Sometimes we have work that may need doing every month or so. Take, for example,writing a newsletter.
This type of work may take a few days. Doing it tends to look like doing some of it, then putting it aside, then working on it again later, then putting it aside, etc. At some point it’s done, but it may not be clear how many sessions it would be until we get there.
In this way, simply writing a task that says “Draft newsletter” doesn’t quite work.It wouldn’t be done on the first day, but at the same time the task would have to sit there since it wasn’t done. But then the task would clog up the Today list. You now introduce the need to review your list for what you’d like to do, what you can’t do, etc, instead of having a list that just works. A feeling of irritation wells and we may even think of abandoning the list sensing its lack of help.
Also, in the case of the newsletter, I want the work to show up monthly. Writing a task that repeats every month also does not work. Again, if I’m not yet done with it now, but I’ve done enough for today, I would have to leave the task sitting there.
To solve this issue, we can create a double cycle.
Setting Up a Double Cycle
The setup for a double cycle is as follows
The task repeats by defer another by one day. Here’s a screenshot from the Repeat section in the Inspector:
Effectively, what this creates is a task in my today list that I can
- Do a little of each day.
- Then, mark complete and have it appear again tomorrow.
When I am actually done with the newsletter, I’ve scheduled its release and there’s nothing more for me to do, the parenthetical “Defer 1 month when done” functions as the second wave in the cycle.
I’ll tap the “+1 month” tab:
Note September 4, 2019: This is the second version of this post. Thank you to the commenters for pointing out the lack of clarity from the first version. I had originally started an addendum, but then quickly realized I just had to rewrite the whole thing.
Hi. I don’t quite understand your suggestion, and a newsletter is the same sort of thing I’m charged with doing. Could you offer a more complete screen-shot of this project’s setup?
I’m not sure how he does it, but it sounds like maybe he forwards the task every day until it’s done and then defers it forward for a month.
I could also see this done another way: If it takes four days to do the newsletter, set up for tasks labeled:
Newsletter (day 1)
Newsletter (day 2) etc.
Make each of these tasks repeat on a monthly basis on whatever days you want to block time to doorknobs on it.
There’s no reason you cannot keep adjusting the repeat date as needs change. You can do your workdays sequentially, or not.
Yes please, a screenshot would be helpful
I’m clearly unclear here. I’ll post an addendum shortly.
Thank you for the comments. I just re-wrote the post. Please let me know if it makes more sense.
LC, the direction is similar, if not the same, as what you described: I leverage the daily repeats for the day-to-day work, and then defer as needed once done.
Oh, much better — thank you. The part that I missed was that it is a single repeating task…I thought it was a project of tasks. Using the parenthetical to prompt you to manually update the deferred date is an elegant answer to what would otherwise be a complex scripting/organizational automation.
Great – I’m glad it comes through better now. Yeah, and the parenthetical – sometimes it’s just better to do something manually.
The screen shots aren’t loading.
Hey Duncan, Thanks for letting me know. Just fixed them.