Recurring date survey and discussion

Unfortunately as far as I know we do need to do it branch by branch, but I discover in the search all result if you click the document title, it will direct you to that document and retain the filter result, so I have a bookmark for the purpose which I check it from time to time. Another reason this is not too much work for me is because I donā€™t create a lot of level for my to do, for example under my todo document I only have today, schedule, someday and note, and most of them only have one level under them, so even I have like hundreds completed task that I want to deleted, I can delete them in seconds. But I donā€™t keep my work tasks/notes together with my personal document, because for me they usually need tracking and reference much more often than my own, so they have their own document and I will keep them much longer.

Thereā€™s a command for that: Delete Checked Items in the hamburger menu.

Thanks. I actually hadnā€™t noticed that. But it doesnā€™t work with @KCā€™s system which is to purge those completed after a certain date.

I voted for ā€œotherā€ in the second question - my ideal solution would be:

  • create a new task (rather than modify existing one) on completion
  • options for EITHER repeat from due date OR repeat from completion
  • ideally that option would be set when creating the repeating date
  • there should be a default (ideally that you select in options) then you can choose the other option if you wish when you create a new repeating date

Repeating dates will be great but to me, even more important than repeating dates, would be a start-date as well as a due-date - where the item was hidden until the start date arrived.
EG so I could forget about renewing my car license until it was 1 month before it was needed next year, but also have a due date for when I had to have completed the task by.

Thanks

I voted for other on the second question as well.

For my workflow, I use tasks for a couple of functions:

  1. To lay out what needs to be done
  2. To archive what has been done

Iā€™m in alignment with what @Chris_Kunicki uses: I need some flexibility to both capture all the tasks that have been accomplished and then replicate them to a designated spot. Right now, Iā€™ve got a template dynalist doc that I use, and I simply copy/past as I plan the next day and week. So, ideally, the recurring tasks would take that and automate it; placing the tasks in nodes I can choose.

Let me know if you need more info.

Edit: Iā€™m extremely excited you guys are getting ready to tackle this feature!

Cheers,
Sean

Thanks for working on this important feature! I agree with others who say the exact way recurring dates should work will vary depending on the list. Hereā€™s my suggestion:

  • When you complete a recurring item a dialogue box pops up. It gives you two sets of options: the date of the next recurrence and where the next recurrence should be created.

  • In the first set you can choose to create the next recurrence based on the completion date or the due date.

  • In the second set you can choose where the next recurrence is created. You can have the next recurrence created directly below the last recurrence, have it added to a specific document or have it copied to your clipboard. When you choose the last option you can then navigate to any document you like and paste the next recurrence in the appropriate place.

Also, please be sure to include advanced options for recurrence (e.g. ā€œEvery second Friday,ā€ ā€œThe last Wednesday of every month,ā€ etc.)

I think this approach would provide the balance between flexibility and functionality that makes Dynalist such a powerful tool in the first place.

Additional question: to everyone who voted ā€œa new instance appears when the date is completedā€, what should happen when a really large list (with lots of children items)? Should they be duplicated as well? I think being duplicated would be the desired behavior, but it would potentially make the document really large.

What do you guys think?

ā€œClonedā€ would be ideal. Second choice would be to move the children. Use case is those children are instructions on completing the task. Failing these, I wouldnā€™t make children but rather put a link to details in the recurring item.

Yes I would prefer duplicate as well, and I really donā€™t see it happen too often in my use case. But if it does occur, I would rather have it than not have it.

I think if the document grew too large, we could purge it of completed items. Thatā€™s what Iā€™m doing now with manual repeating items.

@Alan @KC @Kevin_Murray

Thanks for the input, super valuable! :smiley:

@Erica yes the children should be duplicated as well in my opinion. I do lots of repetition with nodes as tasks and child tasks, and I canā€™t think of one scenario personally where I would not want the children to be duplicated.

Thanks for asking!

Just to clarify, do you mean copying or making linked items (explained here)?

I mean that page yes.

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Update: itā€™s here!

Link to blog post: https://blog.dynalist.io/recurring-dates/

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Awesome! Really glad to see the amount of customisability in setting recurrence schedule here, well done!

As you requested feedback: the only thing holding me back from Pro at the moment is that thereā€™s no mobile app notification for tasks due. I currently have a Todoist subscription because I get a daily reminder at 9am telling me about tasks that are overdue or due today. If this feature was included then thereā€™d be no reason for me to maintain it anymore (and I really want to that to happen, Dynalist UX is way better). Would really love to see this functionality in your v2 implementation!

Right now I sync with Google Calendar, and using its push notification. So I can have daily reminder at 5am, and 30 mins before apptā€¦ The only thing it canā€™t show is the overdue task, which I setup a filter allow me check just a push of button.

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Unfortunately a non-starter for me, I donā€™t want to share my data with Google :confused: