Things 3 for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By David Durovy

  Things Gets Things Done and more...

  Having tried Todoist, Asana and others which proved to be either a longer learning curve or just to complex for a simple guy like me, I decided once more to try out a new app that might serve as a platform for GTD (Getting Things Done by David Allen) and can happily say THIS IS IT!!! Up and running quickly I immediately found it offering so much interactive functions with my calendar and Siri, it quickly both imported my reminders and notes and imported them as well so now everything is in one place, easily accessible in my Windows, PC and my iPhone with just a command or touch of a button and delightfully simple to use yet complete enough to both capture my thoughts, lists, and projects and organizes them with recognizable headers and easy to move list items to other headers when needed. Has all the “repeatable” functions and more. I have share this with another GTD enthusiast and he has found it just as I have. I do recommend that if you are or are not a GTD practitioner, you check out David Allen’s podcast (EP:1) to get an “under the hood apreciation of what THINGS 3 can do for your life. It is not really a time manager but a “space manager” so you end up with more space in your mind so to speak accomplish the things you want. I know this sounds a bit strange or zen-like, but that is precisely what it is.

  
  
• By Jayson Garrett

  Things 3 makes you want to use it

  I’d tried Things 2, but OmniFocus kept pulling me back. But OmniFocus is so heavy, so… *serious*, that it’s not very approachable. Things 3, however changed all that. Things 3 makes you *want* to dive in. It’s beautiful, thoughtful, and spacious both visually and conceptually. No, it’s not as flexible as OmniFocus, nor as stricly powerful, but which is better: the power tool you don’t use because it intimidates you, or the approachable tool you do use because it’s so well designed? Sure, there are a few things I wish Things 3 did better. Despite the fact that I know they’re intentionally designed to make you not have to rely on them, I wish reminders within Things 3 were at least as flexible as reminders in the standard Reminders app. Also, I wish that projects could contain full-blown subprojects. I know that headings and checklists can accomplish some of this, but sometimes a complex project needs to be broken down into something a bit more structured. But all-in-all, Things 3 has become the tool I use, not just by default or because I don’t mind using it, but because I actually *want* to.

  
  
• By shaneotis720

  Disappointed user who LOVED Things 2

  I'm relatively unhappy that Things essentially forced me to upgrate to T3. It feels like ransom for an application I've already paid for and then some. Granted, I use it regularly so I decided to upgrade. Things 3 just makes things more confusing than ever. The workflow for T2 was nearly perfect, sure there were more things it could have benefit from but Things 3 just feels like a cash grab. Basically the same functionality is there, it's moved around, but some of the design choices and the user interface choices having moved a full point upgrade are baffling and unecessary. For example, it's more difficult to move something from your inbox to 'today'. A little complaint granted, but there are many of these new little 'gotchas'. I have yet to see on improvement over T2 that made it worth the money other than the fact that Cloud syncing was about to stop functioning and now you can use darkmode. Whoopee. Yeah, I'm sure there are some other things but it's feeling pretty superfluous. I'd already paid $50 for the app, another $20 for the ipad app, another $10 for the iphone app - now they got me to buy them all all over again with a less friendly interface by discontinuing cloud sync. When when it's just a cash grab coupled a more confusing interface, it's just disappointing. My rating goes from 5 stars for Things 2 (only complaint was the price) to 2 stars for Things 3 - mo' money, mo' confusing.

  
  
• By phatmann

  A crowning achievement

  I worked with David Allen at Actioneer writing To Do apps. I have developed my own To Do apps. I have used dozens of different To Do apps. I understand what makes a To Do app great. It is easy to write a run-of-the mill, database-driven To Do app. To make a great To Do app is so much harder. You have to think about every use case and decide what matters most to your customers. You need to streamline your interface until every move feels natural. You need to support all the different axes a todo can lie on while not overwhelming your customers with choices. With the release of Things 3, the developers have created a To Do app that not only serves its customers needs esquitely well, but inspires them to get all their todos into the system and get things done. It looks beautiful and has a carefully crafted feature set that covers almost any scenario you will encounter. Todos don’t live in a static list per-se, but rather inside of a dynamic system that serves to surface todos at the right moment and the right place. It might take a tad getting used to, but once you dive in you will be rewarded with a more organized life.

  
  
• By uinazi

  It’s growing on me

  I was a loyal and satisfied user of Things 2 until I got tired of waiting for updates. When I first tried Things 3, after too many years of waiting (and happily moving off the platform), it seemed like mostly eye candy. Areas still are not well thought out, and the update to the visual presentation now makes common views more confusing than ever. It was a real disappointment. It is very sharp-looking, and has good UX design integrity, but I struggled with suitability for the purpose. But as I’ve stuck my foot in the Things 3 water to try to get real work done, I’ve begun to appreciate how cleanly it works and how efficiently I can use it. I was using 2Do for several months, and it does most of what I want. But it’s quirky, an odd patchwork of too much stuff that has weak design integrity. So I’m always trying to remember how to do THAT because it’s different than how you do THAT. With Things 3 it all hangs together. Checklists are nice. Headings are nice but incompletely implemented. Siri integration is great. There are limitations to the way the Areas/Projects model is displayed… I find it confusing at times and have had to work around it. But it’s my go to app for now… for personal use and for a very complex work environment. So far so good. I hope I won’t have to wait another 3-5 years for needed improvements and bug fixes. And yes it is still way overpriced.

  
  

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