I’m currently using OmniFocus for as my todo app, but I think that Reminders might be a better fit for me. However, there is one thing that I don’t know how to do in Reminders: defer dates.
I use these to hide stuff that I don’t need to see at this point in time. How do you all handle todos that you can’t do anything about until some time in future?
For some reason, your question about defer dates in Reminders sounded familiar.
No offense, just pointing out your previous topics, one of them actually being quite a good starting point to give you some ideas. 
As you already have noted, there is no dedicated defer date field, only one date field and one time field when creating a reminder. Those fields are basically “due” dates (or times).
If you absolutely need several date/time fields, you will not be able to use Apple’s Reminders app for your task management. There is a reason why OmniFocus is out there and successful: it has a different approach with more features. And it does add some complexity to GTD that is welcome or even necessary for some and not so much for others.
I am one of those who switched from OmniFocus to Reminders about 1 or 2 years ago after a long period of switching between Things, OmniFocus, and Reminders. All of those apps have something that they are doing best. Reminders is the one that fits my needs most. So, are you completely out of luck with Reminders and defer dates? No. It depends. Apple has created the option to create smart lists.
You can basically go nuts on smart lists, using those due dates, maybe even bring some tags (#deferred, #firstquarter, #secondquarter … #deferred_until_2027 …) or flags into the mix and so on. Depending on how you organize yourself, you can create a surrounding in Reminders that is extremely powerful and complex. There may be a recent field guide out there to give you some ideas (Apple Productivity Suite Field Guide (Essentials)) | MacSparky Field or Apple Productivity Suite Field Guide (Expert) | MacSparky Field Guides). 
To make it short: if you absolutely need an individual date field for every task to judge if something can or should be deferred, Reminders may not be your tool. If you are able to find a way to use smart lists to define more abstract criteria, if something can or has to be deferred right now, then Reminders is all you need.
One of the reasons I switched from OmniFocus to Reminders is that defer dates are not that interesting to me, so I may be the wrong person to give you ideas, but @Bmosbacker for instance has published quite some insightful posts on this matter that may give you some ideas:
A direct answer to your question in 2021. Your answer there:
My answer to that would be: smart lists will hide stuff until it’s time to start doing something as long as you are able to define in an abstract way some criteria, when exactly it is time to start doing something (using due dates and/or tags and/or flags).
@Christian, @jemostrom, sometimes we don’t need a task manager at all. For many of my projects, I use Notes. I maintain a master index of projects in Apple Notes, some of which have a due date in parentheses. The more complex projects include hyperlinks to additional details and notes. I open this each morning and have yet to drop a ball or miss a project or task deadline.
Sometimes, all we need are a few lists. 
##Master Project List
Yes, you’re absolutely correct. For some reason I really would like to use Reminders, and about once a year I try to figure out if I’m missing something in the latest release of Reminders. And so far the answer is no - there is no defer date - and since I don’t believe that Reminders will get a defer date feature, I decided to try a different angle this time. Instead of “locking” myself into the concept of “defer date”, I thought I would to go back to my original problem - I don’t want to see stuff that I can’t act on until later. I don’t like the “clutter” of todos that I can’t do anything about … yet. I assume that I’m not the only person who have this wish.
So I appreciate your description about using smart lists and tagging, I don’t think I need individual dates - it might be enough with time periods instead. I need to think about that.
(unfortunately there is a complication with this solution also - I use two different Apple IDs, on two different set of devices, so I share calendars between them, but when sharing reminders the tags are not synced … but perhaps I can use this as an advantage in some way. More thinking is needed)
But this is the kind of info I’m looking for.
I need to think about this also
Personally I ended up putting those tasks into collapsible sections inside my lists - maybe call it „deferred“ or „later“ and simply collapse that list so you don’t see them when opening that list. And once a week or so I scan those tasks in those sections and move them into the „active“ section of that list. Easy enough for me 
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I’m not suggesting you are, but merely food for thought: are you making things more complicated than they need to be?
I ask, because I can fall into the same trap if I’m not careful. Sometimes, keeping apps to a minimum and keeping things simple is more productive than constantly searching for the perfect app or workflow. I’ve been guilty of this and am trying hard to avoid that trap.
I never thought about that. Thanks.
This is one of the reasons I would like to move to Reminders, I’m tempted by OmniFocus to fiddle around too much … which usually ends with me trying to avoid looking in OF … which isn’t good.
But I’m also very distracted/annoyed by long task lists - which is easily solved in OF … so I need to find the best way of doing this.
This may not help you but here is how I’ve created Smart Lists and Project folders in Reminders. This is working well for me.
that’s half the battle right there
@MacSparky’s Apple Productivity Suite field guide videos covering Reminders convinced me to cut the cord with OmniFocus. I had made tracking the things I actually needed to track far too complicated, with planned dates, and due dates, and deferred dates, and notification dates.
Fiddling for the sake of fiddling.
@Bmosbacker suggested, I’ll move the lists of maybe-do items to Notes, track must-dos in Reminders and wish OmniFocus well in its future endeavors.
Katie
Then why not create a list called: Much later. Put Defer date items there and review monthly (?). The hard part is deleting items before it becomes a graveyard. This is a massive problem in software development teams. (Oddly I just wrote about this: Drowning in an Oversized Product Backlog? Story Mapping Is Your Life Raft)
Thanks for all your answers, I need to look into the various suggestions and tips.
I use Reminders and think about it more from a calendar mindset. Just yesterday I got a “save the date” for a wedding in summer 2027, but I look at my calendar via day/week/month views, not every event in the future. I won’t see it until it gets closer
Similarly, I have smart lists to view scheduled tasks in the next 15 days, and Today and Tomorrow (I call it T&T) so I’m not overwhelmed by looking at all my scheduled tasks. At the end of work, I look at the T&T list to plan my next day. And every weekend I look at tasks scheduled the next 15 days to plan my next week. So my “Renew Passport” task is years from now, but I never see it - I eventually will during an eventual weekly review in the 15 day view.
Other unscheduled tasks that are not as time dependent like re-caulking the tub are in lists I skim every week or two and if I have time, pull from by adding a date to when I’ll do it.
That is similar to what I do.
I ended up with NotePlan after many years with OF, but I still love Reminders and really want to use it. It is so clean and so dialed in with the system, but I like having all my notes in one spot now and it has been really tough to go back to having notes and tasks separate, even though the simplicity of using Reminders and Notes is pretty compelling.
The other thing that limits that a bit is not using Mail since it is harder to drag stuff into reminders.
Finally, at this point in my life, I like using apps that are visually appealing, and OF is tired.
One more thing, I searched and found this as well. It might clog up your calendar, but I guess it would work the same as a personal Zoom meeting link. Maybe with some testing, you could make it at 2am, once a quarter or something, and see if it works.
How can I make a recurring meet link for multiple people - Google Meet Community.
