What are
/r/thingsapp's
favorite Products & Services?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
The most popular Products mentioned in /r/thingsapp:
The most popular Services mentioned in /r/thingsapp:
Things
Zapier
IFTTT
Bear
Todoist
Agenda
Spark
BetterTouchTool
Loom
ClickUp
Nirvana
Lifehacker
Craft
GoodTask
Org mode
The most popular reviews in /r/thingsapp:
Tags are just a way to filter your todos, so Things will show you a list of what you need to see. Think about what lists would be helpful for you, and let that guide how you use tags.
Some examples:
Folks who like GTD use tags to make lists based on "context" which means "required resources." IOW, you can't put air in your car's tires unless you're at the car. So you tag that todo as "@Car." Then when you get to the car, you filter by @Car, and you see everything you need to do while at the car.
"Required resources" can also be people, equipment, energy and time. @Supervisor, @Guitar, @LowEnergy and @TenMinutes are all useful tags.
Some people tag with priority numbers. Others use the Eisenhower Matrix of important/unimportant & urgent/non-urgent. So they use those four tags and filter by the two tags they want to see. (Usually important+urgent.)
I use a mixture. I have a job that takes me to a remote job site every week. So I have a @RemoteSite tag to make a list of everything that needs to be done there. I also have a @5min tag for tasks I can do if I find myself with five minutes on my hands. Instead of the Eisenhower Matrix, I tag things that are @Urgent and also things that will cause me @Trouble if not done on time. I have a few tags for people, too.
Hope that helps.
With Things, the regular date you set for a task is the Start Date. The Due Date is called "Deadline".
Just a quick recap of new features based on this page :
- Use the new quick toolbar to add times, dates, locations, flags, photos, and scanned documents to your reminders
- Smart lists are more helpful, automatically organizing your reminders and grouping them by Flagged, Scheduled, and Today.
- Natural language input
- As mentioned before ATTACHMENTS!
As a long-term user of Things, I excited to take a look at Reminders in iOS 13. It looks promising.
I like this advice from the official set-up guide:
> Include the fun or interesting things that you’d love to do, too. If you only add your obligations, looking over your to-dos will become a chore.
that did it thanks!! I didnt know "start anytime" means to reset!
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2785159/
also not sure why the downvotes!
Things is basically just a list manager with fancy filters to show you what you want to see at a specific time. Things uses those filters to roughly follow the GTD philosophy. Cultured Code explain their version of it on their website here:
Anytime is home for all of the to-dos you could start at any time. It’s a good place to look when putting together your Today list or planning your week in Upcoming.
Someday is the place for to-dos that you might like to get to, but you’re not sure when. Regularly review what you’ve added here to decide if it’s time to act.
Don't get too caught up in all the features. Use only those parts of Things that you find useful.
If this is a new icon, they've also started using it on their site. This one is at the top of their home page: https://culturedcode.com/things/2017-03-25/images/herologo-theallnewthings.png
Update:
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2967034/#restoring-deleted-to-dos
Checked support FAQ page:
>On the Mac, deleted to-dos and projects go to the Trash. Since
there’s no trash on iOS, all deletions are permanent which is why we’ve made deletions a 3-step-process. You can, however, recover the last deleted item: shake your device immediately after a deletion to recover it. On an iPad with an external keyboard, hit CMD + Z.
Shook the iphone vigourously, it didn't return the list. Apparently, It wasn't immediate enough. My list is gone. Feeling like Things3 did me real dirty today.
RIP Garage.
I think you might need to set the default mail app for the operating system: see http://osxdaily.com/2014/05/06/change-default-mail-app-mac/
I’m fairly sure Things isn’t opening the Mail app specifically; instead it should be delegating to the OS to pick the email app, which goes through the setting above, so you should be able to pick Outlook from that :)
I'd implemented a Things Pomodoro macOS menu bar item with keyboard shortcuts and CSV export for Excel, however, never published it. See https://snipboard.io/dspMo4.jpg for an example. If there is enough interest, maybe it would make sense to invest a bit more time again...
The date you are referring to is not designed to function as “due date”. It is the date that you need to start working on a task.
It sounds like you’re actually looking for the “Deadline” feature, which will tell you how many days you have left to complete your task. If you pass your deadline then Things will indicate how many days overdue your task is in red.
Go back to basics here.
