Feature Request: Recurrence to work for tasks without a Due Date

[chuckdevee]

This would be really useful for me. I have quite a few problems with
the ordering in the ToDo views but get around most of these by being
sparing about which tasks I enter a Due Date for.

Most of the tasks I have, have some date which I'd LIKE to do them by,
but if I enter this as the due date, as I used to, my task outline
becomes very time-consuming as I am forever re-adjusting these due
dates.

Now, I only really use a due date if a task HAS to be done by that
date - otherwise, it goes in without any date and the Urgency/
Importance criteria determines its order in the ToDo list. I'll use
a Start Date if I don't want to think about starting the task until a
specific date.

So most of the tasks I have do not have Due dates, some have a Start
Date and no Due date, some have Due dates but no Start date, and the
rest have both Start dates and Due dates.

So here's my problem, in order for a task to recur, it needs to have a
start date and due date.
And the recurrence time period is set with reference to the Due
date.

It would be helpful for me to allow tasks without any dates to recur
without any dates.

It would also be helpful to allow tasks with only a start date to
recur with reference to the Start date and leave these tasks without
any Due date.

[daneb]

Hi,
if I understood it correctly, you can emulate duplication of tasks
without due date by alternative complete (hold ctrl + check "complete"
check box) - task is completed and duplicated as new uncompleted task,
which is what you actually want by recurrence without due dates. (But
it is not solution when you want to use recurrent start dates).

Best
Daneb

[pottster]

Not really clear on what you want. Assuming you want to recur on
completion, could you not just use alternative complete i.e. control
+click in tickbox?

[chuckdevee]

Hi.. to claify a bit further..
Recurrence functionality has advanced options which ctrl+click doesn't
have.
For example,
- recurrence options enable task groups to be reset once they have
been completed.
- a maximum number of recurrences can be set

Lets say, for example, I have a recurrent project with no specific
deadline. Eg writiing an regular article on a specific topic.
Whenever I finish it, I start to think about writing the next one. The
project involves a number of sub-tasks (get research, speak to
contacts etc)..
So I'd like the tasks of this project to appear in my ToDo list one by
one and the, when I've competed it, the first task to appear again -
all wothout any dates at all because the work is not time specific.

Even better, if the recurrence options worked with only start dates, I
could specify a start date for the Project and, in the recurrence
optiosn, specify that when all sub-tasks have been completed, the
Project will be duplicated with new Start Dates, say, a month ahead.
No dues dates. The start date just ensures that the project subtasks
don't appear in my ToDo view until a month's time.

[BOC]

A few examples without subtasks where one may not want a due date, but
a start date is useful:

Donate blood (recur XX weeks after done)
Go to the dentist (recur XX months after done)
Check your free credit report (recur 1 yr after done)

[Richard Collings]

+1

Partly as a result of your earlier post, I have stopped using Due Dates for
tasks unless there is a clear Due Date.

As a more general option, I quite often find that there is a gap between
what you can do with the recurrence option (which is too rigid - for example
you can't quickly adjust the start/due date) and the alternate complete
option (which doesn't do enough and I don't like the way it moves the next
instance to the end of the list)

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"MyLifeOrganized" group.
To post to this group, send email to mylifeo...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
mylifeorganiz...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.

[SRhyse]

I'd like this too. +1!

[Michael]

Is there any progress on this? Any plans to implement it? This is for me currently the biggest issue with MLO and I would very much support the request.

[Troy Lundblad]

+1 for me. 

Another example would be to file my previous month expense report.  Don't want it to show up until the first, but it doesn't really have a due date. I just want to be reminded and for it to reset once I complete it and I don't want it clogging up my screen until the first of month.

[Dwight]

Hi, Troy. I support this suggestion and I hope it happens. But I know
that it would be a big change, and in the meanwhile I am all about the
workaround, so let's discuss how you could schedule your expense reports.

