How to Set a Recurring Task in Asana (2026 Guide)
Recurring tasks are the difference between “weekly status report” being a real habit and being a thing you keep meaning to set up. Asana supports flexible recurrence, daily, weekly, monthly, custom days, and “after completion” patterns, and it’s available on every plan including Personal.
Here’s how to set them up in 2026, including the difference between scheduled recurrence and after-completion recurrence (which trips up most people).
How to Set a Recurring Task
The recurrence settings live on the due date field of any task. The flow is the same for tasks inside a project, in My Tasks, and on mobile (with a slightly different layout).
Web and desktop
- Click any task to open its detail pane.
- Click the Due date field (top of the task pane).
- In the date picker, set a due date if there isn’t one yet.
- Click Set to repeat (some views show a recurrence icon, a small circular arrow, instead).
- Choose a recurrence pattern (covered in the next section).
- Click Done.
- Save by clicking outside the task. A recurrence icon now appears next to the due date.
Mobile (iOS and Android)
- Tap the task to open it.
- Tap Due date.
- Tap Set to repeat.
- Pick a pattern and tap Done.
The behavior is identical across platforms, recurrence set on web shows up on mobile and vice versa.
Recurrence Options Explained
Asana gives you five recurrence patterns. The right one depends on whether the task has a strict cadence, a flexible one, or depends on the previous instance finishing.
Periodically
Repeats at a regular interval measured in days, weeks, months, or years. Use this for tasks where the gap matters more than the calendar date: for example, “every 30 days” rather than “the 1st of every month.”
Weekly
Repeats on specific days of the week. You can pick one day or several. A weekly recurrence on Monday and Thursday creates two instances per week, on those exact days.
Common uses: standups, weekly reports, recurring 1:1s.
Monthly
Repeats once per month, on either:
- A specific date (e.g., the 15th of every month)
- A relative day (e.g., the second Tuesday of every month)
Common uses: invoicing, payroll runs, monthly reviews.
Yearly
Repeats on a specific calendar date once per year. Common uses: annual planning, contract renewals, birthdays.
Custom
Pick exact days of the week and an interval. “Every 2 weeks on Monday and Wednesday” or “every 3 weeks on Friday”, the kind of cadence the standard patterns can’t quite express.
”After Completion” vs. “Recurring on Date”
This is the recurrence setting that causes the most confusion. Both create new instances of the task, but on very different schedules.
Recurring on date (scheduled)
The next instance is created on a fixed schedule, regardless of when you actually finished the current one.
- Use case: Weekly status report due every Monday at 9am. Even if you submit Tuesday, next week’s report is still due Monday.
- What you’ll see: When you complete the task, the next due date is calculated from the previous due date, not the day you completed it.
After completion
The next instance is created only when you mark the current task complete, and the new due date is calculated from the day you completed it.
- Use case: “Follow up with client” every 2 weeks. If you follow up on Wednesday, the next follow-up is due 2 weeks from Wednesday, not 2 weeks from the original due date.
- What you’ll see: A new task is generated only on completion. If you never complete the current one, no new instance is ever created.
A useful way to choose: if missing a deadline should still keep the schedule on track, use on date. If the cadence resets every time you finish, use after completion.
How the Next Instance Is Created
Once recurrence is set, here’s what happens:
- You complete the current task (or the scheduled date passes, depending on mode).
- Asana automatically creates a new task with the same name, description, assignee, custom fields, and subtasks.
- The new task has a new due date based on the recurrence pattern.
- The previous instance stays in your completed list, recurring tasks don’t move forward, they spawn copies.
What carries over to the new instance:
- Task name
- Description (notes)
- Assignee
- Subtasks (re-created as new, incomplete subtasks)
- Custom fields and their values
- Project membership and section
- Followers
- Recurrence settings themselves
What does not carry over:
- Comments and conversation history
- Attachments uploaded directly to the task (links and embeds copy over; uploaded files do not)
- Completed/incomplete status of subtasks (subtasks are reset to incomplete)
- Time logged via integrations
Editing or Stopping a Recurrence
Recurrence settings live on the task itself, not on the series, so editing them affects every future instance.
- Open any instance of the recurring task.
- Click the Due date field.
- Click the recurrence icon (or the words “Repeats every…”).
- Change the pattern, or select Don’t repeat to stop the series.
- Click Done.
Past instances are not affected. If you’ve already accumulated a hundred completed instances, they stay in your archive. To delete the full series, you’d need to remove each completed instance individually, there’s no “delete this whole recurrence” button.
To change the assignee of all future instances, change it on the current instance before completing. The next instance inherits whatever the current one had.
Troubleshooting: Recurring Tasks Not Firing
Recurring tasks usually just work, but a handful of issues come up regularly.
Next instance never appeared. You’re using after completion mode, which only creates a new task when you mark the current one complete. Switch to recurring on date for a fixed schedule.
Task moved to the wrong section. Asana places the new instance in the same section as the previous one. If you moved the previous task to “Done” before completing it, the new task lands there too. Move tasks via the Mark complete button instead.
Subtasks aren’t carrying over. Subtasks do carry over by default. If they’re missing, the parent task may have been duplicated rather than recurred, duplication doesn’t include subtasks unless you check the box.
Custom field values reset. Custom field values do carry over. If they’re empty on new instances, the field was likely added to the project after recurrence was set up. Resave the recurrence by editing the due date.
Recurrence shifted by a day. Almost always a timezone issue. Check Settings > Account > Timezone and make sure it matches your current location.
Recurring tasks in archived projects keep firing. Archiving doesn’t pause recurrence. Set each recurring task to Don’t repeat before archiving. See How to archive a project in Asana for the full workflow.
Quick Reference
| Pattern | Best for | Next instance based on |
|---|---|---|
| Periodically | Flexible cadence (every N days) | Previous due date |
| Weekly | Standups, reports, 1:1s | Previous due date |
| Monthly | Invoicing, reviews | Previous due date |
| Yearly | Annual planning, renewals | Previous due date |
| Custom | Bi-weekly, every 3 weeks, etc. | Previous due date |
| After completion | Follow-ups, dependent tasks | Day you completed |
Recurring Tasks Are a Reminder System, Carly Is the Doer
Asana will faithfully recreate “send the weekly report” every Monday. The work of actually sending it is still on you. Carly is an AI assistant that connects to 200+ apps including Asana and handles the repetitive work for you, turning a recurring task into a recurring action.
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