+1 for shared account. My spouse and I opted to share an entire Things account and the syncing and everything continues to work great for our needs. If it helps, Cultured Code talks about it here.
I try to achieve (email) inbox zero every day and for that ~~use~~ rely on the ‘Quick Entry with autofill’ (ctrl + option + space) feature in combination with Apple Mail. This generates a new task with a hyperlink to that e-mail instead of copying the text to the email like with ‘mail to things’.
That email is than archived as I try to answer or proces all my emails immediately or move them to my Things Inbox. I find that keeps the best GTD workflow for me. For some reason all other email apps that feature Things integration I tried just have to much distracting features to me personally.
On the site of Things it says ‘Quick Entry with autofill’ feature might also work with 3rd party apps, maybe worth a try: https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803569/
Cheers!
Might be misunderstanding what you mean by jumpstart popover but in Things 3.6 and above Command-S brings up the date popup and from there you can enter "Tuesday 5pm" or even just "tu 5pm" to create your reminder.
This works on both the Mac and the iOS versions of the app. More keyboard shortcut details here.
Here's cultured code's apple script guide. You definitely can extract the todos from the today view using a script. You should look into this.
For now, I believe the best you could get is a Chrome Extension to add tasks to Things (making use of the Mail to Things feature). You could use the Zapier Push chrome extension to add tasks. You could get the same functionality by building a preset mailto:... URI and using it as a Chrome custom search engine or bookmark or similar (let me know if you want further details on how to set this up). Again, all this would do is let you add tasks, but if that's sufficient, there are multiple ways to implement it.
I'm guessing you're looking for more than that, due to the request for a webapp. This could be a separate discussion on its own (and probably already has been), but has anyone ever worked on a system to have their copy of the Things 3 database (the Mac's local version) sync with a personal cloud version that could then be accessed anywhere?
Read-only would be safer at first, of course, as it could be a fragile system trying to write all sorts of updates back to the database, and if you're using Things on iOS devices it would require having a Mac always running and connected to ensure your personal database copy is up-to-date with changes from iOS.
This is all speculative at this point; I'd be interested to hear if others have looked into this possibility.
>That being said I use KeepIt. it’s a bit pricier but I prefer the folders + tags + labels organization over the just tags. They’re very similar actually outside of that.
Never heard of KeepIt, but then realized it's the replacement for Together, which I previously used ages ago. I might have to check it out.
Like yourself, I like Bear, it's sleek and pretty, but it's also not exactly the best tool for my workflow. I have a lot of clients and a lot of tags. In Bear those essentially become the same thing since there's no way to organize by folders. So I've got to scroll two or three times just to get through my sidebar. It's awful.
Agenda gets me a little closer, but the markdown editor feels clumsy to me and, last I checked at least, I still couldn't open up a note in a separate window. I paid for that app for about two years but could never integrate it into my workflow and the development there feels about as sluggish as Bear — lots of plans and proposed features, but not a lot of actual updates.
Great article, Stepan!
I like your bit about Dropbox Paper (deep work FTW). The programmer’s workflow doesn’t really mesh with Things or GTD in general. I do something similar to you, except I use Agenda. Definitely check it out; from what I read I think you’d like it.
I save my searches by using Things URLs
I had the same thought as you when I started ; I don't want to be clicking on each tag to get the view I wanted. Using a combination of Things URL and Alfred worked like a charm.
> However, it's generally a good idea to not log into one's personal accounts on work computers.
I would say there’s less risk involved temporarily signing into the App Store then signing back out, than there is storing your Things database on a work computer.
What’s your concern with signing in?
And if you do go down this route, make sure you delete the database data as well as the app.
Another way to do it is to set a start date the day you want to start working on it and an due date when you want to turn it in. instead of checking it off when you're done working on it for the day, you can push it to the next day (e.g., ctrl + ] will push the start day forward one and thus push it off). I find learning and using the keyboard shortcuts is really helpful so I can be flexible with what needs to be done.
Quit Things. Delete the local database file. Launch Things again. It’ll create an empty database.
You’ll find the local db path here: https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803600/
If you have a cloud account, be sure to create one local to-do before logging back in. That way you’ll be presented with the merge options and you can choose to overwrite the cloud with your new database.
If you have an item selected and you hit CMD+T it moves it to tomorrow.
Have you seen this?
