Set a recurring due date in Todoist

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You likely have tasks that repeat themselves on a regular basis—monthly reports, putting out the garbage every week, remembering to call Mom on her birthday.

Instead of creating a new task for each occurrence, give it a recurring due date!

When you complete a task with a recurring due date, it automatically shifts to the next due date with no extra effort required on your part.

Turn on smart date recognition

Before adding a recurring due date, check if smart date recognition is turned on:

  1. In Todoist, click your avatar in the top-left corner.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Select General from the menu.
  4. Turn on Smart date recognition.

Add a recurring due date

Note

Due dates in Czech and Turkish aren't supported yet. Use this form to request support for these languages in Todoist.

Type the recurring due date into the task name using natural language, like every Monday or every other week.

The smart Quick Add will automatically recognize, highlight, and add the recurring date to the task.

recurring-dates-web-help-center.png

Quick tip

A date may be a part of a task name rather than a deadline.

For example, for the task Create monthly report, the word monthly is highlighted as a recurring due date. Click or tap the word to un-highlight it. You can also turn off smart date recognition.

Best practices

When adding a recurring due date, follow these best practices to ensure Todoist recognizes and adds it correctly:

  • Place the start date at the end: every 14 days 7am starting 1 Nov
  • Place the due time after the first date: every other Tues 7am starting 1 Nov
  • Specify the days of the week the due date will recur: every mon, tues, wed, and fri

    Todoist doesn't support every day except as a recurring due date.

Examples of recurring due dates

There are so many options when it comes to creating a recurring due date. Let's start with basic examples:

Type thisTo add this recurring due date
every day or dailyEvery day starting from today
every morningEvery day at 9am
every afternoonEvery day at 12pm
every eveningEvery day at 7pm
every nightEvery day at 10pm
every weekday or every workdayEvery Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
every week or weeklyEvery week starting today
every weekendEvery Saturday
every month or monthlyEvery month starting today
every 3rd fridayEvery 3rd Friday of the month
every 27th or every 27Every 27th of the month
every year or yearlyEvery year starting today
every jan 27thEvery January 27th
every last dayEvery last day of the month
every hourEvery hour starting from now

Note

If you schedule your recurring task for every day, your task will set its next due date based on the date you complete the task. This means that if your task was due yesterday and you complete it today, the task will not move to today. It will instead move to tomorrow's date.

You can use natural language to schedule a recurring task with a start and end date:

Type thisTo add this recurring due date
every day starting aug 3Every day starting on August 3 (from aug 3 also works)
every day ending aug 3Every day starting today and ending on August 3 (until aug 3 also works)
every day for 3 weeksEvery day for the next 3 weeks starting today
every day from 10 May until 20 MayEvery day starting May 10th ending May 20th

Quick tip

You can learn more about start dates here.

Type thisTo add this recurring due date

every 12 hours starting at 9pm

Every day at 9am and 9pm

every mon, fri at 20:00

Every Monday and Friday at 20:00

every 3rd friday 8pm

Every 3rd Friday of the month at 8pm

every 6 weeks at 09:00 starting jan 3

Every 6 weeks starting on January 3rd, at 9am

every fri at noon

Every Friday at 12pm

every mon in the morning

Every Monday at 9am

in the evening every weds

Every Wednesday at 7pm

Note

Tasks with due times can't be set independently for each recurring day. This means that if you create a task with the due date every Monday, Friday at 8pm, both the Monday and Friday recurrence will be scheduled for 8pm.

Type thisTo add this recurring due date

every monday, friday or ev monday, friday or every mon, fri

Every Monday and Friday

every 2, 15, 27 or ev 2, 15, 27

Every 2nd, 15th & 27th of the month

every 14 jan, 14 apr, 15 jun, 15 sep

Every January 14th, April 14th, June 15th & September 15th

every 15th workday, first workday, last workday

Every 15th workday, every first and every last workday of a month

every 1st wed jan, 3rd thu jul

1st Wednesday of each January and 3rd Thursday of each July

You can create a recurring task that repeats at regular intervals from either the original task date or from the task's completed date by using every or every!, respectively. Here's how:

  • Every: Completing a task that has a due date of every 3 months will set the task’s due date to 3 months from the task's original date. So if you created a task on January 10th with a due date of every 3 months, it will recur on Jan 10, Apr 10, July 10, etc regardless of when you complete the task. 
  • Every!: When you complete a task with a due date of every! 3 months, it will set the next due date to 3 months after the day you completed the task. So if you completed the task on January 20th, the next occurrence of the task will be April 20th. 

