Suggestion: Recurrence Options > Monthly : The 'x'th weekday

[G-Eric]

Hi Dan,

Today TodoList offers a monthly recurrence option for the first and the last weekday (of every 'x' month).

This is very useful for several cases, and I already activated this setting quite a lot.
It is working fine (i.e. accurate) and helps to manage dynamic adjustments to month workday variations.

In the workflow I am tracking, I have several cases where the trigger is another workday of the month (i.e. than 'first' or 'last'), i.e.

• the second workday (to leave one workday to perform some action i.e. on 1st workday, and to be checked the day after = 2nd workday)
• the 11th workday (being just 2 weeks after the first workday: 11th = 1st workday day + 2 x 5 workdays), for jobs occurring twice a month
• the 12th workday (being just 2 weeks after the second workday: 12th = 2nd workday day + 2 x 5 workdays), for jobs occurring twice a month

So far, I use a workaround as follows:

1. create a task
   - starting the 1st workday
   - due the 1st workday
   - with recurrence based on START date (to keep the dynamic setup month after month
   
2. duplicate this task and:
1. for "2nd workday": change the due date to the 2nd workday
2. for "11th workday": change the due date to the 11th workday
3. for "12th workday": change the due date to the 12th workday

And it works, yes, but... such "workaround-ed" tasks are reported as started during 2 weeks where there are in fact not yet started but "sleeping" until the relevant workday.

So, I added a tag in the comment to exclude these tasks (filter) and check every day (another filter) if some of these are really started and due or not (yet).

My suggestion to simplify this would be to have the setting 'first' or 'last' in the monthly recurrence option for 'weekday' to be extended to:

• a list of figures from 2 (no value '1' - see note below) to 'x'
         where 'x' is the all over maximum number of workdays in a month = 31 - ( 4 x { number of days marked as 'weekend' in the setting 'Time Periods' } )
         e.g. x = 23 for Aug 2017 when 'weekend' is { Sat & Sun }  >>  23 = 31 - 4 x 2
  
• with 2 additional values for 'first' and 'last' (being variable each month)
  
  Note: I would suggest to maintain the value 'first' (instead of '1') to keep it easily readable / understandable (legacy respect).
  

This enhancement would allow to have task recurrence being setup more accurately, and the start and due views will be more relevant without need of an additional filter.

As such, in my humble opinion, it would make recurrence management and tasks display even better as it is already today.

Is this suggestion in line with your vision of the recurrence usage?

If so, could you please consider the impact of this enhancement, and if acceptable, have it appended to the 'future changes' list?

Thanks for your consideration and comments.

Have a nice Day - Eric

[.dan.g.]

I must admit it sounds a bit of a bizarre suggestion to me.

The amount of explanation it required suggests that it is not a common usage and I have never seen it implemented anywhere else. Have you?

[G-Eric]

In many cases, you revert to requesters by asking for additional details or context description.
I tried to be proactive and to provide these information upfront: apparently, not a good initiative according to your doubts about it.

That's the way several jobs are done here: xth workday + again just 2 weeks later.
This way, not caveat of week-end, holidays, ...: it's twice a month, on a regular interval for job impact sharing.

If I took time to describe it after having searched (unsuccessfully) during days for valid workaround, it's because it makes sense for me and I miss it.
In my humble opinion, it would be a quite transparent change for "common" users and a major improvement (at least) for me.

The tempo is often asked by client companies (insurance) to stay aligned with monthly consolidated reporting rythm (based on xth workday prior month end, to leave enough workdays after monthly financial closing to treat figure in main dashboard reports before last workday).

I hope this give you some answers to your questions.
Have a nice day - Eric