You’re funny. If you are of the Neanderthal persuasion what does that make me? ROFL. Cro-Magnon? (Who came first? I don’t know).
Yes. There are some manuals out there but they are ALL online now and it is just harder as I grew up with genuine print which for me is so much easier to read, especially with a reference book that you go back and forth in.
I don’t have much patience with most YouTube videos. I tend to prefer print.
But I’ll check out some videos anyway and see if I can learn something. I guess it helps when you get to know a few apps quite well as opposed to being scattered all over the place.( You’d get a kick out of how many apps i have. Even I don’t believe it!) Plus you have a job to use Reminders with. I always say “Worker smarter not harder”.
This is a “recurring” topic (sorry for this shameless pun). So I thought I would make my notes in a separated topic that, somehow, says I lot on why I love Things.
I have often wondered how MacSparky could possibly know all that!!! Well, at least he’ll be able to immerse more for pleasure now.
For example, I have his marvelous photo guide. Now I’m a pretty good amateur photographer so very little of it is over my head. But still I marvel at the breadth and depth of his knowledge! It’s a great guide! So he just doesn’t know all this stuff, how to apply it etc. But he can teach it in a beautifully organized way. I’m a teacher and I’m plenty impressed.
But then I signed up for his Keyboard Maestro which I haven’t started yet as I know it’s going to ultimately be way over my head . But the way he teaches I’ll still get a lot out of it. And I can keep referring to it. Maybe I’ll try osmosis! Just kidding.
You know, it truly helps if you LOVE what you’re doing!!
I use one project per course with recurring tasks on it.
If weekly projects with recurring dates are your thing and you want to automate their creation, then I highly recommend Things Parser on Drafts. It’s really handy for that!
I considered that, but the scenario in which I work ahead becomes a pickle because I can’t check stuff off in advance! Or, say I have no lessons Friday (like this upcoming week), I would end up with tasks chilling on that Friday until Friday comes and I can check them off. Or I guess I could manually defer them? IDK.
This one small process is super simple in Todoist and just a headache in things
As someone who switched to Things from Omnifocus (and on the 4 iOS beta) I had to make a few changes to my system, but Things engenders a feeling calm when looking at Today or Anytime lists. I had to switch a good few projects to Someday status but the ability to add checklists and headings was the thing that made me switch. What comprised 3 projects ina dedicated folder each with sequential action groups in OF became one project, 3 headings and some checklists. Just the same amount ultimately to tick off but much easier on the eye and the brain.
I have used OF for a good few years, was not happy with the direction of the Beta for several reasons, so decided to go all in with Things. So far very happy, and meets my needs pretty precisely which I guess is what we all want from any app.
I use Things for personal stuff and have been using it for years. Then, during the pandemic, I needed to use the house PC for work and there is no Things for Windows. I ended up using two task manager - continue with Things for personal stuff (as I have set up many scheduled and repeat tasks) and Microsoft To-Do for work (it has Windows, macOS and iOS versions and they are free). Turns out both work well for me. I am not sure if I want to pay for Things 4 in the future, though.
The OF4 iOS beta which has rumbled on for months and honestly I have used it for free for so long I am probably going to resent having to pay for it when it does launch
Really appreciate everyone’s thoughts here. I honestly just love reading people talk about their task manager of choice.
Currently I think I’m dumping everything BUT my daily routine checklist into Things 3. I was feeling like the daily routine checklist (either as one task w/ subtasks, multiple tasks, or repeating project) kinda cluttered stuff up. So I’m using Reminders for that.
I recently moved from Omnifocus 3 to Things 3. I was on the Omnifocus Beta 4, and just felt that I did not like the way tit was going. I do love Things and a lot of Things about it. I have a few issues that I am trying to find workarounds with, but in general I love it. I have reached out to a few people to see if I can pay them to solve the problems. Hopefully that will pan out.
the ease of use on ios / best multiselect around. they have the best keyboard shortcuts support on the ipad bar none. scribble support works beautifully. and the app is gorgeous.
You may be interested in Due, which I’ve been using for years. It keeps your main GTD system free of mundane routine tasks (e.g. taking meds every day, pay credit card), and it is specifically designed to do a better job of making sure you get those boring but important tasks done.
As someone who used OmniFocus since it was launched (and in fact a bit before), I switched to Things about a year ago and have been delighted with it.
OmniFocus is great if you’re disciplined enough to use it rigorously and spend time maintaining it, or if your needs are big and complex.
But I realised that all I really wanted was a to-do list with defer dates, that would sync seamlessly across all my devices. Things is doing that very nicely for me.
If you don’t want to use drafts, I can fully recommend pythonista!
For projects that repeat where the individual tasks need specific dates I use pyhtonista to template and instantiate them. I usually have a task “create next iteration” with a link that will run the specific script in pythonista. You can also pick another automation app. Things has good url scheme support. Anyway, a short look out of the window, and I’m back in Things with my new project ready to go.
For working on the Mac, I was missing perspectives from OmniFocus and build an Alfred workflow that opens saved searches (list + tag filters) in a new window. I couldn’t use things without it anymore. I even replicated it on iOS with shortcuts and the double backtap trigger.
Type to instantly search makes it so fast to just jump around and find anything very quickly.
Fast and simple. Any time I try to switch to others, I find it gets cluttered and messy.
The hotkeys are just so fluid. It’s easy to move tasks, schedule them, or push them by a day.
It supports a URL scheme, so you can link to apps that have URLs, and you can have URLs that jump to projects/tasks/searches, or modify things.
Don’t like:
You can’t have headings in Areas. Why!? Which means if you want any sort of heading organization, you must use projects.
You can’t see Today and Upcoming in the same view. I love OmniFocus for that, but it feels too complex for me.
You can’t search for multiple things at once. Like Today + a tag.
No ALL view…
I’ve tried Todoist several times over the years, and every time I try it just feels like a clunky web app. And it seems like you can’t even navigate with the keyboard in the iPad app. I see they have basic Kanban boards now too. I really wish I could like it, but I keep being disappointed.
OmniFocus is so close to being perfect for me, but it just looks and feels too cluttered once I get it setup. I especially love scheduled reviews per project. But in Things, it just feels so light and snappy that it doesn’t trigger any sort of anxiety in me. I feel comfortable jumping around, and I think that’s the most important part. I don’t think it is easy to move things or jump around in OmniFocus.
Since snappy navigation is so important, now I’m wondering if I should go give Org Mode another shot… hmm. That, or do my work… haha
what you’re doing!!
