personal-development-plan

Personal Development Plan is an Obsidian knowledge management system plugin, designed for planning and tracking personal and professional development.

View project on GitHub

Recurring Task System

Basic Concept

Recurring tasks are an automated system for managing recurring actions in your personal development plan.

Unlike one-time tasks, which are created and completed manually, recurring tasks are generated automatically according to a set schedule.

Why is this necessary?

  1. Routine automation - eliminates the need to manually create the same tasks
  2. Regularity control - helps not to miss important repetitive actions
  3. Reducing cognitive load - no need to keep a list of repetitive tasks in your head

Mechanism of operation

Periodic task card

Periodic tasks

Task generation

When you click on the card, the system:

  1. Checks all periods from the statistics start date to the current date
  2. For each period, creates tasks if:
    • The task type is enabled in settings
    • Tasks for this period have not yet been created
  3. Adds new tasks to the end of the file

Example file structure:

# One-time tasks

- [ ] Write an article about tuples in Scala
- [ ] Prepare a presentation for meetup

# Periodic tasks

#### 2025-08-01 (Friday)

- [ ] Morning email review
- [ ] Read a chapter from a book
- [ ] Physical activity for 30 min

#### Week 31 (2025-07-28 — 2025-08-03)

- [ ] Solve a problem on Project Euler
- [ ] Listen to the Culips podcast

#### August 2025

- [ ] Watch a video from a ScalaConf talk

#### Q3 2025 (July—September)

- [ ] Update your resume
- [ ] Conduct a skills audit

#### 2025

- [ ] Update your individual development plan: delete outdated tasks, detail current ones

The card contains two main section:

  1. One-time tasks - created and managed manually
  2. Recurring tasks - generated automatically

Types of recurrences and examples of use

Daily tasks

Format: “2025-08-01 (Friday)”

Task examples:

  • Planning the day
  • Evening review of completed tasks
  • Reading professional literature (30 min)
  • Physical exercise

Why: Forming healthy habits and daily practices

Weekly tasks

Format: “Week 31 (2025-07-28 — 2025-08-03)”

Task examples:

  • Summarizing the week
  • Learning a new tech stack (2 hours)
  • Cleaning the workspace

Why: Regularly monitoring progress and maintaining order

Monthly tasks

Format: “August 2025”

Task examples:

  • Analysis of monthly achievements
  • Planning training for the next month
  • Checking and updating backups

Why: Strategic planning and monitoring of key indicators

Quarterly tasks

Format: “3rd quarter 2025 (July-September)”

Task examples:

  • Audit of professional skills
  • Update career plan
  • Checking and updating equipment
  • Participation in professional event

Why: Adjustment of long-term plans and development strategies

Annual tasks

Format: “2025”

Task examples:

  • Setting annual goals
  • Annual report on professional growth
  • Portfolio update
  • Vacation planning

Why: Global planning and reflection

System setup

Task configuration

Recurring task settings

For each task type, you can:

  1. Enable/disable generation
  2. Set a task list (Markdown is supported)

Configuration recommendations

  1. Start small - add 2-3 daily tasks
  2. Review the task list regularly, once a month
  3. Use clear and measurable wording

Best practices

For daily tasks:

  • Group small routine actions
  • Leave room for flexibility (e.g. “30 min to choose from: reading/watching a lecture”)
  • Include tasks for health and rest

For weekly/monthly tasks:

  • Add tasks for reflection and analysis
  • Include creative and developmental activities
  • Plan time for “technical debt”

For quarterly/annual tasks:

  • Focus on strategic goals
  • Include tasks for professional development
  • Don’t forget about personal and family aspects

Conclusion

A periodic task system will help you automate routine tasks and focus on the really important aspects of your development!