Find anything
The Things view and its filters
Every thing you have written, from every list and day, with filters on top.
Why you'd care
Search answers "where is the one that says X". This view answers "show me all of them that are Y". Those are different questions, and structure is what this view is for.
"Unfinished to-dos older than a month" is not a search. It is a filter, and it is the single most useful cleanup query in the product.
The filters
| Filter | Options |
|---|---|
| Type | To-do, note, dash, bullet, number |
| Status | All, uncompleted, completed, canceled |
| Starred | Only starred |
| Has reminder | Only things with a notification |
| Has photo | Only things with images |
| Has link | Only things containing a URL |
| Tagged | By one or more tags |
| Mentioned | Things mentioning someone |
| Published | Things shared publicly |
| Trash | Deleted things |
Going further
This is the best place to select across lists. Filter down, select all, and act once. Moving forty stale to-dos to Today takes about nine seconds. See select many things at once.
Filters combine. Type plus status plus tag narrows fast, and every filter is an AND.
It is a view, not a place. Things shown here still live where you wrote them. Acting on one acts on the real thing.
Tips
- The monthly cleanup: uncompleted to-dos, oldest first, select all, decide. Ten minutes, once a month.
- Filter by has-photo when you know you photographed something but not what you called it.