Recurring Objects

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I would like to create multiple objects in a Set with frequency over a period of time. It would be useful with some existing objects :

  • tasks (a task I need to do every week),
  • goal,
  • event : I have meeting every week and I would like to generate all the events for the entire year.
  • etc.

Describe the solution you’d like

  • when I create a set, a workflow could help me to create multiple objets with frequency criteria (every day, every weeks, etc.).

A startDate and an endDate are necessaries.

Describe alternatives you’ve considered

Formulas could be helpfull to modify automatically the due date of an object :

https://thomasjfrank.com/how-to-create-recurring-tasks-repeat-due-dates-in-notion/

I think this would be an amazing feature for people trying to build routines and people who are systems-oriented looking to create recurring tasks/projects on a daily/weekly/monthly cadence. The #1 reason I left Notion was because I had to use Integromat/Make to create recurring tasks. Everything else was great (and I think AnyType has the potential to be even greater), but I’m so reliant on whatever task manager I’m using and there are so many things that happen for me on a recurring basis that I just forget. If AnyTime had an intuitive way to create recurring tasks, that would be absolutely game-changing!!

I think this is a great idea to have the option of recurring/repeating tasks for appointments for example with a certain frequency of occurrence. It’ll be great to have the option not only of the traditional monthly weekly daily but also custom frequency.

Does anyone know what the status of this feature request is?

Alternative idea, instead of having an object automatically created on a schedule (like notion’s recurring templates), allow dates to have a “repeating” option. This would be more similar to how e.g. Google Calendar handles repeating events/tasks, and is imo more anytype-ish and less notion-clone-wannabe-ish ;-). Though I can see value in both methods, and they wouldn’t be mutually exclusive.

This is my number 1 missing feature. I want to be able to make objects behave differently based on their dates, and intervals related to said dates.

The more options the better.

Can you please describe your particular use case for this feature please. More robust and clear will be the description more user centric and helpful will be the implementation. And also it will help us to understand this particular need better :nerd_face:

One way to avoid generating too many objects could be to allow the “rules” to be set, but only create the actual objects once they need to be actually used/edited.

For example, for this case:

When the user requests this, Anytype doesn’t have to actually create all the objects. Instead, it adds this as a “rule” to the object list.

This means that, despite no objects having been created, all of them could still show, either within Sets or as Search results. As soon as the user clicks to enter/edit the object, then it’s actually created

Of course, I have no idea how Anytype implements objects, so maybe this isn’t viable. Just an idea.

Maybe this would be overkill for situations like the example above (there aren’t that many weeks in a year). But it would allow for rules with no expiry date (ex: 1 meeting a week forever).

Don’t forget annual and quarterly objects! This would work best with the future calendar feature, but implementing it on tasks could work, too.

Use case: bill reminders, birthdays, habit tracking, etc.

I’m thinking a reccurence rule/setting could be added for task objects. If you choose ‘once a week’, then once that task is checked off, a copy will be made and assigned for the following week.

Of course other settings need to be considered: recurrence limit, do you generate all tasks at once, assigning dates vs. generating new object only when task is completed, etc.

@ignatovv I think we can take a learning from how recurring/repeating tasks work in Microsoft To Do as outlined in the last section of this support article: Add due dates and reminders in Microsoft To Do - Microsoft Support

When creating a new Task in MS To Do you can set a Repeat option (Daily, Weekdays, weekly, Monthly, Yearly, or Custom). When you mark the Task as done, a new Task is automatically created with a new Due Date based on the recurrence configured in the Repeat option. This would ensure there is not an (endless) list of Tasks created immediately upon creating a first recurring Task (or in Anytype an Object of Type Task/Note/etc.), but only when relevant.

In the case of MS To Do, there is NO new Task created if the open Task is not marked as complete. This will be an issue in Anytype as everyone might use their own way to mark a Task done, and for certain repeating/recurring Objects, it is irrelevant to mark the Object as “Done”. Therefore, I can imagine that it is best to only actually generate the Objects that are within x iterations of the recurrence setting (either a fixed number or something dynamic, for example, only the next 4 Objects when set to daily, only next 4 when set to Weekly, only next 12 when set to Monthly, only next 4 when set to Quarterly, only next 2 if set to Yearly). I think it could be part of the “startup script” of Anytype to check upon starting whether there are new versions of the software available, and whether there are new recurring tasks that need to be created (and possibly other things that are not relevent for this feature to work).

Great one we definitely will return to this discussion when we will revamp habits/daily routines functionality

@ignatovv Around when do you think that’s going to happen?

No ETA for today. It will depend on our bigger picture strategic plans we are working on in the moment. I think timing will be more clear after public release :pray:

Hello, i think it will be a good part of owr best app to have a an automated recurring tasks like other task apps (todoist, google task, taskade…and there are a tricks in notion to ti do this)
If it is possible it will be a game changer

thanks for posting! But read the instructions as to wether a bug or request is already posted in the community. As for your request, it has already been asked:

Since this topic doesn’t seem to have a development status tag, can we get update from the devs on the status? Specifically, is this going to make it into the polish for use cases that’s coming in the next quarter?

I’m so excited for this. I’ve started doing my daily planning on Anytype. Calendar view has been such a great help. I’m currently creating tasks everyday, but it would be such a timesaver if I could have recurring tasks/meetings and just link it to my agenda. Has this request gained any traction with the dev team?

I want to reply and voice my support for this idea.

For me, even greater flexibility than just repeated dates would be amazing. For instance, I might have something that needs to be worked on sporadically, and I want it to show up on my calendar, so when I am planning out my semester (in academics) then I can see what I am getting myself into.

For instance, I might need to work on generating quizzes. This could be a single object, because I want to keep all the quiz ideas in the same page. I want to work on the quizzes 5 days before they are assigned. But, due to the nature of my course, I don’t have quizzes every week, or really in a regular pattern. Thus, it would be great if I could just add all 10 dates that I will need to work on the quizzes at once.

Also, there may be times that I need a block of time to work on things. For instance, I might have a grant that I want to write. Usually, I block off about a week to do this. So it would be nice to be able to just assign a range of dates to an object.

I don’t think you need new objects/relations for this. It might be required do to the nature of Anytype, but I don’t need it. Instead, I would think something where you simple add reminders to pages for this day would be nice.

Language like /reminder{date, date, date} would be good, where you could just add multiple dates in a row, or even ranges /reminder{date–date}. If language like this could be used, it would be incredible as a planning tool.

Hi @BenLear you might be interested in this FR:

Would love that feature as well! I’m using the following workaround at the moment:

I have a set ‘Next Actions’ with query ‘Object Type: Task’ and 2 views:

  • All
  • Recurring

For every new task in ‘Next Actions’, I add a Do date’ (not Due date) and ‘Smart list’ tag ‘Next Actions’.

For Recurring tasks, I add a second ‘Smart list’ tag ‘Recurring’.

My view ‘All’ has 3 filters:

  • Smart list has any of Next Actions
  • Done is unchecked
  • Do date is within current month

My view ‘Recurring’ has 2 filters:

  • Smart list has all of Next Actions and Recurring
  • Do date is within current month

This way, I can mark a Recurring task as ‘Done’ in my view ‘All’, so it disappears from the list.

The task remains visible in my view ‘Recurring’ and is marked as done. Now I only have to change the Due date to whatever I want and uncheck Done, so the task appears again in my view ‘All’, as long as the ‘Do date’ is within the current month or whatever timeframe you pick.

Not ideal, but does the trick for now :slight_smile:

This would be so good. I’ve just started using anytype and it’s so close to perfect but this is the only thing blocking me being able to migrate my to do lists into the app