Recurring Tasks
Use recurring tasks for work that should come back on a schedule or after you complete it: reviews, chores, routines, renewals, and maintenance tasks.
Recurrence lives in the task editor. If you are using quick capture, create the task first, then open it for editing.
Set Up a Recurring Task
- Open the task.
- Edit the task.
- Find the Recurrence field in the scheduling section.
- Choose Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.
- Adjust the repeat details.
- Save the task.
The recurrence controls appear on desktop and mobile in the task edit screen.
Repeat Options
| Option | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Daily | Habits and daily routines. |
| Weekly | Weekly reviews, meetings, errands, or maintenance. |
| Monthly | Bills, monthly reviews, subscriptions, or monthly checklists. |
| Yearly | Annual renewals, taxes, registrations, and anniversaries. |
Each repeat type can use Repeat every to skip intervals. For example, every 2 weeks or every 3 months.
Weekly tasks can choose specific weekdays. Monthly tasks can repeat on one day each month or on several days you pick (such as the 1st and the 16th), or use Custom for patterns such as a specific weekday or the last day of the month.
For the last Monday–Friday date of each month, choose Custom → Last → Weekday (Mon–Fri). This skips weekends, but does not account for public holidays. If you sync devices, update them all before using this pattern.
Short Months and the End of the Month
Monthly and yearly repeats remember the day of the month you originally set as an anchor. When a month is too short, the date moves to that month's last day, then returns to the anchor as soon as a longer month comes around.
- A task anchored on the 30th lands on February 28, then returns to the 30th in March.
- To repeat on the last day of every month, set the first date on the 31st of any month. An anchor of 31 lands on each month's real last day: September 30, October 31, November 30, February 28.
The anchor comes from the date you set, so a task created for September 30 stays on the 30th — it does not jump to October 31. After-completion repeats compute each next date from the day you completed the task instead, so they have no fixed anchor.
Fixed Schedule or After Completion
By default, Mindwtr keeps a fixed schedule. Use this for deadlines or commitments that should stay tied to the calendar.
Examples:
- Pay rent every month.
- Review finances on the first Saturday.
- Renew insurance every year.
Turn on Repeat after completion when the next task should be based on when you finish the current one.
Examples:
- Water plants 3 days after you last did it.
- Clean filters 2 weeks after completion.
- Follow up 1 month after the previous follow-up.
When an after-completion repeat also picks weekdays or a day of the month, the next task lands on the first matching day in the last week (or month) of the interval. Completing "every 2 weeks on Sunday" on a Tuesday brings it back the Sunday after next, not the coming Sunday.
If you finished a task earlier but only mark it Done later, complete it with the actual time instead (right-click the complete button on desktop, or long-press Done in the mobile status menu), and the next occurrence is scheduled from when you finished.
Skip One Occurrence
For a fixed-schedule recurring task with a start, due, or review date, open the task's menu and choose Skip this occurrence. Mindwtr archives that occurrence without marking it complete and creates the next scheduled task. If the series has reached its Ends limit, no new task is created. You can skip another missed date the same way.
Repeat after completion tasks cannot be skipped this way because their next date depends on when the current task is completed.
Ending a Recurrence
Use Ends to control when the series stops:
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Never | Keep creating the next task after each completion. |
| On date | Stop when the next occurrence would go past the selected date. |
| After | Stop after the selected number of occurrences. |
Calendar Preview
Mindwtr keeps one active task for a recurring series. It creates the next real task when you complete the current one or skip a fixed-schedule occurrence.
Turn on Show future occurrences in Calendar when you want a planning preview of the series. The calendar paints every occurrence in the visible month, week, or schedule range — a daily task fills every visible day. These previews help you plan ahead, but they are not extra active tasks.
What Happens When You Complete It
When you complete a recurring task, Mindwtr creates the next task with the same title, project, area, contexts, tags, notes, reminders, and other task details. Checklist items are reset for the next occurrence.
If the task has a due date, start date, or review date, Mindwtr advances those fields according to the recurrence rule. Date-only values stay date-only.
With a fixed schedule, a late completion can advance the task to another date that has already passed. For example, a daily task with only a start date advances one day at a time, even if you missed several days. Turn on Repeat after completion to base the next occurrence on when you finish: completing a daily task today schedules the next one for tomorrow. Neither mode automatically completes or discards an unfinished task at midnight. Start, due, and review dates keep their spacing when they move forward.
The next task stays out of Focus and Next actions until its date arrives. A future start date defers it as usual, and a recurring task without a start date is deferred until its next date (the earlier of its due and review dates). A next occurrence scheduled for a future day therefore stays out of those lists. Deferred occurrences remain visible in Projects and Search.
This rule applies to every recurring task from the moment it exists, not only to the next occurrence after a completion. A one-off task with a due date stays visible ahead of its deadline so you can work on it early, but a recurring task treats that same date as the day it should reappear — so two tasks with the same due date can behave differently in Focus when one of them repeats. To surface a recurring task before its date, give it a start date: it appears in Focus and Next actions from that day while keeping its deadline.