If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by endless to-do lists, your Apple devices have an underrated feature hiding in plain sight—and chances are, you’re not using it to its full potential.
What Are Smart Lists?
It probably helps to start with what Smart List is not. A Smart List in Apple Reminders isn’t a traditional list of to-dos. Instead, think of it as a dynamic filter that automatically pulls in tasks from your existing lists based on specific criteria—like due dates, tags, or priority levels. This means your tasks stay in their original lists, but you get a focused view of what you’d like to see.
How is this useful? Smart Lists help you to cut through the noise. If youuse Reminders to organize your to-dos, chances are, it’s packed with various tasks scattered across multiple lists—groceries, work projects, personal errands, and more. Scrolling through all of them to find what you need to work on can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Smart Lists solve this problem by automatically organizing your reminders into focused, actionable views. Instead of wasting time scrolling, you see only the tasks that matter right now. For instance, do you need to tackle urgent work tasks? You can create a Smart List that filters reminders taggedWorkand which are due today.
How to Use Reminders’ Smart Lists on Your Mac
Before you create your first Smart List, consider taking a moment to add tags. Tags in Apple Reminders allow you to categorize tasks, making it easier to filter them. For example, you might tag tasks with labels likeWork,Personal,Errands, orSchool.
Smart Lists rely on tags (among other criteria) to pull in the right tasks automatically, so setting them up first can make your workflow even smoother.
Here’s how to add tags to your reminders on a Mac:
Once your tasks are tagged, you can startusing Smart Lists in Reminders on your Mac. Here’s how to create a Smart List:
Once created, your Smart List will populate with reminders that match your criteria. This underrated Apple feature has improved my workflow, and it’s one of the reasons I believeyou already have the best to-do app on your iPhone and Mac. Smart Lists give me actionable views that help me prioritize and stay on track.Here are a few examples of how I use Smart Lists to supercharge my productivity:
1. Today’s Work Smart List
One of the biggest challenges with productivity is knowing what to focus on each day. Instead of juggling multiple lists, I created a Smart List calledToday’s Workthat automatically pulls in tasks with the#worktag andTodayas the due date.
Now, every morning when I sit down at my desk, I don’t have to dig through different lists—I just open this Smart List, and everything I need to complete that day is already laid out. Here’s how to set the filters for Today’s Work Smart List:
You can check theInclude Past Duebox to include overdue tasks.
2. This Week’s Smart List
Sometimes, I need a broader perspective on my workload. This Smart List is perfect for planning by seeing what I need to do in the next seven days. This ensures I’m on top of upcoming deadlines and it also helps me domy weekly review to crush my to-do list.
As above, you may add tags you think may be relevant to this Smart List. However, when it comes to theDatefield, selectRelative RangeandIn the Next. Add1and selectWeekin the next field. ClickOkto save.
3. The Someday/Maybe Smart List
Not every task needs immediate attention. Inspired by theGetting Things Done method, my Someday Maybe Smart List gathers tasks or ideas that don’t have a specific due date but are worth revisiting when I have extra time.
For example, I might tag a reminder likeResearch new productivity toolsorOrganize files on my desktopwith the#somedaymaybetag. Alternatively, if you don’t want to use tags, you can selectNo Datein theDatefield to gather all the tasks without a due date.
Smart Lists in Apple Reminders can completely change the way you manage tasks—helping you stay organized, focused, and in control of your to-dos. If you haven’t tried them yet, set up your first Smart List today and see how much easier task management can be.
