Review of Things beta for Mac from Cultured Code
I’ve been using the beta version (0.9.6 is the latest) of Things from Cultured Code for the last few months, and also bought the Things app on the iPhone. I’ve tried a few solutions for Getting Things Done (GTD) on the iPhone, but they were mainly free solutions and cannot be compared to a paid app like Things.
Things’ User Interface:
Things’ UI consists of a Source List (a sidebar on the left) divided into 3 categories: Collect, Focus, and Organise, a tag bar below the window bar, the main window area filled with all your tasks, a shortcut bar for frequently used actions such as create new task and editing tags, and finally a bottom grey bar which incorporates a search field and the item count (for the window currently shown). This is quite a wordy description, so I’m just going to let pictures tell the story:
The UI of Things
The Source List is really quite useful. Collect is where you dump tasks that you don’t know how to categorise into the Inbox, Focus is where you focus on the tasks at hand (Today, Next, Scheduled and Someday), and Organise is where you have your tasks organised into Projects and Areas of Responsibility. The Logbook logs completed tasks at the end of the day, but you can manually log completed tasks as well.
The Inbox is great for anything I suddenly remember I have to do, and have to get out of my head before I forget it. I also love the Scheduling ability of Things, where you can put tasks with due dates that are still far away, but appear in Today at the scheduled date, so you don’t forget. Finally, Projects are great for sorting those tasks that are all under one huge umbrella and have a common, final due date (you CAN set individual due dates for every task in a Project).
What I really like about Things:
1. You don’t need much work to organise your tasks. Spend less time writing out your to-dos, and more time actually doing things.
2. It’s easy to find a specific task. Use the universal search function, tags or the source list to quickly and easily find what you’re looking for. However, most of the time I concentrate on tasks in Today, and don’t need to find tasks outside of that.
3. It syncs with my iPhone, and iCal.
Things I want in Things (rather essential features):
1. iCal syncing could be improved. Sync to different calendars, not just one, and add the ability to sync more than just ‘Today’ and ‘Next’.
2. Alarms/Alerts needed! I rely on reminders and I want Things to help me get things done, not require me to check the app frequently for the list of things to be done.
3. iPhone app to have more features from the desktop app. Most important: Display and add/edit tags.
Of course, the version of Things I am using is a beta, and more features could be introduced at the Macworld Expo 2009 next year (Things will be having a booth there). However, even in its present state, I think it is polished and well executed. Those looking for a reasonably priced GTD app with iPhone syncing and easy task management will be very happy with Things. Unfortunately, those that require syncing with a Web server may have to look elsewhere, such as Omni Group’s OmniFocus for the iPhone (much higher priced than Things).
