I think I should know the answer to this; but I don’t.
Until a recent (the introduction of ‘Planned’ ?) version I could mark a repeating item as completed ahead of its Due date. For instance, reconciling a monthly bank statement ‘today’, which OF actually has as Due ‘tomorrow’.
Now doing so simply creates a ‘duplicate’; I have to wait until ‘tomorrow’ to mark it as completed.
Is there a way around that, please, when I have all three dates (Defer, Due and Planned) set to the same date - in this case the next day?
The implementation of task repeats does appear to have changed slightly in 4.8. In the inspector you can specify whether repetition is based on defer, planned, or due date. Certainly repeating tasks created in versions of OF prior to 4.8 (that went through the database upgrade 4.8 required) seem to default to repetition based on due date. It sounds as if you may want to experiment with changing to “based on defer date”?
So would I be correct to experiment with the ‘Edit Repetition’ settings in the Inspector - changing the Schedule value from ‘From Completion’ to ‘Regularly’?
And not the Based on value because in my case it was set to ‘Due Date’ already?
I can just about see how either of those would work because in the case I reported in my OP that bank statement wasn’t expected to be published on the bank’s site - and so ready for me to mark as complete in OF until October 3.
But (because the statement was made available a day earlier) I was able to complete it on October 2. Given that OF still had its Due date as October 3, OF would keep presenting the task to me until its Due data has/had passed.
Is that sound reasoning?
If so, the only alternative is to change the value in the Schedule field.
Unless this is where Planned date comes in, which I haven’t really explored yet?
I’m guessing slightly not knowing precisely how you have things configured but I think you want to leave Schedule as “on completion” but change Based On to “defer date”. If you’re in fact often flexible in when you complete tasks (completing them early as in your example) the planned date field might best be left blank for this task? (In that you in fact dint do things on the date you had at one point intended)
Thanks again, Rob… and I appreciate that it must be difficult to advise without knowing my exact setup :-).
I tend to like simplicity: so most often have such items all with the same dates, Defer, Due and (now added) Planned.
The logic for me behind the monthly repeat for bank statements is that some banks reliably publish on the first (second, sixth etc) day of each new month regardless of which day of the week (including weekends/non business days) the advertised statement day is. For them it’s easy: set it in OF and it will always work.
Others (like E*Trade, which prompted this question) can make their statements available at any time between (this month, say) September 30 and October 6 (next work day, Monday).
So I try to let OF have the job of simply reminding me to reconcile. I guess I’ve settled on a date somewhere between the most likely(/possible) earliest; and most likely(/possible) latest.
In previous versions of OF, if I completed ‘early’, the task simply renewed/repeated itself to what I had set.
Perhaps now I need to set (for example, in this month’s E*Trade case):
Defer as the earliest possible: that’d be (again, in this case) 2025-09-30
Due as the latest possible: again, in this month’s case 2025-10-06
Planned as the most ‘likely’ date: 2025-10-02
with:
Schedule From completion - so that OF would only ever set up the repeat once I actually have marked the task as Done
Based on Defer - so that it would repeat even if I did it early
Yes I think so But you can experiment to check: look at your tasks in project view, adjust the repeat options, mark an item complete and watch the next occurrence being created and check its settings. If it’s what you want you’re done. If not hit command-Z a couple of times to revert the changes and try again.
Incidentally I’m not sure setting defer, planned and due dates for all tasks is necessarily “keeping things simple” but that’s up to you. Use of due dates is a matter of personal preference but most would argue for using them sparingly, for situations where late completion has serious consequences: most tasks can probably have their due date left blank. Only you can decide how truly important it is that statements are reconciled immediately they become available.
I would like to say that Rob Forsyth’s advice is spot on. I only use the repeat function for tasks with a defer date (e.g., putting the trash cans out for collection, preparing the sourdough starter for tartine bread, descaling the Orione 3000 espresso machine, etc.) and where failure to do so has no major consequences. I only use due dates in projects and single-action lists if missing a deadline would cause major problems or have serious consequences for me. To manage these tasks, I have created a DEADLINES perspective that only contains tasks with due dates, sorted by date. However, I must admit that I make an exception for long-term concert dates for blues rock bands 😁.
I primarily schedule tasks using tags (Today, Monday, Tuesday, … Next Week, October, November, December, January … Year 2026, Year 2027 … Future. I discovered this approach on Colter Reed’s website [A More Powerful Way to Schedule Tasks in OmniFocus | Colter Reed]
This structure requires me to juggle or plan with the date tags every day, which means my tasks are always up to date. I never thought that implementing his system would bring me so many benefits. For example, I can make a great weekly plan and assign tasks to the tags “Monday,” “Tuesday,” “Next Week,” “November,” etc.
This way I always have a great overview of the scheduling of my tasks.
Now, after your guidance, I can see how each of the parameters which you’ve kindly drawn my attention to works in conjunction with the others, I am experimenting - and starting to get the results I want,
