Things 3 for iPad

I’ve been using things since the days of the first iPhone and iPad. I have tried countless todo apps over the years and always co,e back to Things. As a developer, a project manager, and an artist I have used a lot of task tracking and project management methodologies including Agile and scrum and Things still is number one not because it’s a better system than kanban but because it’s easier to stick to. As far as kanban boards versus an app like Things, I would say one needs both. Things is great for both task management and projects but is lacking when it comes to things like attachments and sharing assignments between people. That said, I have both Things and Trello and for years I have been starting Trello projects but never finish them unless I’m collaborating with others while I’m always checking and using Things. Pro-tip: if you start to find your todos are piling up, the list keeps growing, and it feels like you’re getting nothing done then you probably need to either delete the tasks that you keep putting off or move them into the Someday category. Momentum is the name of the game here and not ticking off tasks regularly will kill anyone’s motivation and then you stop using the app. No amount of reminders and push notifications will save you from yourself.

This app is also a list maker’s dream! I have struggled for years trying to find the perfect solution for a paper or digital planner and with 4 kids and a business, I had to keep up with an iCloud calendar too to share with my husband. I’ve tried all kinds of methods. The bullet journal (bujo) concept became my favorite but it was taking too much time to organize my day (transferring things from my calendar, moving tasks around, etc). This app practically does it for me! It shows me all of my calendar events and my to do list for that day is created in seconds. I love that I can move things around quickly without having to “migrate” tasks in a typical bujo method. It’s clean and organized and I’m loving using Siri to “brain dump” a thought or task into the app so I can get it off my mind and stay productive. The email feature is also amazing. When I check my email, I just split screen with Things on my iPad and drag emails over that need attention at a later time or by a certain deadline so they don’t get “lost” in the flood of daily emails. I am amazed at how much more I’m getting done by just putting it in Things and using the app to organize and plan my day. I’ve never been more productive in my life! Wish I’d had this in grad school! I already have my 2018 Christmas list as a “project” with each family in a category, individuals as tasks, and then sub tasks as ideas or items to purchase/items purchased. When shopping, I can quickly look at what’s been purchased and not purchased or what my ideas are.

A little history on myself. I have been away from GTD apps for quite a while. The last app I used and paid for was Omni Focus and fell out of favor with that app due to its complexity. I never could buy in to its way of organization. I had tried things at that time (still in version 1 I believe) and the app just did not work the way that I wanted it to. Now comes present time. I finally grew tired of the limitations of the stock reminders app and did some extensive research on a few of them. Read many blogs on strengths and weakness of all of them. I think when it comes down to all GTD apps there really is no best app. So do your own research. What I love about this app is its powerful simplicity. I never realized how much more organization things 3 brought to the table but yet look so clean. Is it perfect, no but neither is any other app. Things 3 can certainly use some upgrades. Alexa integration would be on the top of my list. Apple’s Siri speaker when it comes out is still not feasible given the price. One of the other simpler changes is eliminating the three dots for more options at the bottom of the todo list. iPad has plenty of screen real estate to show all the options without the additional button press. Things 3 is well written app that works as it should. I have not come across any annoyances just yet but I am only a fews days in to the app but enjoying it very much.