Things: Task Management Made Simple

If you’ve ever read the book Getting Things Done, you’re familiar with the concept behind it - empty your head of the things you need to do without taking a lot of time to do it, because that task itself should not be time consuming. The idea is to free your mind thereby increasing focus and productivity because you’re not trying to mentally track everything.

Cultured Code ran with that concept and worked it into a sweet little app called Things. I picked it up about a month ago when I saw that it was available for beta. I was hooked right away. Quite honestly, it’s been more useful than any other project or task management software I’ve tried so far, because I actually use it!

The problem with most project oriented apps is that they’re hard to learn or adjust to. They also seem counterproductive at times, eating time instead of freeing it. Navigating can be cumbersome, and of those I’ve tested - the overviews left much to be desired. I often spent more time in the app than working on tasks, or never bothered to add them in the first place because it took too long. With Things there’s almost no learning curve, so you can add (and get moving on) your projects very quickly.

Right away you get a sense that it’s easy to manage - and it actually is. I dare say it’s even fun. ;) The interface is sleek, uncluttered and almost too simple, but not to the point that it compromises functionality. Things puts your tasks in front of your nose in a way that you don’t have to wander around the app to find what it is you really need to do.

Create multiple Projects or Areas of Responsibility and add multiple items to them without losing sight of anything or having to endlessly drill down. This app really shines when it comes to overviews, in my opinion. Switch between several views with just a click - Today, Next, Someday and Scheduled. Things will show you the info you need and not what you don’t. To access details for individual items simply click on the folder for that Project or Area. Don’t have details yet? Use the Someday feature to drop in something you have no specifics for, then move or edit it accordingly later.

Like tags? Things is on board. Add tags to dynamically group items, or use the search filter to find items by tag, title or note. That’s right, you can add notes (of course!) to any task. Things will keep them out of your way too - but never out of reach. Notes are neatly tucked into each task’s module. Just double-click to see associated notes and tags, set a due date or make a task repeatable.

Quickly add, edit, delete or reorder your tasks or Projects. Color coding and highlighting lets you know immediately what is done, what needs done, what has been updated today… the works. Best of all, Things keeps your lists tidy! Via preference setting, you can have it automatically move completed items to a Logbook each day, week or month.

I am really impressed with this software considering it’s only in beta. There are a few minor usability issues (the drag/drop capability and repeatable tasks are still somewhat limited), but the developers are working on them. I have to wonder how Things would hold up to large team usage as well. It seems targeted mostly toward small agencies or freelance types. Then again I don’t work in a team so I can’t comment on that. Overall, I think Things is already well worth the reasonable $50 price tag for the final release.

Tags: getting-things-done | mac | organization | software