Todoist recurring tasks: why does the next date move?

A repeating task can follow a scheduled interval or its completion date. Todoist distinguishes every from every!, but daily and weekly rules have exceptions. Recurrence is available on Beginner, Pro and Business. Source: Recurring dates.

For a fixed weekday, use an explicit rule such as every Monday. For an interval after finishing, use every! with the interval. The documentation contrasts every 3 months with every! 3 months: the former follows the original schedule, the latter the completion date. Source: Recurring dates.

Daily recurrence advances from completion; an overdue daily task completed today moves to tomorrow. The introduction also describes every week as completion-based. Overdue recurring tasks advance to a future occurrence rather than replaying each missed date. Do not treat every as always fixed. Source: Recurring dates.

Completing a recurring task keeps it in its project with a new date. Today is the view for tasks due today. The completion guide says each completion is recorded in Reporting rather than placing the repeating task in the project’s completed-task list. Source: Complete recurring task.

The two official guides are not fully aligned on manual rescheduling. The introduction distinguishes fixed-date and relative patterns, while the completion guide describes recalculation from completion and warns that occurrences may be skipped. For a date you cannot miss, inspect the next occurrence after changing it. The completion guide suggests keeping the recurring parent date and using earlier sub-tasks for preparation. This guide does not resolve the documentation discrepancy through an account test. Sources: Recurring dates; Complete recurring task.

Beginner is free and lists five personal projects and one week of activity history. Pro lists calendar layout and full reporting history. These may affect how you view and review work, but recurrence itself is available on all three plans. A reliable paid price and selected currency were not visible in the official pricing text checked on October 15, 2026. Check your billing channel before purchasing. Sources: Pricing; Recurring dates.

First decide whether the task belongs to a calendar day or needs a gap after completion. Name that intention in the task description. Then try the proposed rule on a disposable task, check the recognized date, complete it and inspect the next date. If you need an audit trail for every missed obligation, decide how those omissions will be recorded separately. This is a suggested workflow, not evidence of an experiment we performed.

Imagine a team review that must happen on Mondays and a personal follow-up that should happen several days after you finish the previous one. These are different scheduling requirements even if both feel “weekly.” Agree on the requirement before choosing syntax. If a colleague inherits the task, include that requirement in its description so they do not silently substitute a different recurrence. This example is illustrative, not a measured productivity outcome.