Like most of us I create saved Smart Lists based on certain criteria for easy access at a later date. This is a great and powerful feature and I highly recommend it if you haven't tried it. I was finding that the Smart Lists area at the top of my screen was becoming quite congested and it was getting harder to focus on the Lists that I was concentrating on at the time. Some of the Search criteria was fairly complex and I would save it as a Smart List without the need to go back to them on a regular basis, but afraid to lose the search instructions.

My solution was to create a Smart List called Z-TAGS. This is a saved list based on the tag:tags. I entered all of my saved searches into this list, which makes it really easily go back to by copying and pasting into the search bar. I also gave each search a name that I typed in CAPS so I can sort the list alphabetically which will make them easier to find as the list grows.

Here is an entry for tasks due this week.

THIS WEEK: (status:incomplete AND (dueWithin:"1 week of today" OR dueBefore:today)) NOT tag:hay

After I call this up, I select this portion of the name after the colon, copy and paste it into the search bar excluding the "THIS WEEK:" portion.

(status:incomplete AND (dueWithin:"1 week of today" OR dueBefore:today)) NOT tag:hay

(hay? I have a marketing project called "Making Hay" that I didn't want to include. :-) )

I named the Smart List Z-TAGS so it is always at the end of my Saved Lists tabs at the top of my screen and easy to find. Now when I have a search I want to save I click on the Z-TAGS list, and make my entry by typing in it's name and search info. If I'm in the Z-TAGS list it automatically applies the the tag:tags. Sweet!

Keep in mind you can easily create a Smart List again for any of your searches if want to focus on a particular set of criteria for a while like a project and delete when you move on to something else, confident that you can quickly call it up again by going to your Z-TAGS Smart List.