Almost every team has tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis. Trello is a powerful tool for planning your projects. However, if you have tasks that repeat over a long period of time, you’ll probably be faced with the hassle of copying or recreating cards, because Trello lacks a recurring card feature.
You can simplify the process of planning repetitive work using Planyway, a calendar and timeline plugin for Trello. To get started, learn how to install the Planyway plugin for Trello.
How to create a recurring card
You can set how frequently a Trello card will repeat in your calendar. To make a card repeat:
- Open the card’s editor in the Planyway calendar or in Trello.
Planyway card
Trello card
- Click the repetition drop-down box to open it.
- Set how often the card should repeat by choosing an option from the list.
The list contains several preset schedules, such as:
- Every day
- Every week on a certain day of the week
- Every month on a certain date
- Every weekday
- etc.
Additionally, you can create a card with custom recurrence settings.
Choose exactly how often and for how long the card should repeat, based on your particular situation. Cards can stop repeating:
- Never
- On a certain date
- After a given number of occurrences
If you choose to display end dates as due dates in your Planyway settings, you’ll notice that the due date of a card that ends “never” will be set to the year 2999. This is because the due date references the final copy of the recurring card, which is in the year 2999.
Why 2999? Because we doubt that any of your Trello tasks today will continue beyond that point 😊
Examples of custom recurrence settings:
- Every other week on Tuesday
- The 25th of every month
- Every four days
- To have a Trello task repeat on a quarterly schedule, choose custom recurrence settings. Then, set the task to repeat every three months.
- To have a task repeat twice a year, choose custom recurrence settings. Then, set the task to repeat every 6 months.
After customizing your recurrence settings, a series of tasks will appear in your Planyway calendar.
How to edit a recurring card
You can edit all the events in a series, one event and all subsequent events, or just a single occurrence. To do so, click the recurring card and choose which events in the series you want to edit before making changes
Each time you change a single task in the series, a new card will be created in Trello. It will reflect all the changes you make: the due date, the assigned team member, the description, etc.
For example, you may need to add different supplemental information to each instance of a recurring card. To do so, choose This card each time you click the recurring task to add a specific description. A new card with that description will be added to Trello. You can create as many exceptions as you need.
How to mark a single instance of a recurring card complete
Right-click the relevant copy of the card in Planyway’s calendar and choose Mark as complete.
Then, choose This card in the editing dialog that appears. This entry will be treated as an exception, so you can mark it complete without affecting other entries.
Important: All exceptions you make are still part of a single recurring Trello card. If you later choose to edit All cards, all exceptions will be removed and replaced with regular entries.
Use cases
Here are some cases where the recurring task feature can help to free up your time for more important things:
Editorial calendars for content creators
The recurring card feature can be very useful for marketing teams that manage their publishing schedule in Trello. Email newsletters, blog posts, social network posts, and many other kinds of content need to be sent or published on a regular basis. The ability to create repeating tasks makes planning in Trello quicker and easier.
Meeting schedules
This feature is also handy for teams that track their meeting schedules in Trello. Business consultants, HR managers and financial advisors can plan regular meetings with clients and recruiters using recurring cards.
Periodic reports for financial teams
There’s no need to create a separate Trello card each time you need to prepare the same type of report. Just set how frequently your reports should repeat with custom recurrence settings in a Planyway card.
Read more about how financial teams can use Trello to track reports on our blog.
Using recurring cards in education
Free up your time creating repeating class schedules for school. Plan repeating tasks to manage your e-course workflow. Make your language learning process fun and easy by planning recurring lessons on your calendar. The recurring card feature makes these and many other educational tasks in Trello simple and straightforward.