diff --git a/lib/tasks/emails.rake b/lib/tasks/appfab_emails.rake
similarity index 75%
rename from lib/tasks/emails.rake
rename to lib/tasks/appfab_emails.rake
index 4aa50ad..397a118 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/emails.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/appfab_emails.rake
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 namespace :appfab do
   namespace :emails do
-    task :send_notifications_digest => :environment do
+    desc 'sends notification digests to all users'
+    task :send_notifications_digest => :full_environment do
       User.with_state(:visible).find_each do |user|
-        require 'notification/mailer'
         next unless user.notifications.unread.count > 0
 
         notifications = user.notifications.unread.by_most_recent.limit(25)
diff --git a/lib/tasks/appfab_ideas.rake b/lib/tasks/appfab_ideas.rake
index 7381e91..8f26910 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/appfab_ideas.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/appfab_ideas.rake
@@ -1,15 +1,14 @@
 namespace :appfab do
   namespace :ideas do
     desc 'updates star ratings for all ideas'
-    task :update_stars_cache => :environment do
-      require "account"
+    task :update_stars_cache => :full_environment do
       Account.find_each do |account|
         Idea.update_star_cache(account:account)
       end
     end
 
     desc 'updates counter caches'
-    task :update_counts => :environment do
+    task :update_counts => :full_environment do
       Idea.find_each do |idea|
         idea.update_column :comments_count, idea.comments.count
         idea.update_column :votes_cache,    idea.votes.count
@@ -17,8 +16,7 @@ namespace :appfab do
     end
 
     desc 'removes bookmarks for old live ideas'
-    task :bookmark_cleanup => :environment do
-      require "bookmark_cleanup_service"
+    task :bookmark_cleanup => :full_environment do
       BookmarkCleanupService.new.run
     end
   end
diff --git a/lib/tasks/appfab_users.rake b/lib/tasks/appfab_users.rake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dcd43c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/tasks/appfab_users.rake
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+namespace :appfab do
+  namespace :users do
+    desc 'Saves last-seen timestamps from cache to DB'
+    task :update_last_seen_at => :full_environment do
+      User.find_each { |user| user.update_last_seen_at! }
+    end
+  end
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/tasks/data.rake b/lib/tasks/data.rake
index 1346d10..502862e 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/data.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/data.rake
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 
 namespace :data do
 
-  desc 'Re-saves all stored files to make sure nu chunk is larger than a 65k BLOB'
-  task :fix_storage_chunks => :environment do
+  desc 'Re-saves all stored files to make sure no chunk is larger than a 65k BLOB'
+  task :fix_storage_chunks => :full_environment do
     Storage::File.find_each do |storage_file|
       storage_file.transaction do
         old_data = storage_file.data
diff --git a/lib/tasks/full_environment.rake b/lib/tasks/full_environment.rake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..794f3d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/tasks/full_environment.rake
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+desc "Eager loads the entire Rails environment"
+# see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4300240/rails-3-rake-task-cant-find-model-in-production
+task :full_environment => :environment do
+  Rails.application.eager_load!
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/tasks/users.rake b/lib/tasks/users.rake
deleted file mode 100644
index c07c5d7..0000000
--- a/lib/tasks/users.rake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-# encoding: utf-8
-
-namespace :users do
-
-  desc 'Saves last-seen timestamps from cache to DB'
-  task :update_last_seen_at => :environment do
-    User.find_each do |user|
-      user.update_last_seen_at!
-    end
-  end
-end