Interesting idea! I tried to use durations of 1 week or 1 month in order to shorten the search text length with no success.

Different way to hide tasks until a future date (it's Tips&Tricks war ;-)
Using the due date in order to hide tasks until a future date doesn't necessarily mean that you have to treat it as a start date. Basically, you can use tags to sleep tasks until a set time before its due: 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 1 month etc. The time estimate is not used for hiding tasks and can be the correct time estimate for the task.

Following an idea started by lwallach I created a smartlist for sleeping tasks (called ¤zzz below):

list:Someday
OR (tag:zzz AND dueAfter:now)
OR (tag:z1d AND dueAfter:"1 day of now")
OR (tag:z2d AND dueAfter:"2 days of now")
OR (tag:z1w AND dueAfter:"1 week of now")
OR (tag:z1m AND dueAfter:"1 month of now")
You can create and use as many tags as you like using this pattern.

I use this in my other smartlists in order to hide tasks I don't want to see yet:
At work: location:@work AND NOT list:¤zzz

Some typical tasks could be (this trick works especially well with repeating tasks in order to hide a recently completed task):
- Buy birthday present to spouse, due: 1 june, tag: z1w
- Clean fridge, due friday, tag: z1d

Excellent idea! Can you clarify the following, please?:
What does the list, Someday, contain?
In the set of search criteria: At work: location:@work AND NOT list:¤zzz , what is the "At work:" bit?

I have 3 lists for tasks, trying to work the GTD way:
- Inbox for most things
- Someday for things that I might want to do someday but not clutter up my todo lists yet
- Deferred for tasks where I wait for other peoples responses

I also have a list for all my project titles, the next actions themselves go into the Inbox.

At work is the smart list I use at work. Actually the smart lists is a bit more complex than what's shown above, but the idea is still valid, hiding things until a set time before they are due.

wcitypoe, sorry for stealing your thread, but war is war ;-)

Thanks. What I should have said is that I don't understand the syntax of :
At work: location:@work AND NOT list:¤zzz
Shouldn't it be:
list:"At work" AND (location:@work AND NOT list:¤zzz) ?

No, rather the smart list At work has the criteria location:@work AND NOT list:¤zzz

Got you now. Thanks!

Not sure why you said, "War is war", rajjan. I don't picture myself as in conflict with you on anything.

You started the post with a new idea on how to hide your tasks until a later date, I "stole" your thread with a different idea on how to achieve the same thing. I could have started a new thread but posted in yours, the "war"-'thing was just a joke. I've picked up many good ideas from your previous posts, I will continue to do so.

Sorry if I offended you, that was not my intention!

I have a different take on this hiding of tasks idea. I approach it from the reverse: what tasks are active now. To that end, I have a master "#My List" where most all my tasks go. Then, using smart folders, I pick out of there those that are active. I define active as:
- due before today
- due today
- no due date
- incomplete status

I have a "hold" tag for tasks that I'm waiting on someone/something to continue and a "someday" tag. I also, like rajjan, have numerous tags for how far ahead of a task's due date I want that task to be active. For example, sometime in October I need to go to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and get my car registrations updated. It doesn't matter what day I go as long as it's done before the 31st. So, I set up a task "Get cars registered" and tagged it like this: @errands, 1month. This assigns the task to my "@errands" smart list and the task appears in my "Active Tasks" smart list 1 month before its due date of 10/31. My Active Tasks query looks like this:

(dueBefore:today OR due:today OR due:never OR (tag:2days AND dueWithin:"2 days of today") OR (tag:3days AND dueWithin:"3 days of today") OR (tag:4days AND dueWithin:"4 days of today") OR (tag:5days AND dueWithin:"5 days of today") OR (tag:6days AND dueWithin:"6 days of today") OR (tag:1week AND dueWithin:"1 week of today") OR (tag:2weeks AND dueWithin:"2 weeks of today") OR (tag:3weeks AND dueWithin:"3 weeks of today") OR (tag:1month AND dueWithin:"1 month of today") OR (tag:2months AND dueWithin:"2 months of today") OR (tag:3months AND dueWithin:"3 months of today") OR (tag:6months AND dueWithin:"6 months of today") OR (tag:1year AND dueWithin:"1 year of today")) AND NOT (tag:"hold" OR tag:someday) AND list:"#My List" AND status:incomplete

Building off that, my @errands smart list query looks like this:

tag:@errands AND list:"Active Tasks"

This gives me the flexibility to see tasks for a duration in which they need to be done (a duration that is task-specific) and not just on the date they're due.

Jonw that is a nice system. I do something similar, but not nearly as granular. Will have to noodle on adding more dueBefores...

Curious why you include the last part of the search "AND status:incomplete" Don't searches by default only include incomplete tasks?

could yo please post here the tips shown in http://windycitymike.com/2008/03/07/how-to-hide-your-tasks-with-remember-the-milk/

the links seems not to contain the tip at this time

thanks