15 Smart List Recipes for Apple Reminders

Smart List recipes for Apple Reminders are pre-built filter rules covering Today, Waiting For, Errands, Quick Wins, Read Later, and 10 more saved views power users rely on.

I built my first smart list in Apple Reminders on a Tuesday morning in late 2023, after realizing I'd opened the same "what should I do next" question 4 times that week. The smart list answered it. By the end of that month I had 11 of them. Then I cut the list back to 5 because too many smart lists is just a different kind of noise. This piece is the 15 recipes worth knowing, ranked by how much real use they get in a normal week.

Honestly, you probably need 4 to 6 of these. Not all 15. Pick the ones that match how you actually work, not the ones that sound impressive.

Quick rankings

#	Recipe	Filter	Best for
1	Today	Date is today	Daily planning
2	This week	Date is this week	Weekly review
3	Waiting for	Tag #waiting	Follow-ups
4	Quick wins	Priority is low + No date	5-min slots
5	Errands	Tag #errand	Out of the house
6	Read later	Tag #read	Calm time
7	Calls	Tag #call	Phone block
8	Anywhere with wifi	Tag #anywhere	Travel days
9	High priority	Priority is high	Crisis triage
10	Flagged this week	Flagged + this week	Important + soon
11	Overdue	Date is before today	Honest cleanup
12	This month	Date is this month	Monthly planning
13	Untagged inbox	No tag	Triage discipline
14	Shopping	Tag #shopping	Grocery list
15	Birthdays	Tag #birthday	Anniversaries

1. Today

The Today smart list filters reminders due today and is the daily planning anchor. Filter: Date is Today. Pin to top of sidebar. This is the most-used smart list in any working setup. Apple already provides a built-in Today view, but the smart list version lets you customize whether overdue tasks are included and whether you want time-grouping enabled.

Use the morning triage on this list. Three flags. Hand off to Calendar. See How to Plan Your Day in Apple Reminders for the full ritual.

2. This week

The This Week smart list shows everything due in the next 7 days. Filter: Date is This Week. Use this for the Sunday or Monday weekly review. You'll see the shape of the week before the week shapes you. Pair with How to Run a Weekly Review in Apple Reminders for the full review pattern.

Pro move: pin this list during reviews, unpin after. Keeps the sidebar clean during normal weekdays.

3. Waiting for

The Waiting For smart list filters tasks tagged #waiting that are pending response from someone else. Filter: Tag is #waiting. When you email Sundeep about Q4 numbers, the task isn't done. It's waiting. Tag it #waiting and move on. Weekly review opens this list and chases anything that's been waiting more than 5 days.

This is the single most underused smart list pattern. ADHD brains in particular benefit because it externalizes the "did I hear back from..." mental loop.

4. Quick wins

The Quick Wins smart list shows undated low-priority tasks under 10 minutes each, perfect for 5-minute gaps. Filter: Priority is Low + No Date Set. When you're between calls and have 7 minutes, this list tells you exactly what to do. Examples: respond to an Slack DM, file an expense, schedule a follow-up.

Tag a task #quickwin to qualify. Anything that takes more than 10 minutes shouldn't be in here. Keep the bar honest.

5. Errands

The Errands smart list collects everything tagged #errand that requires being out of the house. Filter: Tag is #errand. When you're running out anyway, you check Errands and batch them. Saves trips. ADHD-friendly because you don't have to remember the 4 things, you just open one list.

Pair with location-based reminders for the heavy hitters (drugstore, post office). See Location-Based Reminders on iPhone if you want geo-triggers on top.

6. Read later

The Read Later smart list collects articles, PDFs, and notes tagged #read for calm-time reading. Filter: Tag is #read. The trick is to capture aggressively and prune ruthlessly. Anything that's been sitting unread for 30 days is unlikely to get read, ever. Drop it.

Bonus: see Apple Reminders as a Reading List for the full reading list pattern.

7. Calls

The Calls smart list shows everyone you need to phone, batched. Filter: Tag is #call. On a "phone block" day (Tuesday afternoon for me), open Calls and burn through them. Each call usually triggers 2 to 3 follow-up tasks, which you capture as you go.

Especially powerful when paired with the iPhone callback reminder feature for missed calls.

8. Anywhere with wifi

The Anywhere With Wifi smart list filters tasks tagged #anywhere that you can do from any laptop. Filter: Tag is #anywhere. Travel days. Cafes. Hotels. The list tells you what's possible without your office setup, your second monitor, or your home file access.

Keep the bar narrow. If a task needs your "real" desk, it's not #anywhere.

