How to Set Recurring Tasks in Todoist (2026 Guide)
Recurring tasks are the heart of any Todoist workflow — rent, standups, weekly reviews, watering the plants. You don’t set them through a menu of dropdowns; you type the schedule in plain English and Todoist parses it. Here’s the full syntax, the one symbol that changes everything (!), and how to fix recurrences that aren’t behaving.
How to Set a Recurring Task
In Todoist, the due date is the recurrence. Type the schedule right into the task when you add it:
- Press Q (Quick Add) or click Add task.
- Type the task plus the schedule in plain language — e.g.
Team standup every weekday at 9am. - The recurrence phrase turns colored (recognized) and is stripped from the task name.
- Press Enter. The task now shows a circular repeat icon next to its due date.
When you complete the task, Todoist automatically creates the next instance. You never re-create it.
Recurring Date Syntax
Todoist understands a wide range of natural-language schedules. The most useful ones:
| What you type | What it does |
|---|---|
every day | Repeats daily |
every weekday | Monday–Friday only |
every Monday (or every mon) | Weekly on that day |
every Mon, Thu | Multiple days per week |
every 3 days | Every third day |
every other week | Every two weeks |
every 1st | Monthly on the 1st |
every last day | Last day of each month |
every 27th | Monthly on the 27th |
every Jan 15th | Yearly on that date |
every morning / every evening | Daily at 9am / 6pm |
every weekday at 9am | Weekdays with a specific time |
Add a time (at 9am, at 17:00) to get a reminder and to sync the task to your calendar.
every vs. every! — The Difference That Matters
This is the single most important distinction in Todoist recurrences.
everyis absolute.every Fridayalways lands on Friday. If you complete this Friday’s task on Sunday, the next one is still next Friday.every!is completion-based.every! 7 daysschedules the next instance 7 days after you actually check it off — not 7 days after the original due date.
Use every! for chores that only make sense relative to the last time you did them: Change air filter every! 30 days, Deep clean fridge every! 2 weeks. If you skip a few days, the clock starts from when you finish, not from a date you missed.
Use plain every for fixed commitments: rent, payroll, a Monday standup. These should fire on schedule no matter when you tick the previous one.
How to Skip or Postpone One Occurrence
You don’t have to break the recurrence to move a single instance:
- Skip this one: open the task, click the due date, and choose Skip — Todoist jumps to the next scheduled date without completing the current one.
- Postpone: drag the task to a new day, or use Reschedule. This moves only the current instance; the recurrence rule stays intact.
How to Edit or Stop a Recurring Task
To change the schedule, open the task, click the due date, and type a new phrase (every Monday → every other Monday).
To stop the recurrence entirely, click the due date and either set a single fixed date (e.g. Jun 20) or remove the date. The repeat icon disappears and the task becomes a normal one-time task.
Why Your Recurring Task Isn’t Working
The phrase isn’t recognized. If the recurrence text stays black instead of turning colored, Todoist didn’t parse it. Check spelling (every not evry) and avoid burying the phrase mid-sentence — put it at the end.
It repeats on the wrong day. You likely used a completion-based every! when you wanted a fixed every (or vice versa). Re-open the date and swap them.
It generated a pile of overdue copies. That’s a fixed every day/every weekday task you stopped completing — each missed day stacks up. Switch to every! 1 day if you’d rather it wait until you finish before scheduling the next.
Time got dropped. A recurrence like every day has no time, so it won’t trigger a timed reminder. Add at 8am to attach one.
Let the Recurrences Run Themselves
Setting one recurring task is trivial. Keeping a whole system honest — rolling overdue chores forward, nudging the ones with deadlines, syncing the timed ones to your calendar — is the part that quietly eats your attention. Carly is an AI assistant that connects to 200+ apps including Todoist and handles that upkeep for you, so your task list stays current without you babysitting it.
More on Todoist: How to use filters in Todoist · How to use natural language in Todoist · How to connect Todoist to Google Calendar · Todoist alternatives · Best AI agents for productivity
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