Here are some examples of recurring due dates that use every or every!:

Type thisTo add this recurring due date

every 3 days

Every 3 days starting today

every first workday

Every first working day (Mon to Fri) of the month

every last workday

Every last working day (Mon to Fri) of the month

every 3 workday

Every 3rd work day (mon-Fri only) from today

every quarter or quarterly

Every 3 months starting from today

every! 3 hours

Every 3 hours from the time the task is completed

every! 5 days

Every 5 days from the day on which the task is completed, starting today

every! 2 months

Every 2 months from the day on which the task is completed, starting today

after 10 daysOnce the due date is entered, it will change to every! 10 days effective from today

after 10 days starting 1 Aug

Once the due date is entered, it will change to every! 10 days effective from August 1

Warning

Every week is a dynamic recurring due date. This means that the task is scheduled according to when you last completed the task.

  • For example, if you complete a recurring task that has the due date every week on a Monday, the task will be scheduled for the following Monday. If you complete the task on a Tuesday, the task will be scheduled for the following Tuesday.

Todoist will only schedule recurring tasks on future dates. If your recurring task is overdue past the date the task was next due to occur, Todoist will schedule the next occurrence on the next future recurring date when you complete the task.

  • For example, if you create a task with the due date every 3 months starting from 15 Jan 2023 and you complete the task on 19 September 2023, Todoist will schedule  the next occurrence of the task to 15 October 2023, because 15 April 2023 and 15 July 2023 have already passed.

Type thisTo add this recurring due date

every other day

Every other day starting from today

every other week

Every other week starting from today

every other month

Every other month starting from today

every other year

Every other year starting from today

every other fri

Every other Friday, starting with the second Friday from now (and not the next upcoming Friday)

Tasks that need to be done on holidays can be specified using these respective keywords:

Type thisTo add this recurring due date
new year dayJanuary 1
valentine or Valentine's DayFebruary 14
halloweenOctober 31
new year eveDecember 31

Note

Thanksgiving used to be included in the natural language, but was removed as some countries, e.g. Canada, celebrate on dates differing to the US.

Special thanks to our Todoist ambassador Leighton Price for providing examples for this article.

Complete a task with a recurring due date

To complete a task with a recurring due date, click or tap the circle icon beside the task.

When the task is completed, the due date automatically updates to the next recurrence. Upcoming recurrences aren't visible in Todoist.

However, when a task with a recurring due date is manually rescheduled, it skips all occurrences between now and when the task is manually scheduled.

Here's an example:

Imagine today is November 1, 2000, and a task is due every December 1st.

If it's rescheduled to January 5th, and completed before or on that new due date, this completes the next occurrence. The next occurrence from January 5th is December 1, 2001.

The task is now due on December 1, 2002.

Completed tasks with recurring due dates won't appear in the list of completed tasks in a project, but they are logged in the Activity Log.

FAQ

No. If you schedule your recurring task for every! day or every day, your task will set its next due date based on the date you complete the task. This means that if your task was due yesterday and you complete it today, the task will not move to today. It will instead move to tomorrow's date.

Yes, but only if you're adding due dates with the same pattern. For example, every Monday, Tuesday.

You can't add recurring due dates using more than one every or with a different recurring pattern. For example, every Monday every 1 hour won't work.

It’s not possible to see all upcoming recurrences of a task in Todoist. This is because a recurring task is a single task with a shifting due date, rather than multiple separate tasks.

For example, if you create a task, Clean the house, and set the due date to monthly on the 28th, the task will be scheduled for the 28th of this month. When the task is completed, the due date is shifted to the next recurring date - in this case, the 28th of the next month.

Unfortunately, you can’t uncomplete a recurring task that has been completed.

There is one exception. Right after completing a single instance of a recurring task, you can undo the completion using the undo option at the bottom of Todoist. The recurring task’s date will shift back to whatever it was before you completed it.

Please note that the option to undo a completed task will only last a few seconds.

You can do this by scheduling the task for multiple days in a week and including a specific end date, too.

For example, if you want to schedule a task for this Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, you can simply set the due date to every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday ending Saturday. The task won't recur anymore after Saturday.

To postpone a recurring task, use the task scheduler by right-clicking (Web, Windows, macOS) or swiping left (iOS, Android) and pick a new date from there.

Note

If you type out a new date for a recurring task, you will completely change the task's due date and lose the recurrence. 

Yes, you can! Here's how.

You can view all the recurring tasks on your account by either searchingrecurring or using recurring as a filter query.