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Having a task repeat yearly on the 2nd Sunday in May

rajjan ProPower Poster says:

Several posters have asked for a solution to have yearly reminders (Mother's Day is probably on top of this list ;-)

Actually there is a way to implement this using smart lists and tags (what else is there?) even though RTM doesn't let you repeat yearly:
1 Have the task repeat the way you want, in this case every month on the second sunday. The problem with this is that you will be reminded every month, not only in May.
2 The idea is to add an extra tag zmay.
3 Have a smart list searching for:
(dueAfter:"31 dec" AND dueBefore:"01 feb" AND tag:zjan) OR
(dueAfter:"31 jan" AND dueBefore:"01 mar" AND tag:zfeb) OR
(dueAfter:"28 feb" AND dueBefore:"01 apr" AND tag:zmar) OR
(dueAfter:"31 mar" AND dueBefore:"01 may" AND tag:zapr) OR
(dueAfter:"30 apr" AND dueBefore:"01 jun" AND tag:zmay) OR
(dueAfter:"31 may" AND dueBefore:"01 jul" AND tag:zjun) OR
(dueAfter:"30 jun" AND dueBefore:"01 aug" AND tag:zjul) OR
(dueAfter:"31 jul" AND dueBefore:"01 sep" AND tag:zaug) OR
(dueAfter:"31 aug" AND dueBefore:"01 oct" AND tag:zsep) OR
(dueAfter:"30 sep" AND dueBefore:"01 nov" AND tag:zoct) OR
(dueAfter:"31 oct" AND dueBefore:"01 dec" AND tag:znov) OR
(dueAfter:"30 nov" AND dueBefore:"01 jan" AND tag:zdec)

Name this smart list Yearly or whatever. This way these montly task will only appear in Yearly in the month they belong to. You could then add this list to the normal smart lists you use to see your tasks - surely no-one uses regular lists for looking at their tasks anyway ;-)

Posted at 8:53am on April 11, 2008

johnwin says:

Wow! Now that is a smart list!

UK users be aware that Mothers Day in United Kingdom and Ireland falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent (exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday)

Consequntly the above instructions will give a false date for those of us in the UK and some other contries.

Easter is known as the movable feast because it is "the first Sunday after the first fourteenth day of the moon (the Paschal Full Moon) that is on or after the ecclesiastical vernal equinox."

In fact with the complexity of calculating Easter Sunday I'm not sure is it can be calculated - even by rajjan!

Posted 3 years ago

rajjan ProPower Poster says:

And the Swedish Mother's Day is the last Sunday in May, easy to fix.

It seems that the UK rule is the most complex. Most common, according to Wikipedia, is a certain Sunday in a fixed month.

I have fixed an Excel file that calculates the Easter date for any year. Gauss created a formulae for this hundreds of years ago. Converting that to a smart list - well I don't know...

Posted 3 years ago

rajjan ProPower Poster says:

Well, RTM is too clever sometimes...

Writing a date without a year forces RTM to guess the year. In this case, 31 mar gets the year 2009 and this doesn't work. I had to add year to all the lines and also add a second year. This filter has to be updated yearly, but it only takes a few minutes, maybe time well spent in order to have yearly repeats: "repeat 2nd Sunday in May"?

Search for (you will have to copy this to an editor and remove the page breaks):
(((dueAfter:"31 dec 2007" AND dueBefore:"01 feb 2008") AND tag:¤01) OR
((dueAfter:"31 jan 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 mar 2008") AND tag:¤02) OR
((dueAfter:"29 feb 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 apr 2008") AND tag:¤03) OR
((dueAfter:"31 mar 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 may 2008") AND tag:¤04) OR
((dueAfter:"30 apr 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 jun 2008") AND tag:¤05) OR
((dueAfter:"31 may 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 jul 2008") AND tag:¤06) OR
((dueAfter:"30 jun 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 aug 2008") AND tag:¤07) OR
((dueAfter:"31 jul 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 sep 2008") AND tag:¤08) OR
((dueAfter:"31 aug 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 oct 2008") AND tag:¤09) OR
((dueAfter:"30 sep 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 nov 2008") AND tag:¤10) OR
((dueAfter:"31 oct 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 dec 2008") AND tag:¤11) OR
((dueAfter:"30 nov 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 jan 2009") AND tag:¤12) OR
((dueAfter:"31 dec 2008" AND dueBefore:"01 feb 2009") AND tag:¤01) OR
((dueAfter:"31 jan 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 mar 2009") AND tag:¤02) OR
((dueAfter:"29 feb 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 apr 2009") AND tag:¤03) OR
((dueAfter:"31 mar 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 may 2009") AND tag:¤04) OR
((dueAfter:"30 apr 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 jun 2009") AND tag:¤05) OR
((dueAfter:"31 may 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 jul 2009") AND tag:¤06) OR
((dueAfter:"30 jun 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 aug 2009") AND tag:¤07) OR
((dueAfter:"31 jul 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 sep 2009") AND tag:¤08) OR
((dueAfter:"31 aug 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 oct 2009") AND tag:¤09) OR
((dueAfter:"30 sep 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 nov 2009") AND tag:¤10) OR
((dueAfter:"31 oct 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 dec 2009") AND tag:¤11) OR
((dueAfter:"30 nov 2009" AND dueBefore:"01 jan 2010") AND tag:¤12)) AND
tagContains:¤

If you want a list that shows the tasks you don't want to see (adding a "NOT list:Yearly" to other smart lists), add a NOT before all the "tag:¤XX"

Posted 3 years ago

aaronhh says:

"In other news, an online software company called RTM has figured out a way to get users to go around their ass to get to their elbow. Full story at 11."

Posted 3 years ago

johnwin says:

lol. It's a complicated date to calculate.

It might be better if rtm is altered so it will pull in holidays and festivals from, say, gcal.

Posted 3 years ago

kevintaylor81 Pro says:

Yeah, RTM really needs to ad this functionality. They have already created a very flexible and fantastic tool that its hard to believe this is beyond their evident skill and ability.

Posted 8 months ago

ashansky Pro says:

To remind myself to get Father's Day cards every year, for the Repeat I wrote "every year on the third Sunday in June". Seems to work. Is that not like what you're referring to?

Posted 8 months ago

xtoq says:

This works for me too. If you're doing it in the Smart Add box, you have to enclose it in quotation marks or it gets all wonky.

Posted 8 months ago

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