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2785159/
You can see all the built-in keyboard shortcuts, or if you are so inclined use a program like a keyboard maestro to create the keyboard shortcuts that suit you the most. I have created about a dozen that I like but mostly happy with the standard.
​
By the way CMD+S would be (Schedule) which is why the S. There's no
save function for this app.
You need to install Quick Entry With Autofill from the Cultured Code website. That gives you a second Quick Entry function that will capture links to Emails, URLs and files.
If you want to change the way the helper titles the links, you can open the package contents and edit the enclosed AppleScript.
> this opens me a whole new comprehension of the book..
Awesome!
> Are your areas filled with projects in Things?
I have an area called Projects. I don’t use the projects functionality built into Things 3 so this area houses a list of my projects as ordinary to-dos. I’ll use the notes section of each to-do (project) to store a link to its corresponding Project Support Material in Bear.
> If you have two actions for a project, and having prioritized them, how do you structure these 2 actions in you Things app?
I’m not sure what you mean by “prioritize” here. Next Actions generated by reviewing my Projects list go into my Contexts. Sometimes a project will generate multiple actions that do not need to be completed sequentially. If there’s something I can’t do yet but I think I might have to do it after completing my current next actions I’ll make note of it in the project support material.
Hey, I did some testing and it seems that the quick entry auto fill doesn’t work with Slack. It works for Safari and Email, but w/ Slack, nothing happens.
I did some quick research and there’s a free and super simple integration w/ Zapier . Like the website says, it takes < 2 minutes to configure. I set it up so that when I star ⭐️ an item in Slack, it’ll create an Inbox item in Things3. Just tested it and it works 😮 (it also has a link back to the Slack conversation).
Slack was the only app I couldn’t do quick entry with ... until now. Thanks for posting this question because it helped me find a solution to an issue I was having!
Those are project headers. See the link to see how they work.
I find them great for large projects that has many different days or steps.
They are not very open about that, but from their website (https://culturedcode.com/things/cloud/) one can conclude, that it's not encrypted, just that the connections to their servers is over SSL.
True. I get it. I think it's more of a screen real estate decision. You can still filter by them in iPhone and iPad https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803581/
In practice, I mostly rely on my Calendar when I am out and about. I use Things 3 in the Phone to capture stuff or to refer to my "Errands" or "Walking" tag. I can refer to my "Critical Now" Area if needed, but I usually don't have too since the time to work on those is blocked in my calendar.
No, I just type "Quick" and all my tasks tagged with the "Quick" label pop up organized by Area and Project. You can do it with any tag, I also use it for "Comms" or "Errands" or "This Week".
The feature is called quick find. Here is an example: https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803584/
Me too. I got it from this book. It's an older one, but it has some really interesting ideas about prioritizing and practical productivity. A lot of the advice I see in YouTube is from freelancers so it's nice to see one from corporate, 9-5 people.
You don’t.
They developed their own sync mechanism (Link), because alternative solutions did not provide the desired objectives.
See e.g. Things Cloud “Fractus” on CulturedCode‘s Blog
Hi. I realize I'm bumping a 2 year old thread and not sure if you are even in need of an app still or have found something, but this is more or less a web app version of Things 2/3: https://www.nirvanahq.com
There's My Life Organized, too, which you can customize a lot, but having no left-hand project list is too overwhelming for me and I don't do well with it.
Do you mean something "Do the laundry in 1 hour"? I'm not aware of that functionality in Things, but you can use natural language (scroll down to "Type ahead") in the date picker to save yourself a few clicks.
- I didn't want to pay $28 for an iPad version to manage the tasks from my iPhone
- Location-based reminders (if I arrive home, I can set Todoist to remind me to do something)
- Natural language processing (I can type "Take out the trash at 10pm Friday" and it will recognize that the task needs to be set for Friday at 10pm and the task will be titled "Take out the trash". This is leagues ahead of anything Things can offer right now
- Usability - I can either manage/view tasks only on my iPhone or I can view them on every single device I own, even in just a web browser at todoist.com.
- Coordination with others - I use Todoist with my family and can assign tasks to others.
IMO, the only thing that Things has over Todoist is the price, but I don't mind paying a subscription for Todoist because at least there's much quicker, continuous development. Things development is much too slow for my liking and the app has fallen behind compared to its competitors.
You could maybe use the “update project” function in the Things 3 URL scheme.
Use a JavaScript bookmarklet to open the Things 3 URL to include whatever Google doc you want to include.
