Ebech,
Nice explanation! Now I get what you mean.
How about the following solutions:
Add a third scheduling option - Set Due Date
So in the Schedule drop-down we would have:
- Set Start Date (unchanged)
- Set Due Date (new)
- Make Repeating (unchanged)
Set due date would work like this:
- you pick a due date
- you specify the start date indirectly, by specifying the number of days relative to the due date (start n days before due date)
- the actual start date gets calculated by software and stored as usual
- the scheduled action will appear in the Scheduled list as usual and it will move to Next based on the settings
For repeating tasks, add “start n days before due date”
In the “Repeat” dialog we also add an optional “start n days before due date” setting.
Currently, if you select “due date” checkbox in the repeat dialog, the due date will be set automatically every time the action repeats. Such due date is effectively equal to the start date, which makes it not so useful for planning in advance. But with the new setting, repeating actions would be added to Next before the actual due date. If the setting is left alone then the current repeating behavior is unchanged.