Things: A Task Manager That Understands Humans

What do you get if you take the principles of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) and humanize it? Cultured Code's to do list manager, Things, an award winning task manager available both as a Mac app and an iPhone app.

How good is Things? Within days of the release of the Mac version, it received a Best of Show award at Macworld 2009. That's how good.

I have tried more to do list managers than I care to think about, both paper and computerized. On my iPhone alone I've tried 15 of them!

To do the hard way

Many of those I've tried lay claim to being true to GTD. As such, they all turned me very cynical on GTD. All those that make the GTD claim tried to control me and required great dedication - thus making me a slave to the application and its whims.

I have attempted to explore the principles of GTD on other occasions, as it is certainly appears the most popular methodology for getting things done. However, I always found it required self-discipline, committment and good organization, qualities I comfortably lack. And GTD is certainly not for procrastinators.

Consequently, I found in no time the systems breaking down and an overload of messages telling me about overdue tasks. 43Things, for example, sent me email after email reminding me how much of a slacker I am.

My pet hate has always been to do managers that demand due dates and priorities and then organize you, based solely on those. I went to staff training days back in the '80s that taught that form of time management. And it hurt then and still hurts now. It's how iCal does it and I don't like it. Systems like that lack flexibility. However, until last year (when I was juggling overdue assignments and the rest of my life), I hadn't identified what was missing, what that flexibility was all about.

With all my overdue assignments, I found myself making a list of everything I had to do, trying to prioritize and schedule it, but then finding almost everything had to be done "today". Very intimidating - even if it wasn't all really due today. With so much overdue, it was theoretically all due "today", but clearly not possible to achieve.

So what I started doing was making short to do lists each day based on the larger list, and with these bite size lists, I was able to manage without stressing, balance tasks to suit my mood (e.g. some days I felt like doing creative assignments rather than written ones), and fit in the smaller less important tasks around the important ones.

This last point is important. Rigid to-do managers based on priorities and schedules drive you like a slave, usually making you work on just what has to be done now. Eventually then everything reaches that "do it now" status. We need to blend into our day less important tasks that if we put them off too long, become "do it now" tasks. I was sick of applications telling me what to do, when to do it, and then "abusing" me when I didn't do it.

To do today

What I realized last year was I needed a task manager that allowed a daily subset list of my overall task list, a short "to do today" list but most importantly with tasks of my own choosing and with no reminders (if not required).

Things allows that, and very easily. And that's where it's strength lies. It is what all those others aren't: Flexible.

Recently I described to my brother the ideal task manger. It would have to have a to-do today list made of tasks of my choosing, along with scheduled ones but allowing the scheduled ones to be easily removed; a projects list for major tasks that have sub-tasks; and a list of all tasks. And it had to work on the iPhone. I even started to teach myself iPhone programming with this end in mind, but once I found Things, I gave that up (for now).

I took a look at Things and discovered it had the two most important requirements of those three. (The missing one is it doesn't let you view all tasks in one list).

A Things convert

Previously, I was a Things cynic. At US$9.99 and based on the description and images on the App Store, I assumed it to be like all those other task managers that try to manage you. But I was wrong. Things in fact was exactly what I was looking for.

(What turned me around to Things was the trial version of the Mac version, which came out last week. This meant I could experience Things at no charge. For all App Store developers, it's so important to have some way for customers to experience before they buy.)

My personal experience, and I suspect from talking to others people, theirs as well, is we don't work the way that all those other task managers try to force us into. We get interruptions, change our priorities, don't feel like doing some things today, put things off, change our schedules. We need a flexible task manager! We need Things.

Interviewed by TUAW, Michael Simmons, marketing director of Cultured Code, says of Things, it is "a task manager for everyone... that adapts to you, instead of you having to adapt to it". And I might add, rather than it dictating to you.

And that is true, if you prefer a schedule and priority driven task manager, Things is it. It can be used in that way.

And if you're like me, and a bit more prone to disorganization, Things is great because it forgives you your foibles. It lets you manage it. It even lets you procrastinate without nagging you! For example, if you don't do a task for four days it doesn't scream a stream of endless popup reminders or emails at you.

Features

As I mentioned above, it was the Mac demo that convinced me to buy the iPhone version. At US$40 cheaper, that's not surprising. The question of course, is, is it worth buying both the Mac and iPhone versions? The short answer is a definte "yes", as they do complement each other.

Currently the iPhone version doesn't have all the features of the Mac version, such as Areas and People. But these are being addressed, for example the next version will have support for Areas.

And due to limitations of both the iPhone and the Mac, some features are available only on each device. On the Mac that is linking to files and emails, and creating recurrent tasks; and on the iPhone that is linking to and dialing phone numbers.

This piece has been more about why Things is so good for you than a proper review of its features. Search the 'net, or check the Things website, and you'll find plenty of proper reviews. So here's a few features:

- User definable tags

- Link to files and emails (Mac version only)

- Recurrent tasks (can only be created on the Mac version)

- Manual sorting of tasks

- Filtering

- "Someday" list

- Global shortcut key (Mac version)

- Automatic syncing over WiFi (when iPhone and Mac are on the same network and Things is open on each device)

- Log of completed tasks

- Projects

- Areas of responsibility provides another method for grouping tasks (currently only Mac version)

- Assign to people (currently only Mac version)

- Dial numbers from tasks (iPhone version only)

- Intuitive interface

- Integration with iCal and Mail (tasks can be sent to iCal. To dos from Mail will pass through to Things if you sync with the same calendar, and vice versa)

At US$49.95 for the Mac version, and $9.99 for the iPhone app, for what you get, and compared to the competition who are charging quite a bit more (OmniFocus US$79.95 Mac and US$23.99 iPhone, Hit List $69.95 Mac), buying both the Mac and iPhone versions is recommended and good value.

I know our decisions about what we use are personal and relative to our own needs, but every now and then you come across an application that really makes you wonder why anyone would use or recommend anything else. (Like the way most of us feel about our Macs). Things is definitely one of those applications.

Even though it's only version 1.0,Things has got task management right and got it right now. New features will come but they'll be simply icing on the cake. If you're looking for a task manager, look at Things first. 9/10.