Custom Views

by | Jun 12, 2022

The search feature in Remember The Milk allows you almost unlimited flexibility in creating views of your tasks. You can either create a custom view for one-time use or you can save the view as a Smart List. Here we show you two approaches, and we use the second method to create a TRO Smart List that shows you all your active tasks.

Method 1: Advanced Search

First, we will show you how to set up basic views for different contexts:

  1. Click Search Options next to the search box.
  2. Search All Lists.
  3. Set Status to Incomplete.
  4. Next to Tagged With, type the name of the tag (tags) you want to see (Calls, Billing, etc). You could even choose more than one tag by separating the tags with a comma, but this is rarely needed.
  5. Click Search Tasks.
  6. When your search results appear, look over the list to see that it really is returning the tasks you want to see.
  7. Save as a Smart List by clicking the Save tab on the right-hand side of the screen.
  8. Type the name of the list and click Save.

The new list appears among the tabs at the top of your page. Clicking on that tab shows all tasks within that category. You can use this to track all calls you need to make, all bills to be paid, or all errands you need to run.

Method 2: Search Commands

Now we will show you an even faster way to create Smart Lists, if you know the right search commands.

  1. Paste or type the following into the RTM search field: 
    		AND status:incomplete NOT tag:sm NOT tag:templates
  2. Press Enter.
  3. Save the list by clicking the Save tab at the right and naming it “All Active”, which means “all active tasks.”

Use the All Active list any time you want to see all tasks that are not Someday/Maybe. This also hides Templates, which is an advanced TRO feature covered during the 21-day follow-up.

Advanced Search Commands

RTM has incredibly powerful search options which allow you to find almost anything. This is particularly helpful in trying to make specialized Smart Lists.

A Word of Caution

If you create a task in a Smart List, the new task will inherit any tags associated with that list. Always collect new tasks as explained here.

Some of the search options are only available as typed commands in the search box. To see a complete list of commands, including examples, click “Show search options” below the search box and hit the “Advanced Searching” link. Or you can visit the RTM Advanced Search help page.

Smart Lists are almost unlimited, so if you want a very particular kind of list you can probably make it, provided you have the patience to learn the search terms.