I use recurring Google Calendar reminders to remind me of things I need to do each month, like replace my contact lenses with a fresh pair. I like that once marked done they stay in my calendar so I can look back in time and see when I actually did something. The problem is that I sometimes forget to mark a reminder as done on the day I complete the task so they get shown as done in the calendar some days after I actually did them. For example I put in fresh contact lenses last Thursday but only remembered to mark the reminder done today so it shows as done today.
Is there any way to set the reminder as done on a prior date? Done reminders are seemingly not editable and can't be dragged to a different day on the calendar. I tried a workaround but you can't create a reminder on a prior date, then mark it done; the new reminder just get's added to today.
Best Answer
Create Tasks instead of Reminders because Tasks CAN be backdated
Note to potential users: (As the OP found out and mentions in his comment).
"I started using Tasks on the desktop web app and thought it was pretty cool. Was subsequently disappointed to find that it isn't integrated into the Calendar app on Android. A separate app to manage Tasks is fine but not having tasks visible in my calendar is a pain."
Create a "Fresh Contact Lenses" task and -when choosing the date- "backdate" it.
Note: We can NOT make it repeatable. If we do so, it will default the starting date to today's date and we will loose the backdate. We can only make future tasks repeatable.
Tip: COPY Reminders to tasks so you have everything in one place.
Bonus: Tasks -compared to reminders- can cary longer descriptions as well as subtasks.