9. High priority

The High Priority smart list surfaces every task with priority set to high. Filter: Priority is High. Crisis-mode list. On a normal day this should have under 5 items. If it has 30, you've polluted priority. Fix the bar.

The discipline is "high means high." Not "moderately important." Not "would be nice." Genuinely high.

10. Flagged this week

The Flagged This Week smart list combines flags and date to surface important and soon. Filter: Flagged + Date is This Week. Use this midweek when you're behind. The flag means important, the date means soon. The intersection is what to do first.

Pair with How to Use Flags vs Priority vs Tags in Apple Reminders for the full flag/priority/tag system.

11. Overdue

The Overdue smart list surfaces every task whose due date has passed. Filter: Date is Before Today. Honest accountability. Open this list every Sunday during the weekly review. Either do the task, defer it to a real date, or admit it's not happening and delete it.

The cleanup is uncomfortable. That's why you should do it weekly. Otherwise overdue grows to 200 items and you stop opening Reminders.

12. This month

The This Month smart list shows everything due this calendar month. Filter: Date is This Month. Mostly useful for monthly planning at the start of each month. Spot the lumps. Move things around so the month doesn't end with everything crammed into the last week.

Skip if you don't do monthly planning. Most people use This Week instead.

13. Untagged inbox

The Untagged Inbox smart list catches tasks that have no tags assigned. Filter: No Tag. The discipline list. If a task has no tag, it can't be filtered into Errands, Calls, Read Later, or anywhere else. The Untagged Inbox surfaces them so you can tag and route.

Keep this under 10 items. Anything older than 3 days here is a triage failure.

14. Shopping

The Shopping smart list filters tasks tagged #shopping that are not the auto-categorized grocery list. Filter: Tag is #shopping. For non-grocery shopping (clothes, gifts, household). The grocery list has its own auto-categorization (turn on Grocery list type when creating the list). This is for everything else.

Pair with How to Use Tags in Apple Reminders (Complete System) for the full tagging architecture.

15. Birthdays

The Birthdays smart list filters recurring annual reminders tagged #birthday. Filter: Tag is #birthday. Set each person's birthday as a yearly recurring reminder, tagged #birthday, with a 1-week-before alert. Open the list every Sunday to see what's coming up.

Cleaner than Calendar for this because Reminders surface in the Today view as part of the daily flow, not as a separate calendar to check.

How we picked

These 15 came out of running Apple Reminders as the source of truth for two years across founders, engineers, parents, and ADHD users. The criterion was simple: did this smart list get used at least weekly across multiple users, or was it a clever idea that no one actually opened?

We dropped recipes that sounded smart but had low real-world usage. Examples of dropped recipes: "Tasks created on a Friday" (clever, no use), "Tasks with attachments" (visible but not actionable), "Tasks shared with one specific person" (useful sometimes, mostly nuisance).

For the broader power-user pattern library, see 11 Hidden Apple Reminders Features You're Not Using and Apple Reminders for Power Users: The Complete System.

"I had 19 smart lists. Cut to 6. Way more useful."
paraphrased from r/macapps, January 2026

"The Untagged Inbox one literally saved my workflow. Now nothing slips through."
paraphrased from r/productivity, February 2026

FAQ

Q: How many smart lists is too many?

A: Anything past 8 starts adding decision fatigue. The sweet spot for most users is 4 to 6. Today, This Week, Waiting For, Quick Wins, and one role-specific list (Calls or Errands or whatever your week looks like) covers 80% of the value.

Q: Can I share a smart list?

A: No. Smart lists are local to your device and your iCloud account. They don't share. Only regular lists share. The workaround is to share the underlying list (e.g., a "Family" list) and let each member build their own smart lists filtered against it.

Q: Do smart lists work on iPhone?

A: Yes, fully. Smart lists sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud. Build them once on Mac (the filter UI is easier on a big screen) and they appear everywhere.

Q: Why doesn't my smart list show all the tasks I expect?

A: Usually one of three things. First, the filter logic is "all" instead of "any" so multiple conditions narrow the result. Second, the tag has a typo (#waitng vs #waiting). Third, the list filter is set to a specific list when you wanted "all lists." Open the smart list settings and verify the filter logic.

Q: Can a smart list pull from multiple lists?

A: Yes. Set the "Include from" filter to "All Lists" and the smart list pulls from every list in your iCloud database. This is the default for most smart lists. Limit to specific lists only when you want a scoped view (e.g., a "Today, Work only" smart list filtered to your Work lists).

Ultra Reminders solves smart list rules that work without trial and error. Free 14-day trial at ultrareminders.com.