Are recurring tasks with an end date possible?

OmniFocus
#1

Let’s say that I just started a crazy new medication. Because I got it illegally, I have way, way more pills than the recommended dosage. Or something like that. Anyway, the dosage says to “take once daily, for 7 days, and do not exceed 7 days unless explicitly told to do so.”

Is it possible to have this in OmniFocus?

Or perhaps a more sane example: A task for a TV show happening each week, but one that will only have 12 episodes. Can a task have a set end date, or automatically stop recurring after 12 iterations?

#2

Not possible at this time to have end date for repeating task.

One method is to have a repeating task. Then create another task with defer and due date on the last date. Title this task with something like “delete rpreating task: take one pill”.

Personally I just put this on my calendar with an alarm.

For TV shows, I use the iOS app called iSnows to keep track of shows to watch. This better suited for my tv shows.

#3

I simply put the end date on the task name.
In the case above, I’d write something like:

“take pill XYZ once daily (delete after 27/1)”

When it pops up after that date, I simply hit delete

Like @wilsonng, such tasks don’t belong in OF to me anyway.

  • For such critical things like medication, I prefer to have a more intrusive notification (I rarely have notifications in OF). Due is that app for me.
  • For TV shows, I also used iShows (old v1), but switched to Television Time a while ago.
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#4

Thanks for the suggestions!

In both cases, the way that OmniFocus works well for me is as a direct replacement for things like TV trackers and other apps. Due, for example, would be a very single use case thing since this is only one medication. Another task to remove the recurring task wouldn’t be a half bad workaround, because it could just be deferred + due until that day, which would mark the end. That’s probably what I’ll use.

A slight aside: part of why I don’t use something like iShows or Television Time is because I watch a good mix of anime more than normal broadcast TV. I already track, but do not get alerted to new episodes for those kinds of things (so OmniFocus still wins for “hey, this show was released at 11:20am today.”

Cheers @wilsonng & @ediventurin :)

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