Hello all!
new user to omnifocus so forgive me if there is info out there on this. Im looking for a way to get a repeating single action task to repeat after completion. A simple example would be “get haircut” that repeats every two weeks. Sometimes i don’t get to it until a few days after it shows up in my Today perspective but when i do get around to marking it as a completed task a few days late omnifocus is not aware of that and in 2 weeks from when it was originally sent to my today perspective automatically creates a task again. If i could find a way to get it to repeat after i mark it as completed it would be a lifesaver. Thanks to anyone who can help with this!
Jack: In the drop down box to the left of the repeating interval, select either DEFER UNTIL or DUE AGAIN. Those options will repeat the action again, in your case, 2 weeks after completion. Using DEFER AGAIN, if your haircut appears in your list on a Monday but you don’t get your hairs trimmed until Thursday, the action will defer to two weeks from Thursday. DUE AGAIN is similar, but sets a new DUE instead of defer date.
Hey there @Jack! Welcome to OmniFocus.
You can set a task to repeat using the Inspector. Select the task, then press ⌥⌘I to open the Inspector sidebar. About halfway down, you should see the Repeat slice:
@hawkfish described two of the repeat options available to you: Defer Again and Due Again. Both of these will repeat your completed task a certain interval after you actually complete it. That is, if you set your haircut task to be due again (or deferred again) two weeks, then – like @hawkfish describes – check it off on a Thursday, the next iteration will also be due (or deferred) on the Thursday two weeks later.
The last option available to you is Repeat Every, which takes into account the original due or deferred date, not the date you actually do it. Under this option, if your haircut becomes available on a Monday, and you check it off on a Thursday, the next haircut will again become available on the Monday two weeks out.
Once you select one of these options, the Inspector will tell you what the next due and defer dates will be once you check off the task. You can see these in the “Next Deferred” and “Next Due” fields; feel free to select the different repeat options, then check what dates OmniFocus computes, to play around with how you want your haircut task to work.
If you’re still curious about these features, check out the in-app Help. The “Dates and Times” section in particular has some great info about the different repeat options.
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