Instead of using different apps for tracking habits or chores, I keep everything in my task manager. This made my task manager cluttered and require too much maintenance until I started automating the marking as complete of various action items via AppleScript.

I made a video explaining and demoing the process; this post also has various downloads and links to help you recreate my work.

Video Share

AppleScript

If you want to copy and paste the AppleScript to use yourself, you can find the OmniFocus and Things versions below.

OmniFocus Version

Be sure to replace the text inside of the quote marks in “TASK ID HERE” with the task ID of the task you want to mark compete via AppleScript.

Also, note that running this AppleScript multiple times will keep marking the task as complete into the future. If you have a daily repeating task and run the AppleScript today (Monday), your task will repeat tomorrow (Tuesday); but if you run it again today (Monday), it will get pushed back to Wednesday.

tell application "OmniFocus"
    tell front document
        set myTask to task id "TASK ID HERE"
        mark complete myTask
    end tell
end tell

Things Version

Be sure to replace the text inside of the quote marks in “TASK NAME HERE” with the task ID of the task you want to mark compete via AppleScript.

Note that this will only mark a task as complete if the task is in your Today list.

tell application "Things3"

    repeat with toDo in to dos of list "Today"
        if (name of toDo as text) is "TASK NAME HERE" then
            set status of toDo to completed
        end if
    end repeat

end tell

Drafts Actions

If you want to easily generate this AppleScript yourself, you can add the relevant Drafts Action to your Drafts installation via the links below:

• OmniFocus Version
• Things Version

OmniFocus vs. Things Post

If you want to learn more about why I switched from OmniFocus to Things, you can read the post I wrote here:

OmniFocus vs Things

Conclusion

Did this post help you identify a repeating task you could automate the tracking of? Let me know in the comments below!