See What Matters to You with Filter

Last updated: May 29, 2026

Sometimes, when you are working on a project, you only want to focus on tasks that are of the uttermost importance to you at the moment, like see the ones you are responsible for, or the ones that are marked urgent.

According to Ben Shneiderman's Information Seeking Mantra, formalized in his 1996 paper, the pattern that works is "overview first, zoom and filter, then details on demand," and most modern productivity tools follow exactly that. Quire's Filter is the zoom-and-filter step on a project task list.

One way to focus on what matters without distraction is via the "filter" function. Simply decide how you would like to see your tasks, and follow the steps.

How do you open Quire's filter menu?

By clicking on the filter icon below the project’s name, you will see a menu bar.

There, you can choose what kinds of tasks you would like to see, sort (aka group) and filter them further.

Right now, you are only seeing your Active Tasks, tasks that have not yet been completed.

If you want to see tasks that you have completed, click on “Active Tasks” and choose “Completed Tasks.”

Or if you want to see all of your tasks, both active and completed, choose “All Tasks” instead.

Note: You can hide the menu bar by toggling the filter icon. The green dot indicates you are in a filtered mode.

Now, let us sort and filter the tasks further.

How do Quire's sort options work?

When you sort by

Date

To see all your tasks ordered by due dates, choose sort by “Date.”

This is what you will see:

Note: We group tasks into 4 categories: Overdue, Today, Due in 5 days and Later.

Assignee

To see what tasks each assignee is or was responsible for, choose “Assignee” instead. This is what you will see:

Note: You can click on “Clear” in the menu bar whenever you want to return to the default status, which is “Active Tasks” without any filtering.

How do Quire's filter options work?

Next, when you filter by

Tag

If you filter by, for example, Appetizer, from “Tags” like this:

You will see all the tasks that are labeled with Appetizer under whoever is responsible.

Assigned to

If you choose, for example, Crystal, from “Assigned to” like this:

You will see all the tasks that have been assigned to Crystal under Crystal.

Here, you can click on “+” to create a task:

The task will be assigned to Crystal directly.

Assigned by

If you choose, for example, Crystal, from “Assigned by” like this:

You will see all the tasks assigned by Crystal under whoever is responsible.

Created by

If you choose, for example, Crystal, again, from “Created by.”

You will see all the tasks that have been created by Crystal under whoever is responsible.

Followed by me

If you want to see the tasks you are following, choose “Followed by me.”

You will see all the tasks you are following under whoever is responsible.

Note: You will automatically follow tasks created by you.

Now that you have learned the different ways to see your tasks, you can try them out and choose whichever combination fits your needs the best!

How does Quire's Filter compare to filter views in other PM tools?

Most PM tools have some kind of filter, but they differ on whether sort and filter compose, and whether the filter state is shared with the team.

The pattern: filter and sort are universal in modern PM tools. The differentiator is whether the filtered state can be saved per-user (Quire's Sublist) versus shared across the team (everyone else's "view"). Quire's pattern is closer to per-user personalization than shared team views.

Ready to filter what matters in your Quire project?

Open any project, click the filter icon, and try one filter at a time. Sort by Date first, then filter by Assigned to me, then save it as a Sublist if you want to come back to that exact view. The filter pattern usually settles within a few minutes once you see how it composes. Free on every Quire plan.