Why I Gave Up on Weekly List Tagging
When I first started using TickTick, I had this grand vision: everything in neat lists, color-coded tags, flawless priorities, and a week where things magically got done. LOL, no. What actually happened is I created lists for Work, Personal, Errands, and Reading — sounds good in theory — but after two weeks, I spent more time moving tasks between lists than doing the actual tasks.
Then I tried tagging tasks like #thisweek or #urgent instead. Somehow that made things worse. For example, I couldn’t filter just the way I wanted: say, only “urgent but personal tasks that don’t involve calling anyone” (because phone calls are emotionally expensive 🫠). TickTick’s custom smart lists helped a little, but at one point I had a smart list to find tasks that weren’t in any smart list, which is when I knew something was broken.
So I stopped trying to use custom week-based lists altogether and went full tags-only.
Create Tags That Match Thought Patterns
The thing with tags is that they’re only useful if they mirror how your brain already sorts stuff. When I’m overwhelmed, I don’t think “I have to do my Work List.” Instead, my brain screams “What’s the fastest win here?”
So now I tag stuff as #quickwin, #brainoff, #highfocus, and #waiting.
Quick explainer for each:
– #quickwin: Under 10 minutes, low resistance. Think: filling out a form, adding something to Google Calendar, opening an email.*
– #brainoff: Stuff I can do while mildly dissociating. Folding laundry, updating Notion widgets, deleting junk notes from Evernote.
– #highfocus: Deep work, don’t-try-this-at-5pm, needs headphones.
– #waiting: Stuff in progress but needs someone/something else. Like I emailed the landlord. Or the Zap is still testing. Or Amazon has not delivered the thing I need.
Just these four tags changed how I approached Mondays. Instead of face-planting into my inbox and getting nowhere, I filter by #quickwin and knock out 3–4 small things. 😌
If something doesn’t get done that week, I don’t stress — I just re-tag it or refine the tag filter.
Use Nested Tags Without Overengineering It
TickTick lets you create nested tags, but don’t get seduced by tag-tech. I lost an entire Saturday afternoon trying to build a gorgeous tag hierarchy that included things like #Work::ClientA and #Personal::Errands::Groceries. Guess what happened? Nothing ever got tagged deeply enough to show up under those views because I’d get lazy and just type #groceries. 😂
Now I keep it simple. A few high-use base tags like #Work, #Personal, and #Errand — and if a tag is actually used often *with* a modifier, like #Errand::Pharmacy, then I let it happen naturally. But I never force it. Complex tag trees die from underuse.
Also important: in TickTick, nested tags don’t auto-inherit filters the way you’d assume. If you search for #Errand, it sometimes won’t show #Errand::Pharmacy unless you explicitly include both.
So keep your system flat unless you’re actually using the nested views regularly.
Build One Smart List Per Modifier Type
Here’s one of those things I figured out purely by accident. If you try to filter by multiple tags in a Smart List — say you want things that are both #Personal and #quickwin — TickTick makes it weirdly hard to get just the combo you want. Sometimes it interprets it as ANY of the tags, not ALL.
What worked for me was creating one Smart List per modifier type:
– Quick Wins This Week → filter: tag:#quickwin AND date:this week
– High Focus This Week → filter: tag:#highfocus AND date:this week
– Everything Waiting → filter: tag:#waiting
This way, if I’m zoning out but want to get something done, I just open “Quick Wins This Week,” knock one out, and feel smug for 10 minutes.
One frustrating behavior: if you try to sort Smart Lists by tag order, TickTick sometimes forgets what you picked. It randomly resets to default. I recorded it happening three times last month. I emailed support; so far no reply ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tag by Energy Required Not Project Type
The problem with tagging tasks by which project they’re in — like #WebsiteRedesign or #TaxPrep — is that in any given hour, I’m not thinking “Let’s work on the website.” I’m thinking “GOD I am tired can I do anything useful.”
So I re-tagged everything based on what state of mind or energy it needs. Honestly, this felt embarrassing at first. Like, I had a literal tag called #lowconfidence. But it turned into one of the most helpful indicators of what I should do *today*.
Other tags I’ve actually used:
– #nopeople — means I don’t need to talk, email, or call anyone to finish this.
– #payingtasks — tasks that cost money when I do them (renew subscriptions, register domain names).
– #tinyerrands — anything I can do while walking to get coffee or waiting in the car.
On Monday mornings, I skim through #nopeople and #quickwin. Once a week I check #payingtasks and #waiting to make sure I’m not accidentally racking up late fees or letting someone ghost me.
Color Code Tags For Time of Day Use
Visual learners, this one’s for you: Tag colors in TickTick can actually become a behavioral signal if you assign them to WHEN you’re likely to do that kind of work.
Here’s roughly how I do it:
– Red: Morning focus (7–11am)
– Blue: Midday admin/brainoff
– Purple: Evening energy
– Gray: No ideal time, chill-flexible
So I don’t just look at what the task is, but what time it wants to be done.
This became especially handy on days with tons of meetings. I’d quickly pull up tasks tagged with purple to figure out what’s still manageable post-5pm. Also, putting a red tag next to something feels like emotional red ink — if it’s still there by 2pm and untouched, I reschedule or make peace with not doing it 💀
Pro tip: Don’t overuse bold colors. If everything is bright red, nothing is urgent. Learned that the hard way.
Use Hashtag Search Instead of Filters Sometimes
This is not what TickTick intended, but sometimes the search bar is better than the actual filter interface. If your tag is unique enough — like #quickwin or #brainfog — you can just type it with the hashtag into the search and get clean results fast.
For tags like #lowenergy, though, I made the rookie mistake of not realizing I also wrote “low energy” as plain text in several tasks — so my search pulled up too much noise. You can fix it by editing inconsistent tasks OR making your tag something less likely to be used in normal writing (e.g., #noenergy).
Also there’s a weird behavior where if you search for #waiting and you view the results in Today view, TickTick sometimes *adds* Today as a hidden filter, so you think there’s nothing tagged #waiting. Only figured this out because I clicked between Inbox and smart lists obsessively until something looked wrong.
Reevaluate Your Tag Usage Every Two Weeks
Eventually every tag system decays. I realized this when I had 14 tags with only one task each, and three of them duplicated meaning: #brainlow, #slowevening, #chilltasks. They all meant the same thing. I merged them into #brainoff.
What I do now: Every second Sunday I search for tags with no tasks — and tags applied to only one task. Easy way: sort all your tags alphabetically, scroll, prune. Anything with zero uses gets deleted. If it has one use, I decide: is this tag worth growing? If not, task gets re-tagged and redundant label is killed.
Repeat every couple weeks and your system won’t rot as quickly. Like clearing old socks from a drawer 🙂