There’s a certain kind of to-do list item that can really bite you in the butt: the recurring task. While programs like Sciral Consistency are designed specifically for managing fuzzy-intervaled tasks, MS Entourage has a handy “Recurrence Pattern??? box that lets you define how often and when an item should pop up on your radar screen. This is a feature I love and use whenever I can.

In addition to the common “Every Monday??? and “Every Other Month??? items, Entourage lets you set a manual interval for repetition that’s based on the last time the task was completed. For example, anyone who’s lived in San Francisco knows how inexplicably dusty your house gets. I have a reminder to sweep the bunnies from the hallway every 5 days (regardless of the day of the week that falls on). So if I tick it off today, it automatically pops back up again next Sunday. Then it hangs around, bugging me, until I do it again, and so on.

This is a great feature for handling a lot of stuff you don’t want to forget about—but that you don’t want sitting interminably on your to-do list.

• Change baking soda in freezer & fridge (every 180 days)
• Check in on progress of My Bloody Valentine’s next record (every 120 days)
• Check for price changes on CD-R media (every 90 days)
• Change water filter in coffee maker (every 30 days)
• Check email on disused email account (every 14 days)
• Think about making a new set of 5ives (every 10 days)
• Call Mom (every 7 days)
• Sift through spam folder for false positives (every 5 days)
• Process outstanding Hipster PDA cards (every 3 days)

The thing I like best about this—and I admit that this is a subtle feature—is that regardless of how long it takes me to finish the task, it always re-generates itself with the correct interval. If I don’t feel like sweeping the floor and it takes 7 days instead of 5, no problem. Better next time.

Much nicer than watching a half-dozen, guilt-inducing items pile up behind one another like a traffic jam.