Things 3 for iPad 4+

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.

After trying several todo apps over the years, I finally broke down and bought Things 3. I am kinda mad that I did not do it earlier.

I have used many todo apps over the years but have always ended up with unusable clutter. Separating my lists by app for work and personal did not help much either since that meant having that many more apps on my phone. Each just ended up in a folders like Productivity and Work apps which meant 2 taps to get to an app to see what needed to be done next. Since they did not integrate my calendar I had to check both the todo apps and calendar to see what was going on on a given day. In short, that doesn’t work and I still had the challenge of balancing my home and work responsibilities with just my brain. That is needlessly stressful and every few months I would look for yet another way to solve the problem.

I balked at spending even more money on yet another todo app but I had heard good things about Things for years so I finally took the plunge on the iPhone. I transferred all my lists from other apps and deleted them so that Things 3 would have a prominent place on my home screen. Several months in and I love it! One place to see everything including my color coded calendars and now I own it on iPad and Mac! Less stress, so happy!

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.