Reminder for task missed when unable to check GTDN on due date

question
#1

Quick question about the reminder feature. I understand that repeat tasks appear in “Today” on the date they are due, but is there a way to make sure they stay there until they are done, or dismissed? I have been ill for the past couple of days, and so unable to check GTDN. When I logged in today, I noticed that there was nothing to remind me about the few tasks that were set for yesterday (which, of course, remain undone). In other words, it looks as though, if I hadn’t remembered them and noticed their absence, those tasks would have stayed tucked away, unless I happened to stumble across them. And because they would never have been completed, the repeat wouldn’t ever have kicked in again.

How can I stop this happening again, please? The whole point of GTD, after all, is to have a foolproof reminder system so that I DON’T have to remember things. I’m new to GTDN so I’m sure I’m missing something, but would be grateful for a pointer in the right direction.

Thanks!

#2

HI Becki - You are correct the today view does’t show past day’s due events. The best way to see those and make sure you don’t miss any is to either look in the next action list and click the fire icon or the the “Projects and Actions” list and click the fire icon to filter to just the due items.

I think this is your best bet to make sure you don’t miss any “due” items.

Hope that helps!
James

#3

Thanks James.

That would, indeed, be a useful workaround. However, I’ve just tested it out by creating a new recurring task with a due date of today and a daily repeat. I have not yet ticked today’s occurence as “done”. The “project” thus created shows up with a fire icon in the Projects and Actions list, and states in purple that it is “due today”. However, neither the project itself nor today’s “to do” are visible in my “Today” list. Today’s individual occurrence, created by GTDN when I scheduled the task as recurring, does not contain a “due date”, and does not display the fire icon. The title of today’s occurence of this test task includes today’s date in the item title, but nowhere else.

I’ve checked other recurring tasks that I’ve set up, with repeat occurrences due today. Interestingly, they only display the fire icon when there is a due date set in the main task (that is, the one that GTDN turns into a project). In all cases, they are showing in red as overdue, despite the fact that the recurring instances have been ticked off as having been done. If I remove the due date, the fire icon disappears, despite there being an instance of the task due today. The only way I can see to have the fire icon is to add a due date to each individual recurrence once it is generated. This seems to me to be an unnecessary waste of time - if I wanted to have to do that, I could just create a new task each time I complete one, rather than setting up a recurring task.

What I’m finding, therefore, is that I can’t have recurring tasks in my “Today” list, even when they are due today. I can find them in my “Projects and Actions” list, by filtering on the fire icon, but only if I am content to have lots of unwarranted “Overdue” warnings shouting at me. Is this what is intended? It seems a bit odd, if it is.

My original question supposed that recurring tasks would appear in my “Today” list on the day they were due, but it seems that my assumption was wrong, and that they never appear in the “Today” list at all. Is it right that recurring tasks should not appear in the “Today” list, even when they are actually due today? I appreciate that I can go to the Projects and Actions list and find the task in there by filtering on the fire icon (subject to what is said in my previous paragraph), but that is an extra step to think of, and I would have expected the “Today” list to be a complete reflection of everything due today. I’m thinking I must have done something wrong, but honestly can’t see what. Surely I don’t have to go into each recurring task and set a due date individually?

Any advice gratefully appreciated, thanks.

Becki