Apple Notes for Personal Organisation

Learn how to use Apple Notes with tags and tasks for personal organization.

4 min readAug 9, 2023

Apple Notes is a great alternative app to Microsoft OneNote for taking notes, creating checklists, scanning documents, and more if you are using Apple Devices.

But did you know that you can also use tags and tasks to organize your notes better?

Tasks

Tasks are items that you can mark as completed or incomplete in your notes. For example, you can use tasks to create a grocery list, a to-do list, or a project plan.

By using tags and tasks together, you can easily find, filter, and manage your notes across different folders.

Here are some tips on how to use tags and tasks in Apple Notes

To add a tag to a note, type # followed by the tag name or choose a tag from the suggestions menu above the keyboard. You can add multiple tags to a note, and any tag you create is automatically added to the Tags browser under your list of Folders. You can also add tags in your drawings with an Apple Pencil on iPad: Just sketch # and the tag name within a note.
To add a task to a note, tap the table button or the formatting button at the bottom of the screen, then tap the checkbox button. You can also type a dash followed by a space to create a task. To mark a task as completed or incomplete, tap the checkbox next to it.
To view your notes with tags, go to the Tags browser at the bottom of the Folders list view. Tap a tag or All Tags to see a list of notes with that specific tag or all tags. You can also tap and hold a tag to rename or delete it.
To view your notes with tasks, go to the Folders list view and tap Tasks at the top of the screen. You’ll see all your notes that have tasks, sorted by date modified. You can also tap Show Completed Tasks at the bottom of the screen to see your completed tasks.
To create a smart folder with tags, tap the New Folder button on the home page of the Notes app on iPhone or iPad, or at the bottom of the sidebar on Mac. Choose Smart Folder, then select the tags you want to include in your smart folder. Give your smart folder a name and tap Create. Your smart folder will show all your notes that have those tags, regardless of which folder they are stored in.

Using tags and tasks in Apple Notes can help you keep track of your notes and get things done.

How to use intelligent folders to get an overview for all your tasks

If you use Apple Notes to create tasks, you might have noticed that they are scattered across different notes and folders. This can make it hard to keep track of what you need to do and when. Fortunately, there is a way to create intelligent folders that automatically show you all your tasks in one place. Intelligent folders are smart folders that use tags and other criteria to filter your notes.

You can use intelligent folders to see all your notes that have tasks, or only the ones that have incomplete or completed tasks. You can also use intelligent folders to see your tasks by date, priority, or category.

Steps on how to create and use intelligent folders for your tasks

To create an intelligent folder, tap the New Folder button on the home page of the Notes app on iPhone or iPad, or at the bottom of the sidebar on Mac. Choose Smart Folder, then select the criteria you want to use for your intelligent folder1. For example, you can choose Checklists from the first pop-up menu and Incomplete from the second one to create an intelligent folder that shows all your notes with incomplete tasks1. You can also add more criteria by tapping the Add button1. Give your intelligent folder a name and tap Create.
To view your tasks in an intelligent folder, tap or click the intelligent folder in the sidebar of the Notes app. You will see a list of notes that match the criteria you specified for the intelligent folder1. You can tap or click any note to open it and view or edit its tasks. You can also mark a task as completed or incomplete by tapping or clicking the checkbox next to it.
To edit or delete an intelligent folder, touch and hold or control-click the intelligent folder in the sidebar of the Notes app. In the pop-up menu, tap or click Edit Smart Folder or Delete Smart Folder. If you edit an intelligent folder, you can change its name or criteria by using the pop-up menus. If you delete an intelligent folder, it will be removed from the sidebar, but your notes and tasks will remain in their original folders.

Using intelligent folders can help you get an overview of all your tasks in Apple Notes.

You can also use other features like, mentions, pinning notes, scanning documents, drawing shapes, and collaborating with others to make the most out of Apple Notes.