have to decide who comes for the morning shift and who goes out with the tempo, and I keep forgetting somebody. Make me a small game for my phone that works fine with the sound off, where I match three almirahs or three chairs or three sofas and every match puts one of my people into a job for tomorrow, only from the ones who are free that day. Let me first tap out anyone who is away. At the end show me the finished list so I can swap two names if I want, then send it to all six on WhatsApp. Two minutes, and I should not have to type anything.