Is there a way to set recurring tasks (daily, every Wednesday etc) in #NextCloud tasks?

#AskFedi

Because if there isn't I am developing a very strong suspicion that NextCloud developers aren't the ones who do the housework in their households

If any @nextcloud developers happen to be reading this and want a feminist perspective, actually especially if they're reading and don't want a feminist perspective: there are two types of tasks, one off achievement tasks like build a website, write an article, paint a room where once it's done it's done, and recurring maintenance tasks: do the laundry, change the sheets, water the plants.

The first type is the one that tends to get celebrated, awarded and rewarded, the second type are necessary for everyone to stay healthy and everything to keep ticking over, to create an environment in which the first type that impresses everyone can happen. At home we call these housework or care work, in a professional context we call them routine maintenance or "glue"

Guess which one usually gets handed to which gender. Men tend to get the one off high profile, highly regarded tasks (build the shed or the kitchen or the database), women tend to get the recurring tasks (clean the house, make sure the invoices are paid on time) that don't get the respect the one off tasks get but without which the big one off projects couldn't happen.

If you build a task manager without the facility to do recurring tasks that tells me a) you're not the one doing the recurring maintenance tasks and b) you either don't recognise the importance of maintenance tasks or you haven't even noticed that they're being done around you to allow you to do the big one off production of a European open source task manager, say.

Come on, it's 2026. Do better men. And it is mostly men.

@afewbugs

I just checked on the latest NextCloud. Nope, no support for recurring tasks at all.

The Calendar, however, has support for repeating an event daily, weekly, multiple times a week, on a day of the month, or annually. And the notes field is about the equal of the Tasks description field.

It doesn't let you mark it as completed, though, or assign it to someone else.

Next I'll look in whatever they have for project management.

@dashdsrdash @afewbugs Recurring tasks (as opposed to recurring calendar events) is probably the one feature I *really* miss in Nextcloud. Yes you can kinda-sorta work around it with calendar events, but *really?*

Even the most basic version, like "repeat X days/weeks/months after completion/original due date", would probably cater to the upper 90s % of the need. On mark as completed, create a new one and copy that metadata. It *shouldn't* be all that difficult, and it *would* be *very* useful!

@mkj @dashdsrdash @afewbugs and it sounds like since the calendar app already handles this, maybe adding it to the task app would mean "just" sharing the code?

Oh and before anyone says "Oh but women are good at recurring maintenance tasks because they're naturally good at multitasking": 1) saying this will earn you a block. 2) No, we're not, we had to learn to be. That's why I need a task manager to tell me to keep on top of things like that. If you're willing to put in your share of the work to maintain a healthy, functional environment both at home and at work you can learn too

See also: "But women naturally notice mess and dirt in a way men don't." No, women learn to notice because we're shamed for not noticing and keeping on top of things in a way men aren't. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0049124119852395

So we've strayed a very long way from Nextcloud's task manager, but the older I get the more I see "Who does the dishes after the revolution?" as one of the first questions that should be asked in any progressive space. I've seen at permaculture camps where the men wander off to form a drumming circle while the women set up the cooking rotas and compost station. I've seen it at the meetings where the men stand up and give inspiring speeches while the women organise drinks and take the minutes

Hell I even see it in queer spaces where the women, femmes and enbies are the ones organising booking the venue and bringing home made cake after checking everyone's dietary requirements in advance. The first step towards dividing the tasks that bring the glory and the tasks that just have to be done up fairly is just noticing how they're divided now

@afewbugs

Ah, replied to a post which was removed before I could press reply. Anyway, here's the comment:

I think, to some degree and in a work environment, it's also because maintenance tasks and day to day operations stuff is not typically valued in an organization. Some people - and they're often men - don't do work which won't get them recognition from higher-ups.

I say this as someone who prefers to do maintenance work and operations stuff, and who likes to clean up and make sure my area of responsibility is in tip top shape even where people don't typically look.

But most people don't think about the cleanup and maintenance phase of an IT project, so they leave their mess everywhere. Which is frankly somewhere between annoying and infuriating.

@mdione Even better (and I was unaware of this), apparently the backend already supports the necessary functionality https://help.nextcloud.com/t/repeating-tasks/225106/18 so really *all* that would be needed is some form of user interface support.

Which makes it even weirder that this hasn't been implemented despite it being a highly requested feature for *years*.

Come on @nextcloud, what's the hold-up!? I'd happily throw some money into the pot too if we can get this feature.

@dashdsrdash @afewbugs

#Nextcloud

@afewbugs

https://donetick.com/ is self-hostable and very specifically aimed at managing housework. Also US-based though

@afewbugs the web interface doesn't have the ability, but some clients do. i use @jtx, but due to the lack of support in the web interface i don't use recurring tasks at all (and i would really love to). while for some it might be ok to just use a compatible client, for me it's not enough if it doesn't work in the web interface

@afewbugs @jtx tbh i've been able to keep track of my recurring tasks in my mind, but it really sucks. also for things like taking medicine on a regular schedule it would be so great to have recurring tasks

@kate @afewbugs if it helps you can create a recurring task in jtx Board and set it up as you wish. You can then click on "detach all instances", this would take all recurrences and make standalone entries out of them. These entries should then also show up in Nextcloud. However, keep in mind that the series is gone and you can't update all instances in one go anymore.

@qwwerty @afewbugs looks like it can be self-hosted: https://github.com/donetick/donetick