diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 6e18bead..18e722da 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -584,6 +584,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "cfg-if",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "croner"
+version = "2.1.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "38fd53511eaf0b00a185613875fee58b208dfce016577d0ad4bb548e1c4fb3ee"
+dependencies = [
+ "chrono",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "crossbeam-epoch"
 version = "0.9.14"
@@ -2911,6 +2920,7 @@ version = "0.1.0"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "chrono",
+ "croner",
  "fred",
  "libpk",
  "metrics",
diff --git a/services/scheduled_tasks/Cargo.toml b/services/scheduled_tasks/Cargo.toml
index 07d0d33d..3df1a3e7 100644
--- a/services/scheduled_tasks/Cargo.toml
+++ b/services/scheduled_tasks/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,4 +16,5 @@ sqlx = { workspace = true }
 tokio = { workspace = true }
 tracing = { workspace = true }
 
+croner = "2.1.0"
 num-format = "0.4.4"
diff --git a/services/scheduled_tasks/src/main.rs b/services/scheduled_tasks/src/main.rs
index 10aa2ea8..1f4b28db 100644
--- a/services/scheduled_tasks/src/main.rs
+++ b/services/scheduled_tasks/src/main.rs
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-use chrono::{TimeDelta, Timelike};
+use chrono::Utc;
+use croner::Cron;
 use fred::prelude::RedisPool;
 use sqlx::PgPool;
-use std::time::Duration;
 use tokio::task::JoinSet;
-use tracing::{error, info};
+use tracing::{debug, error, info};
 
 mod tasks;
 use tasks::*;
@@ -32,12 +32,20 @@ async fn real_main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     // i couldn't be bothered to figure out the types of passing in an async
     // function to another function... so macro it is
     macro_rules! doforever {
-        ($timeout:expr, $desc:expr, $fn:ident) => {
+        ($cron:expr, $desc:expr, $fn:ident) => {
             let ctx = ctx.clone();
+            let cron = Cron::new($cron)
+                .with_seconds_optional()
+                .parse()
+                .expect("invalid cron");
             set.spawn(tokio::spawn(async move {
                 loop {
                     let ctx = ctx.clone();
-                    wait_interval($timeout).await;
+                    let next_iter_time = cron.find_next_occurrence(&Utc::now(), false).unwrap();
+                    debug!("next execution of {} at {:?}", $desc, next_iter_time);
+                    let dur = next_iter_time - Utc::now();
+                    tokio::time::sleep(dur.to_std().unwrap()).await;
+
                     info!("running {}", $desc);
                     let before = std::time::Instant::now();
                     if let Err(error) = $fn(ctx).await {
@@ -52,12 +60,25 @@ async fn real_main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         };
     }
 
-    doforever!(10, "prometheus updater", update_prometheus);
-    doforever!(60, "database stats updater", update_db_meta);
-    doforever!(600, "message stats updater", update_db_message_meta);
-    doforever!(60, "discord stats updater", update_discord_stats);
+    // every 10 seconds
     doforever!(
-        1800,
+        "0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * *",
+        "prometheus updater",
+        update_prometheus
+    );
+    // every minute
+    doforever!("* * * * *", "database stats updater", update_db_meta);
+    // every 10 minutes
+    doforever!(
+        "0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * *",
+        "message stats updater",
+        update_db_message_meta
+    );
+    // every minute
+    doforever!("* * * * *", "discord stats updater", update_discord_stats);
+    // on :00 and :30
+    doforever!(
+        "0,30 * * * *",
         "queue deleted image cleanup job",
         queue_deleted_image_cleanup
     );
@@ -68,69 +89,3 @@ async fn real_main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
 
     Ok(())
 }
-
-// cron except not really
-async fn wait_interval(interval_secs: u32) {
-    let now = chrono::Utc::now();
-
-    // for now, only supports hardcoded intervals
-    let next_iter_time = match interval_secs {
-        // 10 sec
-        // at every [x]0th second (00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50)
-        10 => {
-            let mut minute = 0;
-            let mut second = (now.second() - (now.second() % 10)) + 10;
-            if second == 60 {
-                minute += 1;
-                second = 0;
-            }
-            now.checked_add_signed(TimeDelta::minutes(minute))
-                .expect("invalid time")
-                .with_second(second)
-                .expect("invalid time")
-        }
-        // 1 minute
-        // every minute at :00 seconds
-        60 => now
-            .checked_add_signed(TimeDelta::minutes(1))
-            .expect("invalid time")
-            .with_second(0)
-            .expect("invalid time"),
-        // 10 minutes
-        // at every [x]0 minute (00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50)
-        600 => {
-            let mut minute = (now.minute() + 10) % 10;
-            let mut hour = 0;
-            if minute == 60 {
-                minute = 0;
-                hour = 1;
-            }
-
-            now.checked_add_signed(TimeDelta::hours(hour))
-                .expect("invalid time")
-                .with_minute(minute)
-                .expect("invalid time")
-        }
-        // 30 minutes
-        // at :00 and :30
-        1800 => {
-            let mut minute = (now.minute() + 30) % 30;
-            let mut hour = 0;
-            if minute == 60 {
-                minute = 0;
-                hour = 1;
-            }
-
-            now.checked_add_signed(TimeDelta::hours(hour))
-                .expect("invalid time")
-                .with_minute(minute)
-                .expect("invalid time")
-        }
-
-        _ => unreachable!(),
-    };
-
-    let dur = next_iter_time - now;
-
-    tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_secs(dur.num_seconds() as u64)).await;
-}