Filters narrow a list down to what you want to see right now, for example only the tasks from one project, or everything except a certain label. You can filter your day list and any smart list, category or project.
How to add a filter
Open the ⋯ menu in the top right corner of the list.
Click Filter (or press Alt+F).
Choose your filters by clicking pills or by typing (see below).
Screenshot to add: The Filter window in pill mode, with the Scope, Properties and Status sections
Filtering by clicking
The Filter window opens with clickable pills, in three sections:
Scope: Category, Label and Smart List.
Properties: Priority, Frog, Urgency, Energy, Weight, Positivity, MIP and Orbit.
Status: Scheduled, Has Time, Has Duration, Recurring, Planned, Pinned, Backburner and Work Session.
Click a pill once to show only those items. Click it again to hide them instead. Click a third time to reset it. For Category, Label and Smart List you first pick which one.
Filtering by typing
Switch to text mode with the toggle at the top of the Filter window. Type into Show to see only matching items, or into Hide to hide them:
@ to filter by label
# to filter by category or project
* to filter by a property, like priority or frog
$ to filter by a smart list
You can combine filters: #Work and *important must match both, #Work or #Home matches either, and parentheses group them, like (#Work or #Home) and *urgent.
To include items that are normally hidden, type show backburner or show snoozed. To see only those, type show only backburner.
For very specific filters there is also an Advanced (RPN) field at the bottom.
Quick filter
To find something fast, open the ⋯ menu and turn on Quick filter. A search box appears above the list, and only items whose title matches what you type are shown.
Showing hidden items
Snoozed and backburnered items are hidden from your lists. When a list has hidden items, open the ⋯ menu and switch between All, Open only and Hidden only.
Removing a filter
Active filters show as tags above the list. Click a tag to remove that filter. Alt+Shift+F removes the filter you added last.
Filtering straight from the list
Shift+click a section heading to show only that section. Alt+Shift+click it to hide that section.
Shift+click a label, category or property (like priority or frog) on a task to filter the list by it. Alt+Shift+click a label or category to hide everything with it.
Filtering with a smart list
You can use any smart list as a filter. For example, if you want the Master List to show only tasks due in the next 20 days, create a smart list for "due within 20 days" and then pick it with the Smart List pill, or type $ and its name.