Cycles
Plan work in repeating time boxes, carry unfinished tasks forward, and review what each cycle completed.
Cycles are repeating time boxes, such as two-week sprints, that you plan tasks into. They are optional and off until you turn them on.
Turning Cycles On
Open Settings → Tasks → Cycles and switch on Use cycles. Octarine creates a numbered active cycle and an Upcoming cycle. Tasks are not added to cycles automatically.
Under Schedule, choose:
- Cycle length: 1 to 4 weeks. The default is 2 weeks.
- Starts on: the weekday cycles begin. The default is Monday.
Changing the schedule realigns the active and upcoming cycles. Tasks stay in the cycles they were planned in.
Once cycles are on, the Tasks sidebar shows a Cycles section with each cycle's dates and open-task count, and tasks gain a Cycle field.
Planning Tasks Into A Cycle
- Set Cycle in a task's properties, or press
Yon a task. - Select several tasks and use Cycle in the bulk bar.
- Click + on a cycle's page to create a task already planned in it.
Subtasks follow their parent:
- When a parent joins a cycle, its subtasks come with it, unless they're already planned in a current or upcoming cycle.
- A new subtask starts in its parent's cycle.
- When a parent leaves a cycle, its subtasks stay where they are.
A Cycle's Page
Click a cycle in the sidebar to see its tasks, with the same list, board, and display options as a project. The header shows the cycle's name and dates, and a Ready to close badge once its end date has passed.
The right sidebar shows the cycle's progress, how much time is left, and breakdowns by project, status, and due date.
Completing A Cycle
Click Complete cycle on the active cycle's page. The dialog shows how many tasks were Planned, Completed, and Unfinished, and what share of the tasks planned at the start got done.
Under Decide where unfinished work goes, choose for each unfinished task whether it moves to an upcoming cycle (the default) or back to Backlog, which takes it out of cycles.
Completing the cycle makes the upcoming cycle the new active one and creates a fresh Upcoming cycle.
Ended cycles are read-only. Their page shows a summary of what was planned, completed, added during the cycle, carried over, and cancelled.
From the command line, the same actions are octarine cycle settings, cycle list, cycle show, and cycle complete. See CLI cycle commands.
Quick Answers
Does Octarine support sprints?
Yes, as cycles. Turn them on in Settings → Tasks → Cycles and choose a length of 1 to 4 weeks and a start day.
What happens to unfinished tasks when a cycle ends?
When you complete a cycle, you choose for each unfinished task whether it moves to an upcoming cycle or back to the backlog.
Do subtasks join a cycle with their parent?
Yes, unless they're already planned in a current or upcoming cycle. New subtasks also start in their parent's cycle.