iApp of the Week: Things
I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that you’re a much more organized person than I am. Over the thirty-plus years I’ve been alive, the lessons I have learned taught me some very important things about what I do and do not do well. Making lists and making sure the tasks of the day are accomplished on time falls squarely into the latter category for me. I’ve simply come to accept my shortcomings as one of my endearing personality quirks. I’m not so sure, however, that this is as endearing to those waiting on the projects as it is to me. Which is why Things, by the fine folks over at Cultured Code, has been such a godsend to me.
I’ve tried many different types of organizing tools and most don’t really work for me. Part of that reason is that the organizational structure is either too open ended or too complex for it to be useful. It’s a tough problem for an organizationally challenged person such as myself. Too open ended and I have no sense of order for all the things I need doing. If I’m forced to create categories for all my To-Do’s, I’m stymied from moment one just figuring out what I should call everything. If it has a whole host of places to put things, I’m never sure where to check. Tasks get lost and I’m buried in a sea of flags, markers and inboxes. I hate to say it, but if I feel like I have to sit down and organize my organizational program, you can forget it.
For an organizational program to work for me, it has to have a system that is simple and intuitive. It also needs to, for the most part, stay the hell out of my way. Things does exactly that. It has a very strong, yet simple, organizational structure and presents this structure with a very clean interface. Things is structured with four levels.
The first is the “Inbox”. This is your dumping ground for all the tasks you need to get done but don’t know exactly how you’re going to prioritize them. After that is “Today”, which becomes your daily To-Do list. The category below that is called “Next” which, as it implies, are all the things that are next on your list to do. The last is “Someday”, which is for those tasks which are farther out, yet still need to be remembered.
You can place any item in any category at any time. However, the workflow for me is to dump any and all tasks that come to mind in the “Inbox” and then go back and prioritize the list based on importance by sticking the tasks into the proper category. It’s pretty simple system but it works for a guy like me mostly by terming things in the same way I think about my important tasks. Am I going to do it today, later or someday in the future? Pretty straightforward.
You can also take these tasks that are in any category list and put a firm date on them in the “Scheduled” section. You can take these “Scheduled” tasks and have Things email you a reminder as well. In addition to the “Scheduled” area, you can also list items in any category in the “Projects” area. This is a neat way to put all tasks of a similar type into a group. Where it becomes very useful, at least to me, is when I have an existing project filled with little things that need to get done. By listing them all in a “Project” folder, I can then prioritize each of those tasks by also showing them in one of the four main categories. All of the tasks can optionally be tagged with user generated names for additional sorting.
What makes Things really work, however, is the clean and simple interface. On the iPad and Mac is where Things is really laid out well. All the tasks are laid out on the right side of the screen in a notebook-like view. All the categories are in a column on the left. Any and all buttons you need to move or organize tasks are listed at the top of window.
On the iPhone, you start with a list of categories and by touching them, you are taken to the respective lists. Moving tasks from one place to another is done by selecting the tasks and using the various buttons listed to assign them to various locations. On either device, the whole thing pretty much stays in one window or in simple drop down sections. Things does a great job of doing what you need while staying out of your way.
In addition, Things allows you to Wi-Fi sync all the mobile versions with the Mac version of the program, allowing you to keep your iPhone, iPad and Mac versions all together. I will admit that it’s a bit of a pain in the ass to have to buy two versions of the program in order to get your mobile devices to sync. However, Cultured Code has stated that they are hard at work on getting cloud syncing included in future Things updates, making the the syncing of mobile devices possible without the Mac version.
Things is not cheap, at least in my opinion. For iPhone, the cost is $10.00. The iPad version will cost $20.00 and the Mac version is $40.00. While it’s pretty spendy (especially if you want the ability to Sync to your Mac), and limited to Apple devices only, I think that it’s one of the best implemented organizational tools available. It’s hard for me to lay down a blanket recommendation, however for those who need an organization tool that works, Things is one of the best.
A video, showing Things for iPad can be found here if you are interested.
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Tags: ipad, iphone, mac, organization
May 18th, 2010 at 7:44 am
That sounds pretty useful, but I would need PC syncing to buy it. I’ve been using Evernote which isn’t very structured but I can use it on my phone and laptop.
May 18th, 2010 at 8:25 am
Agreed. It’s a drag it’s only for Mac.
May 18th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Been using Remember The Milk to do that for a while now. At first I didn’t really get into it, but I just needed to add some smart list to make it as usefull (and close to the same workflow than Things)
Inbox: Use the default RTM inbox
Today: Smart list: “dueBefore:today OR due:today OR priority:1″
Next: Smart list: “NOT priority:none”
Scheduled: Smart list: “priority:none NOT due:never”
Someday: Just a regular list
Weekly Review: Smart list: ” status:completed AND completedWithin:”1 week of today” ”
You can also create regular list for any projects you have
My workflow looks like:
- Add anything to inbox
- When ready I split that tasks into smaller tasks and move them to projects or move to Someday
- I check my projects for tasks I can do today or soon. Either schedule them or put a priority of 1 to them. Putting a priority of 1 will add them to the Today Smart list
- For things I want to do next, I put a priority of 2 or 3, that will add it to the Next Smart list
It’s not a perfect replica of Things but it’s close enough and work for me at least. Bonus: RTM works in any browser, and you can also use the iphone/itouch app with a pro account (something like 25$ a year I think)