This is officially a bug then.
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803581/
​
> This is useful because to-dos automatically inherit the tag from the list they’re in, which means you don’t have to tag each to-do manually.
>
>Note that inherited tags will not show directly on the to-dos themselves, but when you filter other lists – such as Today – to-dos from that project or area will be included in the filtered results.
At ifttt.com. Just connect to Google Assistant after signing up. Create a New Applet and use Google Assistant as your action. Tell Google Assistant that when you say whatever you want, then have it emailed to your Things address.
You could use IFTTT to send an iOS notification with the Things URL. Similar to the Launch Center Pro suggestions, I believe (unless it can do it in the background without needing manual interaction with a notification), except IFTTT is free (though Launch Center Pro has other great features, of course).
This post shows what an IFTTT rich notification with a Things URL would look like.
You can access the Thing's content via apple scripts. Whether or not you can manage to output that script into a workflow and make it helpful with another app is another problem entirely. I would do it manually first... Make sure it's worth the effort. This blog has some info about automating Things via apple scripts.
Your workflow though... I don't know if it's a good plan. I use Things with GTD methodology and as a result I have context via tags and projects. I also block schedule, but I do this with the calendar app, and simply block time off for a specific context. You can even add the "location" for your blocked off calendar event as a Things URL with the filters already setup.
things:///show?id=today&filter=area,project,tag,another_tag
Here is the link builder, but you don't need it, overtime you'll be able to type it out manually.
Sorry if this isn't helpful, but when I've tried to add new apps to my system, it usually backfired, so I thought I'd mention this. If you do create a workflow with sorted and it works well for you then please post the details. I'm always looking for better workflows.
It looks like there is no way to set such a workflow, unfortunately. Cultured Code seems to follow a strict policy of "no way out" for tasks info.
IFTTT.com has support for Todoist
- New task created: This Trigger fires every time you create a new task in Todoist.
- New task created with label: This Trigger fires every time you create a new task with a label you specify. NOTE: Labels are only supported for Todoist Premium users.
- New completed task: This Trigger fires every time a task is marked as completed in Todoist.
- New completed task with label: This Trigger fires every time a task is marked as completed with a label you specify. NOTE: Labels are only supported for Todoist Premium users.
As does Zapier:
- New Complete Task: Triggers when you complete a task on a project.
- New Incomplete Task: Triggers when you add an incomplete task to a project.
- New Any Completed Task: Only for Todoist Premium users! Triggers when you complete a task (including recurring tasks) on a project.
- New Complete Task With Label: Triggers when an item with a specific label is completed.
- New Project: Triggers when a new project is created.
I use both Zapier and IFTTT to create tasks from Asana and send to Things via email.
Other than a minor delay, this seems to work very well.
Craft and Things work great together for ongoing work. Drop the URL of the project of each in the other and you can jump back and forth no problem. But, you’re talking about mapping it out, from what I read. Mindnode and Drafts both support mapping out projects there and importing them easily into Things. https://culturedcode.com/things/blog/2018/02/hey-things/
Just FYI, this sub is not an official Cultured Code one, you could try requesting it through their official site
Having said that, smart folders exist across several apps already. I think Todoist calls them filters and Omnifocus calls them perspectives. So if this is a major painpoint for your workflow, there are alternatives out there.
I love Things 3, but the nature of my job is really fast-paced and benefits from using a Kanban view, so I am using Todoist now.
I believe you can get saved search by using the Things URL schema. Made easy with this automated web-based generator:
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803573/
I want headers in the inbox, Today, and Anytime views, as well as in areas. Headers everywhere! Headers all the Things!
Most apps have an internal link structure that looks something like `[app]://x-callback-url/[action]?id=[id]` which allows you create links from one app to another. Things has a little builder online for this (https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803573/), but a lot of us link to a note app from a Things project this way as well.
It is possible! I use Taskade personally to do them and I love it because it keep me so organized. Check this out if you're curious https://www.producthunt.com/posts/taskade-3-0
I do a weekly review which helps a lot with planning things. Good explanation here: https://lifehacker.com/5908816/the-weekly-review-how-one-hour-can-save-you-a-weeks-worth-of-hassle-and-headache/amp
If I had that many deadlines I think I would stop using them and tag things instead. For example, urgent, must do today, due x date, whatever she finds meaningful.
