Lists are in the middle of ClickUp's Hierarchy and hold every task in your Workspace. Tasks cannot exist outside Lists.

Folders are optional and can hold multiple Lists, creating a more granular organizational structure.

What you'll need

• Lists are available on all plans.
• Guests cannot create, edit, or delete Lists.
• Up to 5,000 tasks can load at a time in one view.
• Each List can have up to 50,000 tasks.
  • • Subtasks count toward this limit.
    • Archived tasks and subtasks count toward this limit.
    • For Tasks and Subtasks in Multiple Lists, tasks count toward the limit of every List they're in.
• The number of Lists you can have per Folder depends on your plan:
  • Free Forever Plan: 100 Lists per Folder
  • Unlimited Plan: 200 Lists per Folder
  • Business Plan and above: 400 Lists per Folder
    

    Archived Lists do not count toward these limits.

• The number of Lists you can have per Space depends on your plan:
  • Free Forever Plan: 100 Lists per Space
  • Unlimited Plan: 200 Lists per Space
  • Business Plan: 400 Lists per Space
  • Business Plus Plan: 1,000 Lists per Space
  • Enterprise Plan: 1,000 Lists per Space
    

    Archived Lists do not count toward these limits.

Create a List

To create a new List:

1. From the Sidebar, hover over the Space or Folder where you're creating your List.
2. Click the plus icon.
3. Select List.
   • Optional: Make your List private or apply a List template to it.
4. Name your List and click Create.

Manage List settings

You can manage your Lists from the ellipsis ... menu in the Sidebar, at the top of a view, or the location header.

To edit an existing List:

1. Open the List settings:
   • From the Sidebar, hover over the List and click the ellipsis ... menu.
     
   • At the top of a view to the right of the breadcrumbs, click the ellipsis ... menu.
     
   • Expand the location header, and to the right of the List name click the ellipsis ... menu.
     
2. Choose from the following List settings:
   • Rename: Rename the List.
   • Copy link: Copy the URL of your List to quickly share it.
   • Create new: Create a new item. The item will either be added to the List or its Space.
   • Color & Icon: Change the List's sidebar icon and color. 
   • Convert List to Sprint: Turn the List into a Sprint. This will only display when the Sprints ClickApp is activated.
   • List settings: Edit Automations, Custom Fields, or statuses for the List.
   • Templates: Apply a template to the List, save the List as a new template, or update an existing List template.
   • List Info: View the List info. You can record any relevant information about the List you're working on here, including comments, attachments, Priorities, owners, watchers, and general descriptions. 
   • Add to favorites: Add the List to your favorites.
   • Default task type: Set your default custom task type. 
   • Email to List: View the custom email address associated with the List so you can create tasks via email.
   • Move: Move the List to a different Folder or Space.
   • Duplicate: Duplicate the List.
   • Archive: Archive the List.
   • Delete: Delete the List.
   • Sharing & Permissions: Edit the sharing and permissions of the List.

We recommend archiving Lists rather than deleting them so you can access their data in the future.

Find Lists in your Workspace

Lists display in different locations depending on where you are in your Workspace.

Task

Open a task to see its parent List, Folder, and Space in the upper-left breadcrumb section.

The Sidebar

All of your Spaces, Folders, and Lists are located in your Sidebar. Hover over a location to expand the Space, Folder, or List.

List view

In List view, tasks are automatically separated by List. When looking at Spaces in List view, the name of each List's parent Folder displays above it.

Status progress

In List view, the status of each task is tracked by a progress icon. Click the status progress icon to change the task's status. 

Board view

In Board view, you have the option to show or hide task locations. 

To show or hide task locations:

1. In the upper-right corner, click Customize.
2. Select Board options.
3. Click Task locations to show or hide task locations. 

Parent Lists and Folders display in the upper-left corner of each task.

Team view

In Team view, you have the option to show or hide task locations. 

To show or hide task locations:

1. In the upper-right corner, click Customize.
2. Select Team options.
3. Click Task locations to show or hide task locations. 

Parent Lists, Folders, and Spaces display above each task name.

Team view is available on the Unlimited Plan and above.

Gantt view

In Gantt view, you can visualize the tasks in a List by color. On the Gantt chart, a colored circle will represent the priority, status, or List that the task is in. 

For example, if a task has high priority and you choose to color tasks by priority, that task will have a red circle.

To set task colors:

1. In the upper-right corner, click Customize and select Gantt options.
2. Click Color tasks by.
3. Select an option.

Unlimited uses of Gantt view are available on the Unlimited Plan and above.

Set up Lists

How you set up your Lists depends on what type of work you want to accomplish using ClickUp! We've put together two real-world examples to reference when setting up your Hierarchy.

Lists for digital agencies

Running a digital agency? Create a Folder for each of your clients, and use Lists to detail the services that you will perform for each client. For example, you might have Lists titled Inbound Marketing, SEO, and Social Media Outreach.

Lists for content creation

Use ClickUp for any type of content creation. You can create Folders to separate your big-picture action items. For example, you could create Folders for Monthly Newsletter, Seasonal Campaigns, or Marketing Automation.

Create Lists to separate your brainstorming sessions from tasks that are actively contributing to your Folders. Under Monthly Newsletter, you could add Lists entitled Ideas, Blog Posts, and User-suggested Topics.

You can take a look at our pre-made List templates for more ideas!

Change List colors and icons

You can customize your Lists by adding unique colors and icons to them.

Sprint Lists cannot be customized.

Lists with default custom task types automatically inherit the task type's icon.