Subtasks & Recurrence

Subtasks let you decompose a parent task into smaller steps. Recurrence lets a task repeat on a schedule with the next occurrence created automatically when you complete the current one. Both work with plain markdown syntax — no special storage, no separate “subtask” or “recurring task” objects.

Subtasks

A subtask is just a task line indented under another task. Two spaces or one tab — Pensum recognises either, but be consistent within a file.

- [ ] Prepare board presentation
  - [ ] Pull revenue numbers
  - [x] Get template from design
  - [ ] Draft pipeline slide
  - [ ] Practice run with team

Each subtask is a full task in its own right — it can have its own status, priority, due date, scheduled date, tags, and recurrence. Views (Today, Forecast, etc.) treat subtasks as first-class — a subtask with a due date today shows up in Today, even if its parent doesn’t.

Progress badges

When a parent task has subtasks, views show a progress badge: 2/5, 1/3, etc. The badge counts only direct children (not grandchildren). Clicking the parent in a view opens its edit modal.

Body text between subtasks

You can mix non-task body lines under a parent. They stay associated with the parent for context:

- [ ] Prepare board presentation
  - [ ] Pull revenue numbers
  This needs to come from the finance dashboard. Last quarter Sam had to chase it down.
  - [ ] Draft pipeline slide

Body lines don’t appear in task lists — they live in the file alongside the task hierarchy. The task edit modal shows them in a “Notes” section so you can edit context without leaving the modal.

Nesting depth

Subtasks can nest arbitrarily deep. A subtask can have its own subtasks:

- [ ] Q3 launch
  - [ ] Marketing
    - [ ] Write announcement post
    - [ ] Schedule social campaign
  - [ ] Engineering
    - [ ] Feature flag setup
    - [ ] Migration script

Pensum tracks the full tree. The Q3 launch parent shows 2/2 (its two direct children); Marketing shows 0/2; and so on.

When to use subtasks vs. multiple top-level tasks

Use subtasks when…	Use separate top-level tasks when…
The work has to be done as part of the same thing — you wouldn’t complete the parent without doing the children	The tasks are related but independently completable
You want progress visibility on the parent in views	Each task should show as its own line in views like Today / Inbox
The parent represents a milestone or deliverable	The tasks represent separate decisions or commitments

Subtasks are great for “things that have to happen in sequence” or “components of one larger deliverable.” They’re less useful for collections of related-but-independent work — those usually belong as siblings or under a project.

Completing a parent with open subtasks

Nothing stops you. Pensum doesn’t auto-complete subtasks when you check the parent, and doesn’t prevent the parent from being completed if subtasks are still open. The progress badge just shows the asymmetry (e.g. 2/5 even with the parent checked).

If you want sequential enforcement (parent only completable when all children are done), that’s a workflow you build on top — not a built-in constraint.

Recurrence

A recurring task carries a recurrence rule that fires when you complete the task: Pensum creates the next occurrence with the updated date.

Syntax follows the Tasks plugin convention: 🔁 <rule> after the description.

- [ ] Water plants 🔁 every week 📅 2026-05-13

When you check this task done:

1. The current line gets marked completed: - [x] Water plants 🔁 every week 📅 2026-05-13 ✅ 2026-05-13
2. Pensum appends a new occurrence in the same file: - [ ] Water plants 🔁 every week 📅 2026-05-20

The original completed line stays as a record. Task cleanup will remove it after its retention window (see cleanup).

Supported rules

Rule	What it does	Examples
every N days/weeks/months/years	Adds N units to the current due date	🔁 every 3 days, 🔁 every 2 weeks, 🔁 every 6 months
every day/week/month/year	Equivalent to every 1 day/week/month/year	🔁 every week, 🔁 every month
every weekday	Skips weekends — Mon → Tue → … → Fri → Mon	🔁 every weekday
every <weekday>	Next occurrence of that weekday	🔁 every Monday, 🔁 every Friday
every month on the <ordinal>	Same day of the month every month	🔁 every month on the 15th, 🔁 every month on the 1st
every year on <month> <day>	Annual repeat	🔁 every year on March 15

The rule writes as a plain string in the markdown — no special escaping needed. It travels with the task in any sync or export.

Anchoring on completion date vs. due date

Pensum’s default anchors the next occurrence on the previous due date, not the completion date. So a weekly task due Monday that you complete on Wednesday creates the next occurrence due the following Monday (not the following Wednesday).

This matters for things like “every week” — if you fall behind, the schedule doesn’t slip with you. If you’d rather have the next occurrence anchored on completion (e.g. “water plants every 3 days from when I last watered them, not from when they were last scheduled”), that’s a known feature gap; track via the existing recurrence rule and adjust the date manually if it slips.

Multiple rules

One rule per task. If you need different cadences for related work, model them as separate tasks (or as recurring subtasks under a non-recurring parent).

Recurring tasks in views

Recurring tasks show in Today / Forecast / Calendar exactly like any other task — they have a due date, they appear on that day. The recurrence rule travels along but isn’t itself displayed in the views (it’s part of the task description in the markdown). The edit modal shows the rule and lets you change it.

When you complete a recurring task in a view, the next occurrence appears immediately. If it’s due today, it stays in Today. If it’s due in the future, it disappears from Today and shows up in Forecast.

Stopping a recurrence

To stop a recurring task from generating future occurrences:

• Edit the task and remove the 🔁 rule part
• Or just complete it and don’t worry about it — the new occurrence is the only one that’ll continue recurring

You can also archive the task by moving its line to a different file (e.g. an Archive/ folder) — Pensum scans the new location and the recurrence continues from wherever the task lives.

Subtasks + recurrence together

A recurring parent task with subtasks is supported, but be aware: when the parent’s next occurrence is created, the subtasks are not duplicated. If you want each week’s recurrence to come with its own checklist of subtasks, model them as inline body text on the parent rather than subtasks, or use a template instead of recurrence.

Defaults

Behavior	How to change
Indentation: 2 spaces	Match what Obsidian’s editor uses; Pensum recognises both 2 spaces and 1 tab
Recurrence anchor: previous due date	Not currently configurable
Subtask progress badge	Always shown for parents with at least one subtask