FacileThings

Advanced recurring tasks in FacileThings

AUTHOR: Francisco Sáez
Improvements Routines

Recurring tasks is one of the most powerful tools in any personal management system. They allow to automate the management of a large number of your activities, and automation is often a synonymous with productivity.

We added this feature about a year ago, then we made some improvements a few months ago and now, again thank to your feedback, we have decided to further empower this type of tasks.

First, you will find that you can now define a recurring task at the same time you are processing it. The reason is that you usually know that a task is going to be repeated periodically in the moment you think a little about it—i.e. while processing—, so it is not desirable nor productive to postpone its definition or stop processing your inbox to set it properly.

recurring tasks while processing

In the advanced options you will also see three new possibilities:

  • You can set a specific time in the day for the task to be done. Ideal for regular meetings which are always performed at the same time.
  • You can keep the task inactive until a few days before the scheduled date. This way it will not appear in your Calendar until you want. For example, some birthdays and anniversaries often require only a call so you would not need to see them until almost the same day.
  • You can use the completion date as the calculation basis for the next date. For example, if you define a task to get done every 2 days, but it takes you more than 2 days to do it, the next task will be generated 2 days after the date you did it, rather than 2 days after the date you should have done it.

advanced options in recurring tasks

What do you think? Are you missing any other possibility?

Francisco Sáez
@franciscojsaez

Francisco is the founder and CEO of FacileThings. He is also a Software Engineer who is passionate about personal productivity and the GTD philosophy as a means to a better life.

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3 comments

Commented over 11 years ago Stuart Tattum

New options look great.

You might also consider recurring on specific days of a week, month, quarter etc.

Recur on days of the week (e.g. every Mon, Wed and Fri). Recur on days of the month (e.g. second and fourth Fri of every month).

Stuart Tattum

New options look great.

You might also consider recurring on specific days of a week, month, quarter etc.

Recur on days of the week (e.g. every Mon, Wed and Fri). Recur on days of the month (e.g. second and fourth Fri of every month).

Commented over 11 years ago Francisco Sáez

Thanks for your suggestions, Stuart. Sure, I am going to consider these special cases.

However, I would like to notice that, although it is not self-evident, these kinds of tasks can be defined as a composition of others. For example, you could set 3 recurring tasks (one every Mon, one every Wed and one every Fri) to have a recurring task every Mon, Wed and Fri. ;)

Francisco Sáez

Thanks for your suggestions, Stuart. Sure, I am going to consider these special cases.

However, I would like to notice that, although it is not self-evident, these kinds of tasks can be defined as a composition of others. For example, you could set 3 recurring tasks (one every Mon, one every Wed and one every Fri) to have a recurring task every Mon, Wed and Fri. ;)

Commented over 11 years ago Stuart Tattum

Yes, I have 3 recurring tasks (one every Mon, one every Wed and one every Fri) to have a recurring task every Mon, Wed and Fri.

Stuart Tattum

Yes, I have 3 recurring tasks (one every Mon, one every Wed and one every Fri) to have a recurring task every Mon, Wed and Fri.

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