To go to a tag from shortcuts:
I use this to have icons to jump to my tags (which are set up as GTD contexts).
That works a treat thanks.
I like the Sweet Setup and this is just my opinion… but most people won’t need this. Things is simple enough that, with a knowledge of GTD, you can learn to apply it by yourself. Here are some free resources I’ve found useful as well:
I bounced back and forth between OmniFocus and Things several times. When I’d switch to Things it always made me feel more under control, like I had less to do. However, this was only an illusion created by the simpler UI. I have switched back to OmniFocus for good as while it sometimes makes me feel more overwhelmed, I believe it gives me a more honest look at what I really have to get done. I just had to admit I have a really complex list of tasks and that this simpler UI of Things just could not do the job.
After switching back and forth myself, I think I may be back to OmniFocus when I have time to switch it all over. My plan is to be FAR MORE religious with defer dates to replicate much of the value of Things 3. Things is great with keeping track of what you are currently working on, despite due dates being in the near or distant future. I just wish entering tasks in OmniFocus was a bit quicker.
I’m a habitual Things/OmniFocus switcher myself and have been tempted by OF several times over the past month.
You’ve discussed how you’re using OF to try to replicate the capabilities fo Things. But what drew you back to OF?
That’s pretty much why I always end up switching!
If I switch to OF again – and I just might – I don’t think I’ll go all in at first. I’ll run both Things and OF for a while, until I’m sure that OF will stick for a longer term.
The segmentation would be “new stuff” and “stuff already in Things.” Eventually, if I make the move, I’d move everything over.
I really want to have a better reason than DIFFERENT!!! SHINY!!! though.
Not that I’m criticizing you. I’ve done the DIFFERENT!!! SHINY!!! thing millions of times myself.
Two reasons I can find to switch to OF: Ability to attach documents and photos, rather than just links. And start times, rather than just start days. Maybe more graceful handling of projects… ? But truly I don’t have a lot of projects. Like, one of my tasks this morning was just: “Reserve hotel rooms for conferences this year,” along with two names of important conferences as sub-task. That’s all I need to see. (Whoops, just thought of a third! And a fourth!)
I am still straddling the leap… I like OF for its customizability, attachments, and automation. But I am still thinking about how I will replicate my Things setup in OF.
I am trying to figure out a way to quicken the process of capture in OF. I am going to explore some Shortcuts automation to try and cut down the time (in macOS OF is quick, but I do most of my task management on iOS).
OmniAutomation is also really powerful, and I want to explore that before making a switch as well.
Since I am just now building up for the next semester of teaching I still have some time to decide.
Finally, after years of switching between OF and Things, I’ve been using plain old Reminders for the last month. I don’t use tagging on any app as it doesn’t make any sense to me. Reminders works well for me because now I can group projects and the recent updates in iOS 13 make it just as functional as Things (with a few gestures and interface design choices that I prefer to Things). It is much easier to use than OF and has a clean and well designed interface, I think OF is ugly and clunky.
Plus, on Apple Watch it makes capturing a reminder as easy as Drafts, so I’ve stopped using that too.
The integration makes it worth dropping the extra features for me, they just tend to make me spend time in apps rather than doing things.
Like some strange recurring fever, the urge to move task manager - after 18 months of very happy Things work - reappeared recently. Thought I had beaten this particular illness! Then realised that I had simply not been working on the well-mapped Things lists. Completing the tasks and the urge/fever settles.
My journey with Things was helped enormously by the advice of the Fu Master at the Productive With A Purpose website:
According to Andrea has some good advice too:
I use links to folders in DEVONthink for project associated documents and iThoughts for planning out the projects.
This switching illness can be beaten whichever of the task managers one uses.
I’m interested. Is this holding up for you? I’m assuming IE is work? Does every task get only one tag?
I think the cure for this “switching illness” happens by itself when you find yourself being very productive in a particular system/app. After bouncing between task managers a few years back, including several years on OmniFocus, I switched to Things 3 in February 2018, but Things is only partially responsible for my satisfaction.
The bigger cause was finding a workflow that works for me. I’ve never been as satisfied with my productivity in my life, and have had zero urge to switch, even when new things pop up that always tempted me in the past. This is a big deal for me because I was always the guy to try out anything new and shiny in tech. I’ve also historically been a procrastinator, and happy to be distracted by tweaking my system instead of actually getting things done.
For me Things just happened to be the tool that fit what I ended up doing. The bigger deal was my realization that GTD just didn’t fit my job, and realizing that “Next Actions” were less important to me than seeing “Past Actions,” thanks to the unpredictability of those actions in my particular situation. It’s hard to explain, but I have a zillion tasks unrelated to each other, but sometimes related to something that has gone before (but not in a way that can usually be predicted).
So I spent years trying to twist the concept of “Next Actions” to my use, and when I instead started logging “Past Actions,” something instantly clicked. Now, when I handle a task in Things, the main task field has 3 things in it - (1) the name of a case (I’m a lawyer), (2) the date I last completed a task on that case, and (3) what I did on that date. When I do something new, I have a Keyboard Maestro macro that copies and cuts the date and task info from the current task field, moves all that info to the notes field, and then moves focus back to the task field with the case name and current date. I then type what I just did, and set a new Start Date for when I next want to see it. That is when it reappears in my Today view. I sometimes but rarely also type a slight reminder about what I might need to do when that task reappears, depending on what I think might happen between now and then. But seeing what I just did, and having a log of sorts in the notes field, tells me almost instantly what I need to do next.
This has been the most freeing and excited I’ve been about this sort stuff since I first starting wrangling my tasks 25+ years ago, and I’m as excited and productive now as I was when I started it almost 2 years ago.
I used that setup when I had a lot of different projects on the go, and IE was a company I was working for. It held up well and I found it really useful.
That’s a good tip, Evan. I’m going to see if I can adapt it for my purposes.
Like you, I don’t have a lot of multi-step, sequential projects. 90%+ of my tasks are in two or three single-action lists. And even the remainder are simply groups of similar single-action lists, grouped together for convenient search.
That KBM jack seems very promising. Being a lawyer my self too I can relate to it so much!
Out of curiosity, @Evan, would you mind sharing this macro here?
Sure, Lucas. Here is the main macro, which embeds another one:
And here is the one that is embedded in it:
I can’t take credit for, and don’t remember the entire purpose of, the embedded macro (the second one). I found it in the Keyboard Maestro forum back when I was first trying to figure out the best way to move the cursor around, and the author’s info is in the first step of the macro. I know it has to do with properly positioning the cursor in the task field, but don’t recall the specifics.
I go between TO DO apps and whilst I like the look of Things 3 the lack of accessibility options stop me from using it. Doesn’t inherit the system settings for font size and don’t seem to have any plans to change it. I use a combination of Reminders and OF
I have tried OF on and off several times. I really want to like it as it appears to be a more robust app, unfortunately, I just can’t get there! The power of OF is somewhat hamstrung by the learning curve required to take advantage of that extra power.
At the end of the day, I have to be honest in evaluating my needs…and the fact is that Things does everything I could possibly need in a task management app.
It really boils down to what you actually need. Things is relatively powerful and certainly more than adequate for the average user while being far more intuitive to use. However OF offers many additional features for those who need them, but comes with a steeper learning curve and price tag!
I feel the same way as you.
I recently just got off a round of experiments with OF 3. Another significant reason I went back to Things is that OF has so many bugs on iPadOS: stuck in editing mode, pannel pinning not saved after app restarts, incorrect window sizing in share sheet, and of course crashes. It’s quite unfortunate for such a high profile app.