in Productivity
Things: Getting Things Done on the Mac
Are you a procrastinator? A lot of us are and there are solutions to help, the most famous being the GTD (Getting Things Done) method by David Allen. An application that’s created to help you organize your life is Things from Cultured Code.
Things is a getting things done application that helps you in managing everything that you need to do. It’s got a simple interface yet some powerful features that you can use to help manage your life.
The Interface
Things features a simple and efficient interface that very much fits into the Leopard style. It’s organized into two main areas, the list and the sidebar where you do all your navigation. It’s here you access the different focuses, areas and projects (all which we’ll talk about in a little bit).
Creating new to-do items are a snap and can be done either by pressing the new button, use the shortcut within the app itself or through my favorite way—setting up a global system shortcut which you can use to bring up a heads up display to quickly enter a to-do from wherever.
Focuses
The concept of focuses is essentially very simple. You’ve got certain focuses where you put your to-do list items in. Today, Next, Scheduled and Someday are the available main focuses in Things that helps you sort items accordingly. When you drag and drop an item to the Schedules focus, you’ll be automatically presented with a box that asks you at what date you would like to review this.
Projects and Areas
A feature that greatly helps you to organize your list items are both projects and areas, which have a special, vital difference. A project is something that you complete and has perhaps got a due date itself wheres and area is something that you constantly work on and never really get done. These two really help with the management and allows you to quickly see what areas you need to work on right now.
iPhone/iPod Touch Version
Another strength with Things is the available iPhone/iPod Touch version. It syncs very well with the desktop version and is a full fledged to-do system in and of itself. You can add, remove and manage your to-dos right on your iPhone wherever you are. Once you get back to your computer, you just sync it to the desktop version and continue at the current phase.
Conclusion
As a to-do list application in its first version, Things is nothing but all positives for me. It does everything you need from it and more! The price of purchasing both Things on the Mac and Things on the iPhone is well worth is considering the quality of application for the money. It will definitely help reduce the procrastination to a lesser degree!
- Developer: Cultured Code
- Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later
- Price: $49.95 (iPhone version, $9.99)
About Erik Bernskiold
Erik is the owner of the Bernskiold Media Group and is a Web Designer, Photographer and Software-Trainer. He is interested in all aspects of graphic design and media production as well as gadgets and technology.
Learn about the new features in Aperture 3 by watching our full Appthough on it where we have a look at Faces, Places, Adjustment Presets and Brushes, all new in Aperture 3.
How well does it perform against The Hit List?
As I myself haven’t used The Hit List, I don’t really know and can’t make a qualified comparison.
[...] in this weeks competition to win a full copy of Things, the getting things done application that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago! The license was kindly donated by the good folks over at Cultured Code. Now, [...]