Basic users are limited to 5 active Routines. Access unlimited Routines by becoming a Navigator. Learn more.
NoPlex users absolutely love Routines, but the idea — and the power that comes with it — may seem foreign at first. Buckle up, buttercup. You're about to meet Chaos' worst nightmare.
Tell Me About These Wonderful Things
Routines in NoPlex are sets of Tasks that can be run on-demand or scheduled, reducing the brainpower required to remember and organize Recurring tasks. They're ideal for establishing habits, ensuring that regular responsibilities aren't overlooked, and for making sure that you don't miss anything that's part of a larger need.
One of the most difficult aspects of personal organization is keeping track of things that need to take place more than once but not every day. Examples include things like collecting your materials to submit your taxes, spring cleaning, or buying supplies for a child's school year — in these cases, it's almost as if you're relearning every time you have to do it. Routines makes this simple.
For adults with ADHD, even daily Tasks like taking medicine each day or feeding a pet can be stressful. Routines make remembering these types of Tasks simple as well.
How It Works
You can navigate to the Routines view via the Clock icon on the left menu on the web and the bottom menu on the mobile app. This will open the Automation page which is where you can create Recurring Tasks and Routines.
Creating a Routine
In the mobile app, click the Big Plus button while you're on the Routine list view.
If you're on a different view (e.g. Tasks or Notes), you can press and hold the button in the mobile app to choose + Routine.
On the web, simply click the Big Plus button and select + Routine.
Give your Routine a descriptive name that conveys its purpose at a single glance. You can also add a description.
Next, create at least one Task for the Routine. These are the Tasks that will come to life when the Routine runs. When creating Routine Tasks, you can set them up so that the Tasks they create are automatically marked important or pinned, given a relative due date or Horizon date (e.g. two days after the Task is created), sent to your Supporter, etc.
Routine Tasks are distinct from "regular" Tasks, so you can't add existing Tasks to a Routine.
Once at least one Task has been added to the Routine, you can run the Routine immediately, run it once at a later date, or set it to run regularly based on a schedule.
As you can see, you can also pin a Routine, but not the Tasks within it. This is because they don't exist. Routine Tasks are not actually Tasks themselves; instead, think of them as Task factories that create Tasks when the Routine runs. This is important because — for instance — archiving a Routine or a Routine Task doesn't erase any of the Tasks it's already created.
Managing Routines
Routines are flexible and can be edited at any time to add or remove Tasks or to alter their schedules. Scheduled Routines can always be manually run, providing flexibility to perform tasks outside of their regular schedule.
Coming soon: If you find that a particular Task within a Routine is not needed at a certain time, you'll soon have the option to skip it without needing to remove it from the Routine permanently.
Routines vs. Recurring Tasks
Routines and Recurring Tasks share a lot in common, and in a way, Routines are simply collections of Recurring Tasks that make sense to bundle together. For example, you may have a Recurring Task to remind you to take out the garbage every Tuesday. You may also have a Recurring Task to remind you to go grocery shopping every Tuesday. These are great Recurring Tasks. If this goes on and there are quite a few things that you have to do every Tuesday, it may make sense to batch them into a Every Tuesday Routine; however, they're still great candidates for Recurring Tasks. It's completely up to you.
On the other hand, some things just make sense as Routines. Groups of Tasks that need to be created on-demand should be Routines. For example, if there are twenty things you need to do to prepare for a trip, that's a great candidate for a Routine. Push a single button to create or schedule it.
Getting the Most out of Routines
Baby steps.
Start Simple: Begin with simple Routines — both on-demand and scheduled — and gradually introduce more complex ones.
Practice with "Unnecessary" Routines: If you find yourself not using this powerful feature, set some Routines for things that you already do reliably (e.g. brush your teeth, comb your hair). Marking these Tasks complete each day will get you into the Routines mindset and prompt some creativity.
Check In on Them: Regularly take a look through your existing Routines to ensure they're still relevant; if they become out of date, you'll be more likely to abandon Routines in general, and that would be a pity.
Integrate NoPlex Features: Combine Routines with the other powerful tools at your disposal — have their Tasks automatically appear in your Horizon or get sent to Supporters.
Use Collections: Users tend to break Routines up into collections such as Holiday Reminders, Chores, Special Cases, Seasonal/Time-Based, etc.
What's Next?
That was a biggie. Notes are a little simpler.