Loop templates

Monthly life admin checklist

Life admin is the work nobody schedules: checking statements, chasing bills, filing letters. It tends to wait for a free afternoon that never comes, then happens all at once in a panic. This checklist breaks it into four jobs of about 30 minutes, one per weekend, so each one comes back roughly once a month.

The checklist

  1. Statements — go through last month's bank and card statements. Flag anything you don't recognise.
  2. Bills and direct debits — check what went out, what is due next, and whether any price went up.
  3. Budget check — compare spending with your plan, move money to savings, adjust next month's numbers.
  4. Paperwork — scan or file letters, receipts and payslips; shred what you no longer need to keep.

Extras that come round less often:

  • Review subscriptions — every third bills job, so about once a quarter: cancel what you don't use.
  • Back up phone and documents — every third paperwork job.
  • Check the rent or mortgage went out — on the 1st of every month.

Why a loop instead of a checklist

Four admin jobs on one "admin day" is two hours you'll keep postponing. As a loop, you get one job per weekend, in order. Skip a weekend and nothing doubles up: the next Saturday simply serves the next job. Each one still comes back every four weeks.

Set it up in DoLoop

  1. Create a loop called Monthly admin, type Schedule, and tick Saturday under Active Days. The loop now only moves on Saturdays.
  2. Add the four jobs above as tasks, in that order, with the details in each description.
  3. Add Review subscriptions as a Subtask of Bills and direct debits, Every N occurrences = 3. Add Back up phone and documents the same way under Paperwork.
  4. Add Check the rent went out as a Schedule task with the cron preset for the 1st of the month (0 9 1 * *). Under If Missed choose Reschedule (keep armed), so it waits for you instead of disappearing.
  5. On Saturday, press Fill the todo!. Today's Tasks shows this week's admin job.
  6. Check it when done, or Abort to skip it. Either way, next Saturday brings the next job.

What DoLoop doesn't do (yet)

DoLoop doesn't connect to your bank, read your bills or send reminders. It holds the order of the jobs and shows you the next one when you press Fill the todo!. If you don't open it on a Saturday, that week's job waits for the next Saturday. There's no one-click import of this template; setup is the steps above.

Setting up this loop takes a few minutes.

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