Custom Smart Lists

Beyond the built-in lists you can make your own, the way Reminders lets you. A custom smart list is a saved set of filters: "High priority, due this week, not in the Movies project", for example. It appears in the Smart Lists section of the sidebar with a count, and works everywhere a built-in list does, including widgets.

#Creating a smart list

1. Tap + at the top of the sidebar and choose New Smart List.
2. Type a name next to the icon, and pick an icon and color.
3. Under Include tasks matching, choose All (a task must pass every filter) or Any (a task needs to pass just one).
4. Tap Select Filters and turn on the ones you want.
5. Tap Done.

#The filters

Each filter reads Off, Any, or its value in the summary, and reads "Not …" when you've set it to exclude.

#Include and Exclude

Tags, Spaces, Projects, and Columns can be flipped to Exclude, which is how you keep a Groceries or Movies project out of a work list without listing every work project by hand.

#Columns across boards

The Columns filter goes by name, not by board. If every customer project has a With Customer column, a list with Columns: With Customer shows everything waiting on a customer, from all of those boards at once. The picker lists each distinct column name with how many boards use it. Inbox tasks have no column, so they never match an Include rule and always pass an Exclude rule.

#Completed and Archived lists

Every list shows open tasks until you turn on Status. Completed shows tasks that have been checked off, archived or not. Archived shows tasks you archived (or that Move to Archive archived for you), completed or not. The other filters then narrow that pool as usual, so "Completed, Projects: Work, Date Range: this quarter" is a status report you can hand to anyone.

Such a list opens newest completion first, each row says when the task was completed, and Sort By offers Completion Date with Earliest First or Latest First. There is no Add Task button, since a new task would be open and never show. Swipe an archived task from the left to Unarchive it. Dated subtasks are not listed separately. A widget showing the list shows the same finished tasks.

#Start dates in date filters

A Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, or Date Range filter treats a task with a start date the way Today does: the task matches on every day from its start date through its due date. Overdue goes by the due date alone. Widgets showing the list follow the same rule.

The Start Date filter judges the start date on its own, whatever the due date. Started is the one to reach for in a big project where every task has a start date: open tasks whose start has arrived, nothing that is still waiting. A task added from a Started or Starts Today list starts today, so it shows up right away. A dated subtask goes by its parent's start date. See Managing Projects with Shortcuts for a full setup built on it.

#Subtasks in smart lists

When a list has a Date or Time filter, dated subtasks appear on their own. A subtask is matched on its own due date, and its tags, priority, flag, and project come from its parent task.

#Using a smart list

Select it in the sidebar. The list has the same toolbar as the built-in lists: Sort and Filter (Sort By, Direction, Filter by Tag), Select, and Add Task. Sort By offers Manual, Due Date, Creation Date, Completion Date, Priority, or Title. Each smart list remembers its own sort and manual order.

A task added inside a smart list is born matching it, as far as the rules pin down a single value: a list filtered to Flagged and High priority gives its new tasks the flag and High priority. If you close the new task without typing, it's removed again.

#Editing, reordering, deleting

Right-click or press and hold the list in the sidebar for Edit Smart List and Delete Smart List. Drag lists to reorder them. Deleting a smart list never touches the tasks in it.

#Where smart lists are stored

Custom smart lists are saved separately from your task database, as a device preference that's mirrored through iCloud key-value storage. That means they follow you to your other devices without touching the synced task data, and they're mirrored again into the app group so widgets can read them.

#Hiding the section

Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Sidebar Smart Lists has a Smart Lists toggle for the whole section, and Sidebar Order can move the section above or below Spaces and Tags. Smart List Size and Smart List Line Height sliders live in Settings ▸ Typography.

#Examples

• Focus: Priority High, Date This Week, Include All. Your must-dos.
• Started: Start Date Started. Everything you can work on now in a project full of future-dated tasks.
• Waiting: Tags "Waiting" (and anything nested under it), Any Date. A single view of everything blocked on someone else.
• Home this weekend: Spaces Personal, Date Date Range Saturday to Sunday.
• Work, no admin: Spaces Work, Projects Exclude "Admin", Flag Not Flagged.
• Status report: Status Completed, Spaces Work, Sort By Completion Date, Latest First. Everything you finished, newest at the top.
• In process everywhere: Columns "In Process". One list of what's underway on every board that uses that column name.

#Smart lists in widgets

Choose the list in the widget's List setting. The widget uses the same rules, including nested tags and Include / Exclude, and picks up name, icon, and color changes right away. See Widgets.