How to Create Subtasks and Nested Lists in Apple Reminders on iPhone

Managing extensive personal projects, packing checklists, or work deliverables in Apple Reminders often becomes overwhelming when all items are dumped into a single flat list. When a main goal requires multiple dependent steps—such as “Prepare Quarterly Presentation” involving researching metrics, drafting slides, and booking a meeting room—keeping all tasks on the same level causes unnecessary clutter and makes it difficult to track overall progress.

Apple Reminders on iOS includes built-in support for Subtasks and Nested Lists. Subtasks allow you to indent individual action items beneath a parent reminder, collapsing or expanding them as needed. When you complete subtasks, the parent task tracks your progress, keeping your daily agenda organised and actionable. In this tutorial, we explore three distinct ways to create subtasks in Apple Reminders on iPhone, how to manage nested items, and how completion behaves across parent and child tasks.

Why Use Subtasks in Apple Reminders?

Breaking down complex tasks into nested subtasks offers distinct productivity benefits:

• Reduced Visual Clutter: You can collapse long sequences of steps beneath a parent task header, keeping your main reminder list clean and easy to scan.
• Logical Task Hierarchy: Clarifies dependencies by grouping smaller, concrete actions under a broader objective.
• Independent Due Dates and Priority: Subtasks can inherit or maintain their own unique due dates, times, priority flags, and location alerts separate from the parent reminder.
• Progressive Completion: Checking off subtasks provides immediate psychological momentum without prematurely clearing the parent project off your list.

Method 1: Create Subtasks by Dragging and Dropping

The fastest and most intuitive way to convert an existing reminder into a subtask on your iPhone is through Apple’s fluid drag-and-drop gesture:

1. Open the Reminders app on your iPhone and tap into any list.
2. Ensure both the parent reminder and the task you want to nest are created in the list.
3. Press and firmly hold the task you wish to make a subtask until it lifts slightly beneath your finger.
4. Drag the task slightly upwards or downwards and drop it directly on top of the parent reminder.
5. Release your finger. The task will instantly indent under the parent reminder, becoming an active subtask.

Method 2: Create Subtasks Using the Indent Swipe Gesture

If you prefer using horizontal swipe actions while entering or reviewing tasks:

1. Create a reminder immediately below the intended parent task.
2. Swipe right across the reminder you want to nest (the same swipe gesture used to flag items).
3. Tap the Indent button that appears on the left.
4. The reminder will indent automatically to become a child of the task directly above it.

Tip: To reverse this action and promote a subtask back to a top-level reminder, simply swipe right on the indented subtask again and tap Outdent.

Method 3: Add Subtasks from the Task Details Screen

When you want to plan out an entire multi-step project from scratch within a parent task:

1. Tap on an existing reminder, then tap the info icon (i) on the right side of the row.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the Details view and tap Subtasks.
3. Tap Add Reminder.
4. Type the name of your first subtask and press Return on your keyboard to immediately add another subtask below it.
5. Tap the (i) icon next to any individual subtask if you need to attach a specific due date, high-priority tag, or photo attachment.
6. Tap Done in the upper-right corner of the Details sheet to save your changes.

How to Expand, Collapse, and Complete Subtasks

Once subtasks are created, Apple Reminders makes managing them effortless:

• Collapsing and Expanding: A small chevron icon appears to the left of any parent reminder with nested items. Tap the chevron to collapse the subtasks out of sight, or tap it again to expand the full list.
• Completing Individual Subtasks: Tap the circular checkbox next to a subtask when finished. The subtask fades out or moves to your completed list depending on your view preferences, while the parent task remains active.
• Completing the Parent Task: If you tap the circle next to the parent reminder itself, Apple Reminders marks the parent task and all associated nested subtasks as completed simultaneously.

Organising Reminders with Sections

In modern versions of iOS (iOS 17 and iOS 18), you can pair subtasks with Sections. Tap the three dots menu at the top of any list and choose New Section (e.g. “Planning”, “Execution”, “Review”). You can then drag parent tasks with all their nested subtasks between different workflow sections for Kanban-style organisation.