Stars and Priorities
Use stars and priorities to mark important tasks. They are separate settings, so a task can have both.
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
- Menu: Task > Star, a submenu holding Star and Unstar. The same commands sit on a task's right-click menu.
- Keyboard:
S(star) and⌃S(unstar) when a task is selected. - Task row: the priority button at the right of each row opens a small menu with Star at the bottom.
- Drag a task onto the Starred Focus List to star it: the list shows Drop to Star as you hover, and dropping stars the task.
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 toggle 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:
- "Read these articles before tonight's meeting": star them in the morning, unstar after.
- "These are the tasks I want to attempt today even though their due dates aren't today": star a handful, work through them, unstar at end of day.
If you find yourself starring the same tasks every week, they probably deserve a different mechanism: a tag, a Smart List, or a different list entirely.
Priorities in Detail
A priority is one of four levels: None, Low, Medium, High. The priority dot is color-coded and visible on every task row.
Setting a Priority
- In the task list: bare
0(None),1(Low),2(Medium),3(High) with one or more tasks selected. - While editing: the bare digits type into text fields, so use
⌥⌘0–⌥⌘3instead (and⌥⌘Sto toggle the star). =/-: Increase / Decrease Priority when the task list has focus.- Menu: Task > Priority, which lists None, Low, Medium, and High along with Increase Priority and Decrease Priority. The same submenu appears when you right-click a task.
Quick Priority + Star Without Editing
You don't have to enter edit mode just to change priority or toggle a star. A priority button sits at the right of every task row. Click it and a small menu opens with None, High, Medium, Low, and then Star. Pick one and the task updates in place. It's two clicks rather than one, but nothing else has to change.
For a long triage session the bare keys are quicker still: select a task, press 0–3 for its priority and S to star it. Combined with Quick Look (Spacebar) for previewing each task as you go, you can work through a brain-dump in minutes.
Letting 2Do Work Them Out
Priorities are worth setting, and setting fifty of them by hand is a chore. Select the tasks, right-click, and choose Edit Priority > Auto-Prioritize, or choose Task > Edit Priority > Auto-Prioritize in the menu bar. It 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 Mac 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 macOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence turned on.
See Auto-Prioritize.
What Priority Does
- The priority dot is color-coded on every row.
- Sorting by Priority (from the Sort Bar's sort menu) groups tasks by level. High sits at the top by default, then Medium, Low, and finally None; the Sort Bar's direction toggle 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),type: noprio(none). - The Focus Filter includes High Priority and Starred among its conditions, so you can narrow any list to either in one step.
When to Use Priority
Priority is best for stable emphasis:
- "This task is genuinely more important than the others in this project."
- "I want my Today list sorted with the highest-stakes tasks at the top."
- "I need a Smart List of every High priority task across every list."
The High priority level is 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 neighbors | 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 |
| You want to filter "show me only the most important" | Priority + type: hiprio |
| You want a quick "what should I do next?" view | Star + the Starred Focus List |
Many people use both: Priority as the long-running label, Star as today's spotlight.
Use Priority to label what is important and Star to mark what you want to do next. They answer different questions.
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 primarily 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, regardless of 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're due.
A task whose duration spills backward into today also shows up there; that's how durations work rather than something you switch on.
If you find tasks "mysteriously" showing up in Today, check those switches first. The dedicated FAQ entry Why are tasks due tomorrow showing in the Today Focus list? walks through the typical causes.