Recurring tasks in Todoist and TickTick, and how a loop differs

Todoist and TickTick both handle recurring tasks well. They repeat one task on a date: rent on the 1st, the recycling every other Wednesday. DoLoop's loop works differently. It is an ordered list of different tasks that you work through in turn, with no date to miss. This page explains how each one works, so you can pick the one that fits your work, or use both.

How Todoist repeats a task

You type the rule into the task name: every Monday, every 3 months, every last workday. Todoist offers two modes. With every, the next date counts from the original date. With every!, it counts from the day you complete the task. Todoist only schedules recurring tasks on future dates. If you complete a task very late, the next date moves forward to a future day rather than leaving another overdue copy. Postpone moves the task to its next occurrence. Complete forever ends the recurrence. A recurring parent task can also reset its sub-tasks each time you complete it. [1][2]

How TickTick repeats a task

You choose a rule under Date & Repeat: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or custom. A custom rule can repeat by due date, by completion date or on specific dates you pick. A repeat can end on a date or after a set number of times. You can also skip one occurrence of a recurring task. TickTick also has a separate habit tracker. [3][4]

What a loop does differently

A loop holds several tasks in a fixed order, for example bedroom window → kitchen window → living-room window → bathroom window. Only one task per loop is armed at a time, meaning it is that task's turn.

  • Check it, and its counter goes up and the next window becomes the next task.
  • Abort it ("not this time"), and the skip is recorded. The loop still moves on, so a skipped task never holds up the tasks behind it.
  • When you reach the end, the loop wraps and starts again at the first task.

You can run many loops side by side, such as windows, kitchen and garden, and each one gives you only its next task. Arming is a manual pass: you decide when to pull in what's due. DoLoop never fills your list on its own. A subtask can come up only every 3rd, 5th or 10th time you complete its parent, like a deep clean that comes along with every fifth quick one. DoLoop has no streaks, so a missed week leaves nothing to break.

DoLoop also has ordinary date-based tasks. If you miss one, you choose whether it stays armed or gets dropped.

The same chore in each app

Say you want to clean one window a week across six windows. In a date-based app, you might create six tasks that each repeat every 6 weeks, with start dates one week apart. If you skip a week, those six dates don't move, so you either catch up or reschedule. In a loop, the next window waits until you get to it. Pausing for two weeks doesn't leave a pile of overdue tasks.

When Todoist or TickTick fits better

  • Date-bound work: bills, birthdays, renewals, anything with a real deadline.
  • Reminders and phone apps: both have native mobile apps and reminders [5]. DoLoop is web-only today. Mobile apps are planned, with no date set.
  • Wider features: calendar views, and TickTick's habit tracker and timers. DoLoop doesn't try to be an all-in-one planner.

When a loop fits better

  • Rotations with no natural date: chores by room, a reading list, practice drills, maintenance rounds.
  • Work where "the next one, whenever I get to it" matters more than "every Tuesday".
  • Skipping without penalty or a pile of overdue tasks.
  • Running recurring work from an AI assistant. DoLoop has a public API and an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor, in early access.

DoLoop is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Chinese.

Using both

Many people keep date-bound tasks in their main to-do app and put their rotations in loops. The two approaches don't conflict.

Sources

Competitor features checked on 2026-11-02 against the vendors' own help pages. Features change, so check the current page before you decide.

  1. Todoist Help, "Introduction to recurring dates": https://www.todoist.com/help/todoist/features/introduction-to-recurring-dates-YUYVJJAV
  2. Todoist Help, "Complete a task with a recurring date": https://www.todoist.com/help/todoist/features/complete-a-task-with-a-recurring-date-dmI6SVqdP
  3. TickTick Help, "Set Up Recurring Tasks": https://help.ticktick.com/articles/7055782206349770752
  4. TickTick Help, "FAQ" (skip the recurrence; habits): https://help.ticktick.com/articles/7055792921664028672
  5. Todoist Help, "Introduction to reminders": https://www.todoist.com/help/todoist/features/introduction-to-reminders-9PezfU

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