I switched to GNU Emacs' org-mode. Starting out is very simple, you just write a todo list of the form:
* TODO item ** TODO subtask ** DONE subtask 2 *** TODO sub-subtask * DONE item
To mark a TODO task as DONE, press Ctrl-X Ctrl-T. To collapse, press TAB.
As you go along, you can learn more of the wealth of functionality org-mode has. It has a ton of features. The added features never interfere with the basic task because of the way Emacs is made.
While it takes a few minutes to get used to the controls, it has unlimited nesting, collapsed nesting, note taking support, timer support. All these extra features are hidden away when you don't use them. A mobile version is available called Orgzly.
Emacs' agenda mode let's you sort by date as well as having many other features. If you prefer convenience, you can pay an Emacs developer to help you set up Emacs' powerful agenda mode.
More importantly than these practical advantages, you have the freedom to run, use, distribute, and modify the software. If you are ever dissatisfied with the software, you can pay any programmer to add functionality to it, because as part of being free software, the source code is available. You can read more about the philosophy (this paragraph described a small part of it) behind the software's developers on the links GNU Emacs provides.
Just tested successfully and I'd say it's a legit workaround!
More detail for the next person looking for this:
- Go to link builder: https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803573/
- Add task name and check "completed"
- Add project ID (the long character string after
id=). Get this from 'share > copy link'. - Add header name, if applicable
- Add completion date in this format (just replace the #'s): ####-##-##T14:30:00Z+01:00
- Click the auto-generated link at top to add the task to your project
Notes & tags can be added to the task after it's added to the project, or you can add those to the link builder.
I don't know of a better workaround.
If you want to preserve the original completion date you set it using the URL Scheme feature; I do this sometimes when I completed an item the day before but failed to actually check it off in Things.
You have to install Things helper on MacOS to enable this feature.
https://culturedcode.com/things/mac/help/things-sandboxing-helper-things3/
After you install you can configure by enetering into Things prefrences on MacOS
This was so me! How I fixed this was by only having dates attached to things that needed it (so my today didn’t get flooded), and by adopting something similar to “eat the frog”, where I’d choose one essential item I needed to do to make it a good day. After I completed that, I’d usually pat myself on the back, feel some momentum, and jump into my inbox to start with the quickest item first. Every Saturday I go through the app and clean out any no longer relevant to dos as well.
I don’t follow this exactly - there’s usually more things I need to do - but here’s the link that inspired me to think about things differently:
Thanks :) That emoji is visually pleasing but also was helpful for me to write the script.
I already thought time blocking is something I should try, and after taking a quiz here https://todoist.com/productivity-methods, it told me time blocking fits my preference. So I was like "Okay, let me pull the trigger".
I hope you enjoy! :)
Have you ever looked at Notion? It seems like you need more than just a list of names, but a full CRM for personal relationships.
I found a template that I have began using myself. You can delete columns you don't need and do basically whatever you want to it.
Notion Template - If you click the link on the page and register through it you get $10 for free to get yourself started if you ever want to go pro on the platform. It is completely free to use up to 1.000 blocks.
Just hit me up if you want any help to customize the CRM to fit you as I am quite the Notion nerd at the moment. Just DM me here on Reddit and I'll give you my contact information 😊
Looks like it is for the desktop version only. If you aren't familiar with command line interfaces it will be pretty tricky using that.
First step is certainly installing brew then following the instructions in the repository.
Up until 3.10, the count also decreased when an item was marked as complete.
Also if I restart Things without logging completed items the number updates. Here's a screenshot after restarting Things: https://www.screencast.com/t/fGsxJJEjdn
As you can see in the latest screenshot, I have not logged completed items, yet the count now says 2.
Correct. Missed that in the title. On iOS virtually identical. Only instead of using shortcut, use Share and choose Things. It will create a resource reference for what you are sharing in the todo. As you can see here. There should be no need to have iCloud involved.
Mostly relevant for your "today view". Simply click the preference to group by area/project and you get a nice clean view.
​
See it in action here. (Making an assumption this also works on iPad)
Listonic (https://listonic.com/) is quite awesome, I use it to keep things separate from my actual todo list, it automatically groups items into aisles and I can share my individual shopping lists with others. (it's free and I have no relation to them, other than being a happy user)
I also work in marketing and right now I use Things + Bear. It's far from perfect but the combination is better than anything else I've tried (including Things + Notion). My main problem is that my projects tend to be complicated and time sensitive and often require detailed notes. While Things handles the task management aspect of my jobs perfectly, there's no way the built in notes are going to be sufficient.
