Dates, Repeats & Reminders
Dates determine when a task appears, when it must be finished, or when it becomes available. Reminders determine when the system actively alerts you. They are related but not interchangeable.
Three Date Types
| Date | Meaning | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | “I intend to work on it then” | An unfinished past plan rolls into Today |
| Due | “It must be finished by then” | Remains overdue after it passes |
| Defer | “It cannot be acted on before then” | Unavailable until the date arrives |
A plan can have a start and end, forming a work range. A due date is a boundary, not an ordinary plan. Defer is not a notification and does not by itself move a task out of the Inbox.
Dates in a Hierarchy
Parent tasks and projects create boundaries: a child plan/due date cannot be later than the parent’s corresponding date, and a child defer date cannot be earlier. Locus can tighten conflicting dates after a move or edit.
How Repeating Tasks Work
Locus does not pre-create a long series. When you complete the current occurrence, it creates the next one and keeps the completed instance as history.
Supported patterns include:
- Every N days
- Every N weeks, optionally on selected weekdays
- Every N months, on selected dates, the last day, or selected ordinal weekdays
- Every N years
Fixed Date vs. After Completion
- Fixed Date: follows the original schedule regardless of when you complete the current task. Use it for bills and other calendar-based rhythms.
- After Completion: calculates the next date from the actual completion time. Use it for maintenance that should recur a fixed interval after it is done.
Month-End Rules
“The 31st” and “the last day” are different:
- A rule for day 31 skips months that do not have a 31st.
- A Last Day rule uses the actual final day of every month.
Choose Last Day when the task must occur every month.
Stop Conditions
A repeat can run forever, stop after a count, or stop after a date. Changing the rule affects future occurrences in the chain; it does not rewrite completed history.
Due Notifications
A future due time can produce a system notification. No valid reminder is scheduled if permission is off, the time is already past, the task is closed, or the system lacks capacity.
Depending on OS and device state, a notification can offer actions to complete the task or snooze it for 15 minutes.
Custom Reminders
A task can have multiple custom reminder times—for example, one day and one hour before a deadline. Custom reminders must be in the future and always use system notifications, even when the task also uses an alarm reminder.
Alarm Reminders
On a supported iPhone OS, the due reminder can use AlarmKit for an alarm-style alert with Stop and Snooze controls.
iPhone
Alarm reminders require a supported iOS version and separate alarm permission. If permission is denied, the OS is unsupported, scheduling fails, or the alarm limit is reached, Locus attempts to fall back to a regular notification and reports the condition.
Mac and devices without AlarmKit use regular system notifications.
The 64 Pending Notification Limit
Apple limits pending local notifications. Locus coordinates time and location notifications within 64 system slots and prioritizes the nearest candidates. AlarmKit uses a separate system and does not consume regular notification slots.
Consequences:
- A far-future reminder may not be in the system queue yet.
- Locus re-sorts and fills nearer reminders when data changes.
- Many location rules leave fewer slots for time reminders.
- The pending count in Settings is useful when diagnosing delivery.
Location Notifications
A location tag can alert when you enter or leave an area. It requires location and notification permission and remains subject to background system policy. See Location Tags.
If a Reminder Did Not Fire
- Confirm System Settings allow Locus notifications.
- Confirm the task is active and the reminder is still in the future.
- Check Focus, notification summary, and silent settings.
- Check whether pending notifications are near 64.
- For an alarm, check alarm authorization and whether a notification fallback was created.
- Open Locus after edits so it can reschedule notifications.
If the issue continues, record the task dates, reminder type, OS version, and expected trigger time, then contact Support. Redact private task content from screenshots.