Stars and Priorities

2Do has two ways to mark a task as more important than others: a Star and a Priority. They look similar, but they're for different jobs.

The Short Version

• Star: I want this task in front of me right now. Personal, ephemeral, easy to flip on and off. The Starred Focus List collects every starred task in one place.
• Priority: This task is intrinsically important. Stable, ordered (None / Low / Medium / High), survives across reviews. Priority drives sort order and is a first-class field in Smart Filters.

You can have both on the same task. You'll usually only need one.

Both can be typed straight into a new task's title: !, !!, or !!! for Low, Medium, or High priority and * for a star. Write the marker as a word of its own, as in Send the school form !!! *; in English, leave a space before the mark, so Say hello! keeps its exclamation mark. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text can place the mark directly after a character. See Natural Language Input.

Stars in Detail

A star is a binary flag. A task is either starred or it isn't.

Starring a Task

• Swipe right on a task to mark Done, swipe further to Star.
• Tap-and-hold popup → Star / Unstar.
• Drag a task onto the Starred Focus List in the sidebar (works in batch edit mode for many at once, see Batch Editing).

What Starring Does

• The task appears in the Starred Focus List at the top of the sidebar.
• It can appear in Today too: the Include starred items switch in Settings > Today & Lists, when on, treats every starred task as a Today task regardless of its dates.
• It can be the basis of Smart Filters via type: starred.

When to Star

Stars are best for temporary emphasis: a small set of tasks you want in front of you for the next few hours or today, not a permanent classification. If you find yourself starring the same tasks every week, they probably deserve a tag or a Smart List instead.

Priorities in Detail

A priority is one of four levels: None, Low, Medium, High. The priority dot is colour-coded and visible on every task row.

Setting a Priority

• In the editor: tap the priority control to the right of the title and pick None, Low, Medium, or High. The same menu carries the Starred switch.
• On the task row: see Quick Priority and Star on a Row below.
• Tap-and-hold popup: choose a priority from the popup.
• Hardware keyboard: 0 to 3 on a selection in the task list, or ⌥⌘0 to ⌥⌘3 while the editor is open.

Quick Priority and Star on a Row

You do not have to open a task to change its priority. Tap the control at the right edge of a task row and the row expands to reveal a strip of options underneath it: None, Low, Medium, and High, plus Starred. Pick one and the row updates in place.

This is the fastest way to work through a brain dump: expand a row, set its priority, move on to the next.

note

Changing the task's type is not offered in this strip. Use Convert... in the editor's More menu instead.

Letting 2Do Work Them Out

Priorities are worth setting, and setting fifty of them by hand is a chore. In batch editing, the Priority command offers Auto-Prioritize, which works out None, Low, Medium, or High for every task you selected. It reads each task's title, notes, dates, list, and tags on your iPhone or iPad using Apple Intelligence, so nothing about your tasks is sent anywhere, and it changes nothing but the priority.

It is worth reaching for after a brain dump, after importing a list that arrived with no priorities at all, or during a weekly review when you want a second read on this week's tasks. It fills in tasks that have no priority and can raise others; the full page covers how it treats the levels you set yourself. It needs iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on.

See Auto-Prioritize.

What Priority Does

• The priority dot is colour-coded on every task row.
• Sorting by Priority groups tasks by level, High at the top, then Medium, Low, and None. The sort bar's direction control reverses that order. Turn on Sort starred items above hi-priority in Settings > Today & Lists and starred tasks get their own section above High.
• Smart Filters can match type: hiprio, type: medprio, type: lowprio, type: prio (any), and type: noprio (none). See Smart Lists.
• The Focus Filter includes High Priority and Starred among its conditions, so you can narrow any list to either in one tap.

When to Use Priority

Priority is best for stable emphasis. Reserve High for things that genuinely belong at the top of the heap. If everything is High, nothing is.

Stars vs. Priorities: When to Use Which

Situation	Use
You want this task in front of you today only	Star
The task is intrinsically more important than its neighbours	Priority
You want a sortable hierarchy of importance	Priority (sort by Priority)
You want to highlight a small handful for the next 30 minutes	Star
Show me only the most important tasks across every list	type: hiprio
Quick "what should I do next?" view	Starred Focus List

tip

Use Priority to label what is important and Star to mark what you want to do next. They answer different questions.

tip

A Smart Filter combining both, type: hiprio AND starred, gives you a tight "these are the few high-priority items I'm actively pushing on right now" view.

Stars, Priorities, and the Today List

Tasks land in Today mainly through their Due Date and Duration. See Dates and Durations. The Today List section of Settings > Today & Lists has three switches that widen what else gets in:

• Include overdue items: anything past its due date joins Today until you deal with it.
• Include starred items: every starred task appears in Today, whatever its dates.
• Include 'Still Working On' tasks: tasks whose start date has already passed stay in Today while you work on them. Turn it off and they only appear on the day they are due.

A task whose duration reaches back into today also shows up there. That is how durations work rather than something you switch on.

If tasks seem to show up in Today for no reason, check those switches first. The FAQ entry Why are tasks due tomorrow showing in the Today Focus list? walks through the usual causes.