So, for now, I create my project in Things and then create the same project in Bear. I then create a link to Bear in Things, and do the same in Bear. This way my project assets are always just a click away no matter which app I'm in. For good measure, I also place in a link to the job folder so I've got access to all of my files.
Yes, I'd rather do this all in one app but there doesn't seem to be an app that does all that — at least not one that was built for someone that works solo. The closest I've found might be Daylite or Copper but neither offer good note taking. Moreover, Daylite feels clunky to me and Copper is really flakey. Half the time the GSuite integration doesn't even work.
So, yeah, I feel your pain. There really isn't a product that addresses our workflow. Not that I've found, anyway. So we've got to cobble together our own solutions.
This is one of the big reasons I recently moved from Things3 to Apple Reminders. I need to be able to share tasks with my spouse and I didn't want to have my to-dos spread out across multiple apps. Things3 is great from a UI perspective, but I personally just needed more functionality. I've also found location-based reminders to be incredibly helpful. I use them all the time now.
I love using Reminders in conjunction with GoodTask. I use both apps together, sometimes going into Reminders and sometimes going into GoodTask. GoodTask brings some more features to Reminders, but it's implemented in such a way that you don't have to exclusively use the app. I set up GoodTask to look and work a bit like Things and it's working really well for me.
As far as Reminders is concerned I've found that using http://goodtaskapp.com bridges a lot of the gaps between the two . As it uses Reminders as it's back-end you don't lose anything from trying it out and it takes advantage of all the good things Reminders has to offer .
Check out Craft! It’s very similar to Roam or Notion but far easier to use. I’d say it is one of the few apps out there that is on Things level from design and usability standpoint.
Things 3 is surely not feature-rich and after using it for a couple of months, I had to switch to a more robust project management system. I prefer using ProProfs Project as it is full of useful features that fit my workflow. The customizable Kanban boards help me a lot in planning and visualizing the project. From advanced reporting and analytics to invoicing, ProProfs Project is perfect for my project management needs. In contrast to other project management tools out there, the pricing is also reasonable for freelancers and small teams.
I use The Archive and try to follow the Zettelkasten principle.
New notes get an ID (for example 20210815202656).
When I feel that the note doesn't fit into Things, I just write a very short description in the Things task or project and reference my note ID in Things.
This setup is not for everyone, though. Taking notes on mobile is a bit of a pain (I use iA Writer to create/update notes; not perfect, as it doesn't generate my IDs), but as I work on desktop 95% of the time, this wasn't a big issue for me so far.
Why I didn't use Apple Notes/Bear?
- My notes are now stored in plain text and I'm in full control on where they are stored
- I can use any editor I want to read, write or update my notes
- Sharing notes is easy. I can just share the file with someone
Based on the discussion, it sounds like Things is not the right tool for what you want to do. It might be worth noting that you could sort of simulate the kind of more depth than what Things will afford by linking from tasks into other "nested" projects. From your example,
> Dev (Area) > SomeWebApp (Project) > Feature (Task) > Sub-Feature-Tasks (Sub-Task)
Perhaps those "Sub-Features-Tasks" could be their own items, but you could link to them from the "Feature" using either the "Feature" item's note field or that item's checklist. You might use tags to zoom in on the kind of item that you want to look at, e.g. only "top-level" Feature items.
Things is definitely an "opinionated" product and they don't seem to be interested in it becoming all things to all people. I respect that and, coming from a task manager that had TONS of features, but didn't do anything particularly well, I appreciate their decision.
When I had this issue, Cultured Code referred me to this web page.
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/4481378/
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The advanced troubleshooting steps resolved the issue for me.
At best, you can snooze notifications - https://culturedcode.com/things/blog/2018/09/things-3-7-brings-siri-shortcuts-and-more/ Or for tasks that you must have persistent notifications you could try an app such as Due. But there’s not a great solution for this in Things.
Happy to help! No need to use the script, it's totally fine to keep things simple :)
I got the idea to use a "Next" tag from this Omnifocus video . Peter also has a great Things 3 course.
Something really nice about Things is how simple, yet powerful it is. There is a really neat Apple Script guide on their website. It's a bit more advanced, but has helped me with my workflow.
You can’t ‘pin’ a tag or search, if that’s what you’re asking.
