Allow Users to Define Start of Day for Task Completion and Recurrence

[marjomol]

⚠️ Check request is valid.

• My request is about the Tasks plugin for Obsidian.
• I am only requesting a single feature in the Tasks plugin. Multiple changes should be split into individual requests, with links between them.
  • 2025-04-01 Note from maintainer @claremacrae: by agreement with @marjomol I have marked references to also setting the 'Start of week' as deleted to ensure that this does actually only request one feature
• I believe my requested feature will be generally applicable to other Tasks plugin users, not just me: it is not uniquely tied to my personal workflow.

⚠️ Please check that this feature request hasn't been suggested before.

• I searched previous Tasks plugin Ideas in Discussions didn't find any similar feature requests.
• I searched previous Tasks plugin Issues didn't find any similar feature requests.

🔖 Feature description

1. Summary

• Currently, when completing a task after 23:59, the completion date is recorded as the next day. For recurring daily tasks, this means the next scheduled instance is pushed two days ahead instead of just one.
• I propose adding an option for users to define when a "new day" starts (e.g., at 6 AM) and also when a "new week" starts.

2. Motivation

• Many users complete tasks late at night, and having the day change at midnight can result in unintended scheduling shifts.
• Recurring daily tasks completed just after midnight get rescheduled two days ahead instead of one, which disrupts their intended tracking.
• Defining when a week starts (e.g., Monday vs. Sunday) could also help with other reported issues related to weekly task management.

3. User Case

• Suppose I have a daily recurring task:
  • "Journal Entry" 🔁 every day when done ➕ 2025-03-26 ⏳ 2025-03-26
• I complete it at 00:30 AM (technically the next day), so the plugin registers the completion date as "tomorrow".
  • "Journal Entry" 🔁 every day when done ➕ 2025-03-26 ⏳ 2025-03-26 ✅ 2025-03-27
• Now, since it's a recurring task, the next instance is set for the day after tomorrow instead of today.
  • "Journal Entry" 🔁 every day when done ➕ 2025-03-27 ⏳ 2025-03-28
  • "Journal Entry" 🔁 every day when done ➕ 2025-03-26 ⏳ 2025-03-26 ✅ 2025-03-27
• Expected behavior: If I set my "day start" to 6 AM, completing the task at 00:30 should still count as done for today, and the next instance should appear tomorrow as expected.
  • "Journal Entry" 🔁 every day when done ➕ 2025-03-26 ⏳ 2025-03-27
  • "Journal Entry" 🔁 every day when done ➕ 2025-03-25 ⏳ 2025-03-26 ✅ 2025-03-26

✔️ Solution

4. Proposed Solution

• Add an option in the plugin settings to allow users to set their own start time for a new day (e.g., 6 AM instead of 00:00).
• Add an option to configure the start of the week (e.g., Sunday or Monday) for better weekly scheduling.
• Ensure that recurring tasks use the user-defined "start of day" when calculating the next due date.

❓ Alternatives

5. Alternatives Considered

• Keeping the current system but adding a warning when a task is completed after midnight.
• Give the starting day hour or week day option in each recursive task configuration and completion day settings menu.

📝 Additional Context

6. Additional Context

• This change would improve flexibility for users with non-traditional schedules, such as night-shift workers or late-night planners.
• It could also address some related issues regarding weekly task scheduling.

Again, thank you to the Obsidian Tasks team for this incredible plugin! 🚀

[claremacrae]

I’m pretty sure there is already a request to control the start day of the week, but the start time of day is new to me, and an interesting idea. Thank you for logging it.

[claremacrae]

Yes, the request to control start of week is:

• Add ability to specify weeks in relative date searches that start on days other than Monday #1751

I guess that is specific to the search facility, although when/if a start-of-week setting is added, it should apply to all areas of the plugin.

[marjomol]

Yes, the request to control start of week is:

* [Add ability to specify weeks in relative date searches that start on days other than Monday #1751](https://github.com/obsidian-tasks-group/obsidian-tasks/issues/1751)

I guess that is specific to the search facility, although when/if a start-of-week setting is added, it should apply to all areas of the plugin.

Thank you very much for your response and interest. I searched for similar requests and found the one about choosing the start day of the week (#1751). It seemed to me that since that setting would probably apply to the whole plugin, I thought it made sense to relate my request to it. If you prefer, I could make the request specifically about the time, my main request was about controlling the start time of the day. It's something I've seen in scheduling and task applications, I think it could be very helpful.

Best regards and thanks.

[claremacrae]

Thank you for the kind reply.

Regardless of the other existing issue, now that I think about it, this one is really for two different features: it is two different bodies of work, and two different user settings. And the plugin could be released usefully with either one of those features, whichever was easier to implement first.

So I would prefer this one to be made just about recurrence and one-of-time-or-weekday - and then a separate new one to be made just about the other aspect of recurrence.

Then the pre-existing one remains just about search.

[claremacrae]

If you prefer, I could make the request specifically about the time, my main request was about controlling the start time of the day.

Yes please.

[claremacrae]

If you prefer, I could make the request specifically about the time, my main request was about controlling the start time of the day.

Yes please.

Never mind, I'll do it - just to remove the question label, and remove the risk I will just close the issue due to lack of reply...

[marjomol]

Sorry! I didn't quite understand at first what we were going to do with the proposal and yesterday I couldn't read the post to change it myself when you said so. Thank you for your concern

[claremacrae]

No worries.

If this ever done, I will certainly set my time to 2am and benefit from it.