How to set a recurring task

The main purpose of creating recurring tasks is to periodically remind us of our obligations within the preset days and times. In GTD® it is called "areas of responsibility". This may concern both professional activities (like tax payment, personnel training, etc.) and personal chores (like house cleaning, checking child’s homework, going to the gym etc.). With a flexible setting of recurring tasks in MLO you can fully automate the display of these actions in your To-Do list.

The recurrence options are identical in MLO on all supported platforms. Below we'll walk you through examples from the Android version.

To set a recurrence select the task > Edit > Recurrence.

Main recurrence options

Advanced options

Combinations of options

Skip occurrence

Additional points

Main options for recurring task

There are Main and Advanced options for repeating tasks in MLO. Main settings are mandatory, the task recurrence will not work properly without them. They determine the frequency and order of task recurrence.

As you can see, for each recurring task you can build your own recurrence pattern as a construction set. Choose the recurrence options that fully reflects the cycle of your task. Your task can recur:

• every weekday;
• weekly on certain days of the week;
• every first working day of the month;
• last Sunday of December of each year, which is especially important for the strategic planning of the coming year, etc.

Start and Due Dates of reccuring tasks

Start and Due dates can be the same or different. If you need to pay utility bills between the 15th and 20th of each month, simply set these dates on the Date&Time screen.

End occurrences

By default the number of task occurrences is set to "Infinite". You have set recurrence, and the task will now be displayed at a certain frequency without time limit. But if you need to specify occurrence limitations, you can do it:

by number of occurrences;
Example: You have to take vitamins for 14 days. Set recurrence for daily and specify 14 days. The task will displayed in your To-Do every day until you complete it 14 times.
On the Task Preview screen you can see how many occurrences left.

• by completion date.

Example: You have bought an annual subscription to the gym. You create a task which recurs on Monday-Wednesday-Friday. For completion date you set a day when this subscription expires. Unless, of course, you are going to renew it regularly.

Advanced options

Advanced options are more fine-tuning options. If you are an experienced user of the MyLifeOrganized task manager and the suggested recurrence options are insufficient for you, there are additional options used to substantially extend the functionality of cyclic tasks.

Automatic resetting of subtasks when the task recurs

In MyLifeOrganized recurring tasks can have their own subtasks, which can be repeated or not repeated together with the main task. If a recurring task has subtasks, you can set how the system should deal with completed subtasks. In particular, when to display them next time.

There are three options for automatic resetting of subtasks when the task is repeated:

• Disable automatic reset: all completed subtasks of a recurring task when transferred to the next repetition remain completed.

Example: You have a recurring task "Meeting". Points to discuss are added as subtasks. All the solved points (subtasks) are marked in the system as completed and will not be displayed on the next task occurence.

• Reset all subtasks to uncompleted: at the next recurrence all completed subtasks become active again.

Example: You have a repeating task "Pay utility bills" with subtasks: pay for gas, pay for electricity and so on. After you complete the parent task, all its subtasks become active again.

• Reset all subtasks to uncompleted, if all subtasks are completed.

For which purpose can this be applied? For the most flexible approach to periodic tasks.

Example: You have a recurring task "Gym workout". As subtasks you add the workout sets for different muscle groups: chest + shoulders, back + biceps, chest + triceps, legs.

You should set "Reset all subtasks to uncompleted, if all subtasks are completed" and "Do not create a completed copy of this task on recurring" (is described below).

At the completion of any subtask, the next time you will be shown only the remaining three. Then two. And so on until you complete all sets. After the last subtask is completed, all workout options will be available again in the next recurrence.

A similar approach can be applied to writing blog articles, family rest on the weekend, doing housework any other activities.

Automatic recurring behaviour when subtasks are completed

In MyLifeOrganized, recurrence can work not only after you complete a recurring task, but also after you complete its subtasks.

There are three options for automatic recurring behaviour when subtasks are completed:

• Disable automatic recurrence (set by default).

It does not matter which subtasks are marked as completed. Recurrence will work only after the main task on which the recurrence is set as completed.

• Automatically recur when any subtask is completed.
  It’s convenient when choosing among a variety of options. When you complete any subtask, the parent task is considered completed and recurs.
• Automatically recur when all subtasks are complete.
  It is effective to use if the recurring task itself is generalizing and serves only to unify the tasks of the same type.

Example: You may have a task "All taxes paid!", where all types of taxes you have to pay are subtasks. When everything’s paid automatic recur will work, without the need to complete the main task.

Create / Do not create a completed copy of the task on recurring

For a recurring task you can specify whether to create a completed copy or not.

The cases when a completed copy is necessary:

- to track your productivity in the lists of completed tasks;

- to quickly create a copy of the task, but without recurrence.

Combination of options

You are not limited to use only a specific automatization option. From the options described above you can create any combination you need for each specific case.

Example: There is a periodic task "Personnel training", for which it is necessary to conduct classes on various topics with a certain frequency. Add these topics as subtasks and set the following options for the parent task:

- reset all subtasks to uncompleted, if they are all completed;

- automatic recurring on completion of any subtask.

When the time comes to conduct classes, choose any topic that is most relevant at the moment. At the completion of the subtask, the recurrence will work. But the next time the task is displayed, all the topics will be shown, except for that already studied.

After all the subtasks are completed, you will see the entire list again.

Skip occurrence

If for any reason you can't complete a recurring task, you can skip its occurence. In this case:

- the task is not displayed in the list of completed tasks;

- the task that you can't complete this time does not clutter up lists of active actions.

You can skip the occurrence on the Task Preview screen (see the screenshot above).

Skipping occurrence is especially useful during the evening review of tasks for tomorrow. If you see you will not be able to do some tasks tomorrow, you can move them to the next relevant date, not waiting for them to become overdue.

Additional points

- Do not set time and reminders if the option "Regenerate new task..." is selected

In this case the reminder appears exactly in the specified period after the task is completed.

For example, you set "Regenerate new task in 1 day after each task is completed" and the reminder to 3 p.m. If you click to complete the task at 3:24 p.m., then the next reminder will appear at 3:24 p.m. on the next day.

You should set time and reminders only for tasks with the recurrence of every day, week, month and year.

- In the "Hourly" pattern the only option available is "Regenerate next task x hours after each task is completed".