But once you’ve created ‘Anton’ as a tag and added it to various tasks, you can do the following: - Mac or iPad (with external keyboard) just start typing ‘Anton’ and the search will appear - select the tag and all associated tasks will appear - iOS drag/ pull down on the screen and you can do the same
I use a very similar system for delegation, including the "Delegated" > "Sam" nested tag structure. The only difference is that I move delegated tasks to Someday and set a deadline against it. The advantage I find with this approach is:
- It ensures all tasks in the Anytime view are actionable by me
- Things automatically moves a delegated task out of Someday and into Today when the deadline is due or past-due, which makes sense as the task is now actionable by me (e.g., I need to follow up the person who I delegated to).
- When I'm looking at an Area or Project, Someday tasks still appear but are clearly marked (by dotted lines), providing a visual indicator that the task is delegated
To help manage this, I've also created a TouchBar system on my MacBook Pro using BetterTouchTool and the Things URL Scheme. Because Things URLs to go to a specific area or project, and/or apply one or more tags at once, it's more flexible than the search option - for example, I can create a URL for the scenario "Tasks delegated to Sam or Kevin for project X that is currently in the design phase". I create buttons on the toolbar either as:
- A replacement for Perspectives in OmniFocus (though not as powerful) for some specific and slightly complex scenarios that I need to filter on regularly
- As a way to easily drill through staff who I have delegated to
- As a way to easily drill through different projects
I spent way to look making this system look pretty (and functional) and now I'm usually no more than 2 taps away from pulling up a specific view, and I can easily tap through different views (like cycling through filters for each staff member I've delegated to with one tap).
This is the last one I still have. It’s used for my quarterly review prep. It’s basically a JSON that calls a url scheme. Cultured Code goes into detail here.
Unfortunately that wasn't a Black Friday sale. Here's why the sale happened:
> We then discounted it a second time from October 15–31, 2019, to help our remaining Things 2 users upgrade at a lower cost.
Source: https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803552/
Not the strikethrough, not on iOS.
It’s in the release notes for the current version.
“Canceled to-dos now show strikethrough, as on the Mac.”
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803573/
This was shared with me in a different weekly thread, which addresses how to edit or add completed items to the Logbook with a date in the past (if you mark a task done in the app, it will log today's date as completion date). It took a few tries but I got it to work... you have to input the date/time in a very specific format AND mark it as complete, in order for it to work. This applies whether you are adding a new completed task or editing one you already logged as done.
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2967034/#things-on-windows-android-the-web - in a word, no, and they've been pretty consistent about saying they will not be doing it.
From the keyboard via shortcuts, absolutely - but it sounds like not quite in the same way you mean. I do pretty much all my task management in things from the keyboard on my iPad/Mac.
This doesn’t answer your exact question, but I’ve found using Siri to be pretty straightforward & I specifically reach for that option when I want to add a reminder from my phone.
There’s a description of how to create a conversational shortcut. See section Conversational Shortcuts on this page https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2955145/
It mentions creating checklists. Also notice the notes referring to entering checklists. Thus, checklists are not supported out of the box, but you should be able to build what you want.
As you probably saw I‘m more into getting information out of Things 3. Creation is actually easier.
Intro here Hey, things
Details here Things URL Scheme
Be aware that Things 3 actions on iPhone and iPad are different.
Here’s a possible workaround. Use the URL shortcut builder to recreate your original task and assign it a completed date. They just delete your original task.
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803573/
Maybe this would work in a pinch?
Refer to the bottom of this page. I think the "hold command to select multiple tags" is for filtering tags and not assigning tags. What I do is I assign each tag is own key (via the command+control+t window) so I can use control to quickly assign the tags. Eg: I have 2 tags: "Chores" and "Morning", they are assigned to the keys "C" and M." When I want to assign both tags to a task, I hold control and hit the C key then M.
For Mac:
> Group tags together: drop one tag on top of another to nest it.
For iOS:
> Group tags together: tap the blue button to the right of the tag, then tap Group.
https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803581/#manage-your-tags
You can sort of do saved searches by setting up a URL using the Link Builder ( https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803573/, use the "Search" option), and then saving that URL and invoking it via Shortcuts or some other means.
I just did some looking online and it does appear to be behaving normally. A tag on an area will apply to every to-do in that area but will only be noticed when filtering the list. I tested my version again and yes this is what is happening.
