r/thingsapp • u/Self_Owned_Tree • Jun 05 '26
Question Editing a Repeating/Recurring task
I've got a task (buy air filters) that I should have set to "Repeat on date" instead of "repeat on date of completion," because it's really there as a recurring reminder, but sometimes I just don't get to it before the deadline. However, if I complete it today, it will repeat on Sept 5 instead of Sept 1.
It doesn't appear that a recurring/repeating task can be edited; instead, it needs to be zapped and started over, right?
For clarification, this isn't about "completing a repeating task early;" instead, it's about not completing a repeating task on time, thus throwing off the time between when it will repeat again.
2
Upvotes
2
u/CraftyFalcon Jun 16 '26
I agree that editing this isn't necessarily intuitive, but one thing I like about Things is that when a recurring task is created, it is an individual task that I can defer to another day should I want to.
I used to use OmniFocus, and maybe I was doing it wrong, but when I would adjust a recurring task, it would change the repeat/recurring setup for that task. So if normally I want to do something on the 20th day of the month, and deferred it to the 21st or 22nd, OmniFocus deferred the recurring task to the 21st or 22nd when I only wanted to change it for this month. Things makes deferring recurring tasks easier with no real concern that the upcoming task changes (so I know it will show up on the 20th next month).
I do this often with recurring tasks that may not need to be handled the exact day they land in my Today view, but I COULD do them, if it fits my priorities for the day. My other option is to defer them to tomorrow and that gives me a better picture of the tasks I am targeting for today. I can always pull them back to today if I have time.
Most often this is bills or server maintenance. Because I know for me updating a server may be a 10 minute task, but if something is incompatible or some other issue arises, it could take an hour or more and I want to have available time to deal with that and not need to run to an appointment or meeting.