Recurring Tasks
Some things need to happen on a schedule — not just once, but again and again. Paying rent. Refilling a prescription. Checking the stock tank. Recurring tasks are ATEND's answer to that layer of life: a task that generates itself automatically, surfaces at the right time, and gets out of your head between occurrences.
What a recurring task is
A recurring task is built from two records. The template holds the permanent settings — the title, the recurrence pattern, the anchor mode, the lead time. It never appears in the Launchpad and is never completed directly. The instance is the concrete occurrence for a specific due date. It behaves exactly like any other active task, is scored by the fit score, appears in the Now list, and is what you actually complete.
At any point in time, exactly one instance per template is either active or pending in your task pool. There's never a pile-up. When you complete an instance, the next one is generated automatically from the template. When an instance is missed, it's archived and the next one is generated anyway — the recurrence doesn't skip or double.
Setting up a recurring task
Recurring tasks are created through the same inbox processing flow as regular tasks — choose "Task" as the fate, fill in the eight standard fields, then a ninth step appears: "How often does this repeat?"
The frequency options are presented in plain language — you never see recurrence rule syntax:
After frequency, two more questions: anchor mode and lead time. These are the most important decisions in recurring task setup, and they're worth understanding.
Anchor mode — calendar or completion
The anchor mode question is: "When does the next one come due — based on the calendar date, or based on when you last completed it?"
Use for: bills, medication refills with fixed schedules, registration renewals, anything tied to a specific calendar position.
Use for: oil changes, equipment inspections, periodic reviews, anything where the interval from last completion matters more than the calendar position.
When in doubt, use calendar-anchored. It's the right choice for most recurring tasks. Completion-anchored is specifically for maintenance tasks where "90 days since last completion" is what actually matters — not "the 15th of every month."
Lead time — when it appears
Lead time is how many days before the due date the task becomes visible in the Launchpad. Before the lead time window opens, the instance exists in the database with a status of pending but is completely invisible — it doesn't affect your task list, your fit score, or anything else. On the lead time date, the status shifts to active and the task enters the pool like any other.
The default is three days. You set lead time per task during setup. Some rough guidelines:
| Task type | Suggested lead time |
|---|---|
| Daily habits | 0 days — due date and active date are the same |
| Weekly recurring | 1–2 days |
| Monthly bills and obligations | 3–7 days |
| Quarterly tasks | 14 days |
| Annual renewals | 30 days |
Getting lead time right matters for two reasons. Too short and you might miss the task or feel rushed. Too long and the task clutters your active pool for weeks before it's actually relevant. "Annual vehicle registration" appearing 30 days out is useful — it gives you time to gather the paperwork, budget the fee, and handle it without urgency. Appearing 3 days out might already be too late if the DMV lines are long.
What happens when you miss one
When a recurring task instance passes its due date plus its grace period without being completed, it's marked missed and moved to the archive. The system sends one notification — not repeated: "[Task] was due [N] days ago. The next one is due [date]."
The next instance is generated immediately, on the correct next date per the recurrence pattern. Nothing about the recurrence is disrupted. In calendar-anchor mode, the missed instance doesn't shift the future schedule at all — rent due May 1st is still due May 1st whether you paid April's on time or not.
A missed instance can be retroactively marked done from the archive if you actually did the thing but forgot to log it. This is common for tasks that happen automatically in the background — a bill on autopay, a prescription that auto-refills. Mark it done; the archive gets corrected and your completion record stays honest.
The grace period is set automatically based on the task's stakes — you don't set it yourself. Relational and functional tasks get a 1-day grace period; the system treats them as genuinely time-sensitive. Personal tasks get 3 days. This means a task affecting someone else is marked missed quickly, while a task only affecting you has a little more room before it's archived.
Editing a recurring task
From the task detail view, tap the recurrence indicator to open recurrence settings. Any change you make prompts a decision:
This is the same two-option convention used by Google Calendar for recurring events — most people find it immediately intuitive.
Switching anchor mode from calendar to completion (or vice versa) applies only to future instances — it changes how the next due date is computed after the current instance is completed. The current instance's due date doesn't change. This is "all future instances" territory, not "this instance only."
Stopping a recurrence
From the task detail view → recurrence indicator → "Stop repeating." Two options:
Viewing and managing all recurring tasks
The task list view has a "Recurring" filter that shows all your active recurring templates — their titles, next due dates, lead times, and the status of their current instance. This is a management view, not a daily-use view. You'd come here to audit what you have, check when things are next due, or make bulk changes to lead times or frequencies.
From the recurring list, you can tap into any template's settings directly — changing frequency, anchor mode, lead time, or stopping the recurrence entirely. You can also see the full history of past instances: which were completed, which were missed, and when.
The recurring task list is worth reviewing once in a while — not frequently, but periodically. Over time, recurring tasks accumulate. Some stop being relevant. Some need their lead times adjusted as your life changes. A monthly glance at what's in the recurring pool keeps it clean and honest.