First, you want the task to go away once it's completed and not appear
in your to-do list until the first of the next week. That's easy enough,
you juat have to set it to reoccur monthly with a start date of the
first of the month. The only problem is that you can't code "start date
= the first of every month" because all of the recurrence formulas are
for coding the due date. The start date is then calculated by due date
subtract lead time. So you can code the due date for the 28th of every
month with a lead time of 27 days. Whenever you mark this complete
(either because you genuinely completed it or because you decided to
skip this month) the task will be reset to start the first of the
following month and will remain inactive until the next month turns.

But you are also asking for no due date. I'm guessing that means that
you do not want to have to deal with it if this task becomes overdue,
due or almost-due. In other words, if you skip making an expense this
month. you do not want the expense report to be showing up on your "due
in the next seven days" list on the 23rd. At this point you cannot do
away with the due date without wiping out your recurrence. So, my
suggestion is this: You still need a due date but you can put it pretty
far into the future. For example, set up the task with a start date of 1
Nov 2016 and a due date of 28 Nov 2116. Lead time should be 100y 28d
(100 years and 28 days), then set the Lock Lead Time tickbox. Set
recurrence so the task reoccurs the 28th of every month. Now, when you
mark the task complete, the start date will reset to the first of next
month amd the due date will be 100 years in the future so it will never
show up in and due date reporting you might do.

Please let me know if this helps.


-Dwight

[Troy Lundblad]

Hi Dwight, 

So I recently came back to MLO after leaving it.  When I started researching this issue I realize that I have already asked the question i was looking for an answer to!

Well this work-around does work, except after trying Omnifocus I've gotten used to "start dates" as "defer dates". But I've learned that in MLO, you can't amend the start date of a recurring task so as to "defer" or hide it for another day or to until I'm ready to deal with it. 

But otherwise this trick works. So I very belatedly thank you for answering this issue for me. 

Cheers, 

Troy

[Gleep Wurp]

I think this would be a very good addition - but I think people commenting are missing the point.  Imagine, for example, a checklist  -say "Things to do before leaving for Vacation".  I don't have a due date - but I want to be able to go through the list, check things off, then leave for my vacation.  When I get back, it would be nice if I had a ready to go checklist for leaving on vacation automatically regenerated, without due dates.

[Michael]

So... After almost twelve(!) years I think we can safely say that this is a long-outstanding request. Has anything ever been done with it?

[Luis Enrique Cisneros Loeza]

I also wish MLO could do this.

[Dwight Arthur]

I understand that there are times that you have repeating tasks that do not really have a pre-determined date when they are due, and that MLO makes you put on a due date, which is annoying. My position is that if I set up my tasks well, I can just pick some meaningless due date, which is a small, insignificant annoyance that does not actually cause me any issues and does not need to be addressed.

I have checklists like the vacation things mentioned below. The parent task is a recurring task set to reoccur one day after it is completed. In the "task recurrence" window, click "advanced options" and in the next window check "Automatically recur when all subtasks are complete" The start and due dates are set to approx the last time I used this checklist (for the one I'm looking at, all the dates are about two years ago.) The parent task is set to "complete subtasks in order". The first task under the parent is a kickoff task, with a name like "kickoff vacation prep" and is marked "hide branch in to-do". The entire checklist is considered inactive. The parent is inactive because it has uncompleted subtasks, all of the individual tasks are inactive because they are running in order and the first one isn't done yet. The first one is inactive because it is hidden. So the whole thing is out there in my database and I can see it when I look at "all tasks" but it will never show up on any to-do list.

When I want to run this list, I go into the All Tasks view, find the kickoff task, and mark it completed. This causes the second item in the list to become active. If I just have a flat list of tasks, they will show up on the to-do list one at a time, each one showing up as its predecessor is completed. If I want them to all show up in the to-do list at once, just make a folder as the second item in the list and put all the other tasks into the folder. After I complete the last task, the list regenerates and the hidden kickoff task is back in control, putting the whole list back to sleep until its needed.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mylifeorganiz...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/758229cc-0efc-450c-9aee-f31b45d25625n%40googlegroups.com.