Sometimes you need to focus on just one or two layers. Visibility toggles, Solo, and Shy help you control what you see fast without deleting anything.
Steps to hide and show layers quickly
Click the eyeball icon next to any layer to show or hide it in your comp viewer.

Click the Solo dot to isolate just that layer (or a few soloed layers) and hide everything else temporarily.

Toggle the Shy switch on layers you don’t want cluttering your timeline, then click Toggle Shy at the top of the timeline to collapse them out of view completely.


One more thing
Alt/Option-click a Solo dot to solo one layer and unsolo all others in one go. Faster than clicking through each one individually.
Related how-tos
How to use the timeline in After Effects
How to dock and undock panels in After Effects
How to reset workspace in After Effects
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