Repeating Project with Sequential Tasks

I’ve used Omnifocus for years and years and have regularly used a project format that I cannot get to work anymore. (I’ve scoured the forums, YouTube, blogs…) It’s pretty simple.

It’s a repeating (daily) project with sequential tasks. That’s it. A morning routine (that should appear at 5:00 am) and an evening routine (that should appear at 5:00 pm). These are two different projects.

I set up a new sequential project, add the tasks in the proper order. I set the project to repeat daily. Once I check them off, they do not recur the next day.

Per my research, I have tried:

  1. marking every task with a repeat
  2. deferring both the project itself AND deferring the project itself and the tasks to a future date
  3. marking the project as complete after all items are checked off for the day
  4. mucking with the types of recurrences in every way I read about

If someone can give me a specific template that actually works, I would greatly appreciate it!

Set it to complete on assigned dates.

Clear out the repeat for the tasks.

Set the repeat for the project only.

Would that work?

2 Likes

Thanks for the idea. I don’t usually use due dates on stuff like this, but I cannot remember if I did it this specific way.

I just set up a dummy sequential project with four items, thusly.

Now I just checked off each item. I’ll see if it shows up again tomorrow.

I don’t want it to show up as available until 5:00 pm, so I think I’ll have to add a defer date/time, but I’ll try it one iteration at a time.

I have 3 single action lists for my work area (Office Startup, Office Routines and Office Shutdown) and for home the single action lists Vehicles, Maintenance, Health and so on. The Defer-Date is used as the repetition date (settings repetition weekly mo, tu, we, th, fr.: repeat on completion). The repeatability applies to the individual tasks and not to the project. This system has worked for many, many years without the slightest problem. The tasks appear punctually in my Today Perspective at the specified time.
I would avoid repetitive sequential projects and use single action lists with repetitive tasks.

Thank you. Yes, I have a number of single item lists with repeating tasks.

In this case, the items in these lists are sequential (and I’ve had them set up this way for years), so I’m trying to figure out how to get the sequential lists to work in a repeating fashion again.

This did not work. :/ It has no items in the list today and none in remaining. Thank you for your input.

This morning I tried setting up a test a different way.

Project had NO repeat or settings
Each item in list had a deferred date (all the same date time) and repeat of once per day.

At the appropriate time, item #1 of the sequential list showed up as available. When I checked it off as complete…the second item did NOT show up as available. It’s listed as remaining, but not available.

HELP!

1 Like

If you assign tasks to a sequential project, then in your example, checking off task “Item 1” moves the task to the next day. The task still exists, just postponed until tomorrow. In the case of sequential projects, however, the next task does not become active until the previous one is marked as completed. In your case, the task continues to exist and processing then hangs. I tried it with your example. Take single action lists and dates in the tasks and the problem is solved. Understand the cause of the problem?

1 Like

Thanks for the input. I’m not sure I understand.

the next task does not become active until the previous one is marked as completed.

You’re saying the second task does not become active until the first task no longer exists in any iteration? As in, it has been completed on day one, but not on every day in the future, so the second task doesn’t kick in?

Take single action lists and dates in the tasks and the problem is solved.

I do have other repeating single action lists. But these tasks are sequential, thus the desire to put them in a sequential project.

What is most confusing to me is that I had a number of such sequential task lists set up for YEARS and used them without issue. (If I still had copies, I could just duplicate them, but I do not.)

I don’t know what has changed in the programming…or what I’m missing.

If sequential projects truly can no longer be repeating items (if I understand what you said), then it should not be an option to set those parameters. :/

To document, if I set project to repeat:

And each item to repeat:

It seems to present the same issue Monika refers to above. Item 1 day 1 checked off puts Item 1 day 2 as remaining, but Item 2 never becomes available.

Hello Alison,
I tried again what I did yesterday with the 3 sample tasks in the sequential project. Now I’m amazed. Everything works as it should, regardless of the data in the sample tasks. I don’t understand what happened.
Also try again. I hope Omniwonder works for you too :))

1 Like

Wait, what, Monika? Could you clarify which steps you took? I’m not sure which comment you are referring to or what specific settings you used. I’m stuck!

Thank you!

If the project is sequential, and the items repeat, the second and remaining items will never become available, because they will be blocked by the first item.

The way to do what you are wanting is to only have the project repeat. But you will need to complete the project after completing all of the actions, otherwise it will not repeat (as it has not been completed).

You can automate completing the project by checking the complete with last action option for the project.

3 Likes

Thank you. I thought I tried this, but I’ll do it again. Here are my PROJECT settings:

There are no special settings on any of the items, they are just listed.

(I don’t recall seeing/using the “complete with last action” checkbox. That’s really useful. Thank you.)

HOLY COW. I THINK IT WORKED! Thank you!

You’re Welcome! Glad I could help.