Perspectives let you filter out all the crap that's not relevant. The "Perspectives" menu bar is the main place to go. You can build your own using the View Bar (View > Show View Bar or shift-cmd-V), then Perspectives > Save Window As. There are some good tutorials to figure out Perspectives. I started with David Sparks's MPU screencasts
- Project-based perspective
- Shows only projects that have "available" tasks
- Hides projects that a future-dated, repeating, etc
"Show me what needs to get done in current projects"
- Context-based
- Shows all available tasks split up by context
"What can I get done in these specific contexts?"
- Context-based
- Show me only the next action of a project, based on it's context
"What's the next thing I can get done to move a project forward based on my current context limitations?"