I really like the Todo Tree extension, because it adds an extra pane for search. It take a bit of configuring, depending on the tags you use. For instance, I tag things with the week number (2022w19 or whatever), which you set in VSCode's

settings.json

file. It's not automatic, but I've made that part of my sort of "weekly review" routine, and I think it's a productive review for me. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Gruntfuggly.todo-tree Otherwise, I think VSCode has a built-in search pane that can be persistent. I know I've seen Kevin mention it, but I can't recall the details of how he uses it right now.