A method and apparatus that schedules and manages a background task for device is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device registers the background task, where the registering includes storing execution criteria for the background task. The execution criteria indicates a criterion for launching the background task and the execution criteria based on a component status of the device. The device further monitors the running state of the device for an occurrence of the execution criteria. If the execution criteria occurs, the device determines an available headroom with the device in order to perform the background task and launches the background task if the background task importance is greater than the available device headroom, where the background task importance is a measure of how important it is for the device to run the background task.