In life there are two types of repeating tasks: those that occur on pre-scheduled dates and others that occur again a certain time after completion. Think of the difference between paying your mortgage (every month) or getting an oil change for your car (3 months after the last oil change). Fortunately, Remember The Milk is an excellent tool for capturing both types of recurring tasks. In particular the use of the “Repeat every” and “Repeat after” make setting up smart, recurring tasks easy.
Repeat Every
Tasks due on prescheduled dates are easy to capture using a combination of “Repeat Every” and a “Due Date.” For example:
Task: Pay mortgage.
Due: June 1, 2011.
Repeat: Every month.
Now a new task will appear in my task list every month reminding me to pay my mortgage. With this setup, all the tasks are independent of one another. Meaning: If I don’t check it as complete, a new one will still pop up. If I don’t mark them as complete for 6 months, I’ll have 6 tasks reminding me to pay the mortgage (each with a different due date).
For me, tasks that “repeat every,” tend to be big, important tasks and usually related to bills & finances and paperwork (invoices, status updates, etc). I also schedule the task to be performed in advance of the actual Due Date, which I keep separately on my calendar. While I do use “Repeat Every” a lot, the majority of my repeating tasks tend to use “Repeat After.”
Repeat After
Most of my repeating tasks I want to repeat some time after completion. For example: Changing the oil in my car or publishing a Tip of the Week. In the oil change example I want to be reminded of changing my oil three months after it’s last changed. If two months go by or four I don’t want to be reminded again for another three months. So, for these types of tasks I use “Repeat after.”
Task: Change oil.
Due: June 15, 2011
Repeat: After 3 months
When I mark it complete RememberTheMilk will automatically create a new task due in three months. So, I mark it complete June 1st, my next due date will be September 1st. If I complete it July 1st, my next due date will be October 1st.
Personally, I use Repeat Every for all sorts of tasks including: computer maintenance, house cleaning, household organization, exercise and GTD reviews.
Now, how do you keep track of recurring tasks?
Helpful Resources:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/answers/basics/repeatformat.rtm
All Things Dave 