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Use a "Dashboard" to avoid misfiling a task (or missing a deadline!)

zero023z says:
I have a Smart List in my account called Dashboard, which I use for two purposes:
- To make sure I'm not missing an important or overdue task
- To make sure all my tasks are properly filed

The Dashboard hunts down all the tasks that:
- Are overdue, due today, or due within the next 7 days.
- Are missing a due date
- (OPTIONAL) Are missing a location
- (OPTIONAL) Are not tagged

The "OPTIONAL" bullets are additional search criteria you could add to your own Dashboard if you're the kind of person who ALWAYS tags or adds a location to every task.

You can use a Dashboard as a "sanity checker" to be sure you haven't let any tasks fall through the cracks.

You can also EXCLUDE certain lists from the Dashboard that are "immune" to your usual rules.

For example, I have a list called Buy (things to buy) and a list called Travel (places I want to go). I often add tasks without due dates to those two lists, because they double as "wish lists" (i.e. things I'd LIKE to buy, and places I WANT to go).

My Dashboard is smart enough to let me off the hook for not putting a due date on a Buy or Travel task.

My Dashboard uses the following search criteria:
dueBefore: today OR dueWithin:"1 week of today" OR (due:never NOT (list:Buy OR list:Travel))

You can customize your own Dashboard by changing the list names above, and/or adding optional features like "isTagged:false" to find tasks that aren't tagged, or "isLocated:false" to find tasks that have no location.
Posted at 11:20pm on August 9, 2010
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi zero023z,

Great Smart List! Just wanted to let you know that you're this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner. We've upgraded your RTM account to have a free year of Pro. :)
Posted 13 years ago
gordonswaby says:
Hey, Question for Zero. It's been driving me crazy trying to figure out how to add more than 2 lists to the query, help me out please.
Posted 13 years ago
zero023z says:
Awesome. Thanks Emily!

@gordonswaby
I can help, but what exactly do you mean by "add more than 2 lists to the query"?

If you just want to exclude more than two lists at the end, you'd simply use:
dueBefore: today OR dueWithin:"1 week of today" OR (due:never NOT (list:Buy OR list:Travel OR list:Monkeys))

This is exactly the same, but I've added "OR list:Monkeys" to the group of lists that are "immune" to the due date requirement.

That last part of the search basically says "Include any tasks that don't have a due date UNLESS they are on the Buy, Travel or Monkeys list.

Note that tasks on the Buy, Travel or Monkeys lists WILL still be displayed on the Dashboard if they are overdue, due today, or due within the next 7 days (because of the first part of the search: "dueBefore: today OR dueWithin:"1 week of today"").
Posted 13 years ago
gordonswaby says:
Oh, that's why i was having a problem, that last caveat i didn't get i.e why it was still displaying stuff from the lists i excluded. Thanks! Sorry about the ambiguity.
Posted 13 years ago
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