Org-mode deadline: Repeat certain number of times

Question

I'm looking for a way to specify a deadline in org-mode that repeats at certain intervals but only a specified number of times.

For instance, if I want to have a deadline repeat twice one week apart, I can make it appear in the agenda using diary-date:

   DEADLINE: <%%(diary-date 4 '(19 26) 2018)>

But it throws a Could not find timestamp error when I try to mark it DONE in agenda view.

I can also make it repeat indefinitely with <4-19-2018 +1w> then manually mark it DONE after a certain number of weeks using the numeric prefix -1, but that increases cognitive load.

I'm looking for an out-of-the-box solution before trying any custom elisp.

Answer 1

One way to do this is to clone the subtree. Say you have

** TODO give Kyle money
DEADLINE: <2018-04-28 Sat>

You can clone the subtree with org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift (C-c C-x c). To create a single clone one week later, enter "1" in the first prompt and "+1w" in the second. The end result would then be

** TODO give Kyle money
DEADLINE: <2018-04-28 Sat>
** TODO give Kyle money
DEADLINE: <2018-05-05 Sat>