How an AI agent can prepare a recovery plan that separates deletion, delegation, and completion
This workflow gives an AI agent a defined job, a bounded set of records, and a result a person can review. The agent reads the relevant Todoist context, applies the rules in the prompt, and keeps the source behind every recommendation. It returns a proposed handoff rather than taking consequential actions on its own.
Can an AI agent prepare a recovery plan that separates deletion, delegation, and completion?
Yes. Start with the scope, date range, decision rules, and fields that identify the right records. The agent can collect the evidence, compare states or sources, mark conflicts and missing data, and organize the result around the outcome above. A reviewer then checks the matches and judgment calls before approving messages, record updates, bookings, purchases, publishing, or other write actions. The guide below shows the records, boundaries, prompt, and handoff needed for this specific workflow.
Separate stale reminders from real commitments
Start with a named Todoist project, section, label, or owner and a clear cutoff date. Ask the agent to inspect task title, description, comments, subtasks, labels, priority, due date, and related tasks. Those fields can reveal that an overdue task is waiting on someone, duplicates newer work, or lacks the information required to start.
Define the dispositions before the review. A practical set is: finish, delegate, clarify, defer to a real date, merge with another task, or close as no longer relevant. Require a reason and evidence for every recommendation. Age can influence review order, but it should not determine importance by itself.
Example starter prompt
Review overdue Todoist tasks in [project, label, or owner scope] as of [date]. Use these priority rules: [rules].
For each task, recommend finish, delegate, clarify, defer, merge, or close. Include the task link, current owner, due date, dependencies or comments that support the decision, and the smallest next action. Put tasks with missing context in a questions section.
Do not update tasks, assignees, priorities, or dates. Return an approval table grouped by recommended disposition.Approve the disposition before changing dates
Review duplicate and dependency findings first because one decision may resolve several tasks. Then check that each proposed date corresponds to an external deadline or a realistic plan, rather than another arbitrary postponement.
Questions this workflow answers
What should I do with overdue tasks besides moving every due date to next week?
The agent inspects title, description, comments, subtasks, owner, labels, priority, dependencies, and project context before recommending a disposition. An old task may duplicate completed work, wait on another person, lack a starting condition, or represent a commitment that still matters. Age determines review order at most; it does not establish importance.
Each task receives a proposed finish, delegate, clarify, defer, merge, or close decision with evidence and the smallest next action. A defer recommendation needs a real trigger or date connected to capacity or an external deadline. A merge names the surviving task. A close recommendation explains why the commitment no longer applies without deleting history.
The approval table preserves the current owner and due date beside any proposed values. Duplicate and dependency decisions are reviewed first because one accepted change can resolve several rows. Tasks with missing context go to a questions queue rather than receiving invented priorities. The owner then approves changes in a separate run, seeing exactly what will move, disappear, change hands, or remain overdue.
The final table should preserve the old due date and show any proposed new date, owner, next action, and reason. Apply accepted changes in a separate run so the owner can see exactly what will disappear, move, or change hands.
Age alone is a poor priority rule. An old “research vendor options” task may have been superseded, while yesterday’s missed compliance step may block a deadline. The agent can examine project, labels, comments, recurrence, dependencies, owner, prior reschedules, and any stated outcome, then propose complete, clarify, delegate, merge, remove, or reschedule once. Recurring tasks need care so one missed occurrence does not create several copies. The recovery queue asks for a decision on each task and reserves a new date only after the owner confirms the work still matters.