Only two employees have access it seems, and they are bound by confidentiality agreements to not share this stuff.
They also say they might consider implementing client-side encryption.
Source: Here
Using the Official Alfred Integration, what is the syntax for adding a todo directly to "Today" or "This Evening"? I tried pretty hard and none of my guesses worked.
Tag inheritance from the parent list affects the filtering in Today, Upcoming etc., but not the search results (though the parent list will appear in search results for you to drill into).
Note that you can create keyboard shortcuts for quick tagging on Mac, and the shortcuts you create on Mac will also sync over to iPad (if you use an external keyboard there): https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803581/#add-tags-to-multiple-to-dos-at-once
Also note that, in the black tag window on iOS, you can pull down to search for a tag. Not super obvious, but speeds you up a bit.
Personnellement, j’ai plus tendance à le prononcer « Sings » et je n’ai pas de problème.
J’ai également suivi leur post pour activer Siri: https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2877019/
Si ça bloque vraiment, une possibilité est aussi d’utiliser Siri pour créer des rappels dans l’application « Rappel » et d’activer l’import automatique des rappels dans Things.
It’s the keyboard shortcut for Things’ Quick Entry with Autofill, which can grab info from the frontmost app when invoked. See https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2803569/. It requires installation of a separate helper app.
Those are the release notes from the App Store. Here‘s a link to the app: https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/things-3-for-ipad/id904244226?l=en
Edit: they wrote an article for the update as well: https://culturedcode.com/things/blog/2019/09/things-for-ipados/
It is actually on the What's New site.
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>Natural Date Input
>
>Jump Start has some brains, too – thanks to Natural Language Recognition. It smartly detects what you’re typing and figures out what you mean... “Tom(orrow)”, “Sat(urday)”, “in fou(r days)”, “Au(gust 1)”. As you can see, it jumps to all the right conclusions.
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I found this when researching the app. Never used it until recently though.
Things 3 is essentially an app built off of the Getting Things Done (GTD) framework. Take a look at the official guide to using Things 3 (link below), and then if you want to go deeper, read the Getting Things Done book or google around for more resources on the topic. There’s a lot out there.
Yeah, I did realise I was suggesting something that would require you to travel back in time and lay the groundwork, sorry :)
I don’t think CC read this forum but you can email them via their website: https://culturedcode.com/things/
Personally I would really like it if you could search for things like tasks with a deadline or repeating tasks the way you can in Todoist.
Don’t worry about getting it perfect right now - you’ll probably find you change things around a bit as you go.
To start with, it would be worth thinking about the main areas of responsibility or focus in your life, eg work, studying, any particular passions or hobbies. What sorts of things do you need to do in a typical week and which ones would you expect to find together?
This is just a personal preference but I would say try not to have too many areas as it can get a bit over-complicated.
I’ve just given my own set-up a bit of a spring clean and now I have these five areas:
Work: anything for my job
Personal: health and self-care, hobbies, relationships and social plans, things to buy for myself or other people (used to be in a few different areas which got a bit much)
Home: household chores, cooking, bills, pet care
Poetry: spoken word workshops and events, ideas and things to read (this is a passion of mine so I wanted it to be its own area)
Things: project templates and my weekly review
This guide is also worth a read: https://culturedcode.com/things/guide/
I don't believe you can for existing to-dos, but you could create a Siri Shortcut to create new to-dos with "This Evening" and a reminder time already set. You might also be able to create an AppleScript that would set a reminder on existing "This Evening" tasks, and have the script run at regular intervals.
Ironically I wanted to know how to do this on iOS because I’d already done this on the Mac for Things 2 (and Things 1 if it had AppleScript back then, I can’t remember). But I decided to go iOS-only when Things 3 came out, so the AppleScript was no use to me any more.
But here it is:
tell application "Things3" set nextCount to (count of to dos of list "Someday") end tell
display dialog "Someday: " & nextCount & " items"
If you open Script Editor, paste the above in, and save it with file format “Application”, you can just double-click it to show the count of Someday items.
For other lists, just replace Someday with the list name - you need to get it exactly right, one of:
Inbox
Today
Anytime
Upcoming
Someday
Logbook
Trash
For further AppleScript help there’s loads on the web, including the Things AppleScript Guide from Cultured Code themselves
Edit: formatting
I use the following to automate creating tasks, etc. on the Mac: