Finding specific things

Today's files

Updated 2026-07-31 · 3 min read

The most common search anyone performs is 'the thing I had open earlier'.

Finder

⌘F → + → Last modified date → today. Save it as a Smart Folder and it is permanently one click away.

Add Kind is Document to strip out the caches and app data that otherwise dominate.

Terminal, filtered properly

find ~ -type f -mtime -1 \
  -not -path "*/Library/*" \
  -not -path "*/.git/*" \
  -not -path "*/node_modules/*" 2>/dev/null

Those three exclusions are the difference between a useful list and thousands of lines of cache writes.

Recent Items

The Apple menu → Recent Items shows documents and apps. Individual apps have their own File → Open Recent, which is often the fastest route of all — you usually remember which app, not which folder.

Why 'today' is harder than it sounds

-mtime -1 means "in the last 24 hours", not "since midnight". At 9am on Tuesday that includes most of Monday. For calendar days:

find ~ -type f -newermt "$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" -not -path "*/Library/*" 2>/dev/null

The version that stays useful

A query combining recency with a rough name — report dm:today — beats both, because you usually remember something about each. Recency alone returns too much; a name alone returns every version you ever made.

Common questions

Why does searching today's files return hundreds of results?

Apps write caches and preferences constantly. Exclude */Library/* to see only your own work.

Does macOS track which files I opened?

Yes — Recent Items, and each app's Open Recent list. Controlled in System Settings → General.