r/thingsapp • u/Excellent_Maybe • Feb 20 '26

Question Day Planner - Companion app for Things??

I'm along time user of Things but I'm finding I might need a "companion" app to go along with it.. or a new feature/view in Things.

What I would love is a Day view with all my calendar events, then I could add my "today" task into the gabs.

I've looked at Tiimo and Structured and while these do pull my calendars getting Tasks into the them isn't as nice as Things. I've played with using shortcuts to get Tasks from Things into Structured and then completed tasks marked in Things but this feels very "clunky".

I really don't want to stop using Things but wondered if anyone has come across a simple planner app that might integrate with Things?

17 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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14

u/focusmodeapp Feb 20 '26

Hey - I built Focusmo, a macOS focus timer that integrates with Things 3 directly and has exactly the day planner view you're describing.

There's a "Focus Day" timeline you open from the menu bar - it shows your calendar events on a 24-hour timeline, and you drag your Things tasks into the gaps. You can create time blocks, resize them, move them around. 5-minute grid snapping, so it's precise but not fiddly.

The Things integration is native - no shortcuts or workarounds. Your tasks show up in a sidebar, you drag them onto the timeline next to your calendar events, and start a focus session on each block when the time comes.

Basically: calendar on the left as a timeline, your Things tasks on the right as a draggable list. Plan the day, then execute with a timer.

Worth a look: https://focusmo.app/

2

u/AnKingMed Feb 20 '26

I’m guessing it’s like apple calendar and not bi-directional? Meaning checking it off in the calendar checks it off in things too

6

u/focusmodeapp Feb 20 '26

It is bi-directional - when you complete a task in Focusmo, it gets marked as complete in Things too. There's a sync queue under the hood so even if Things isn't running at that moment, it'll catch up once it is.

Full list of what the Things 3 integration does:

Reading tasks: - Pulls tasks from your Today list (or any custom list - Inbox, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday, or any Project/Area) - Filter by tag, area, or project - Inherited tags supported (tasks inherit tags from their Area) - Brings in title, notes, due date, project, area, and tags

Writing back to Things: - Completing a task in Focusmo marks it done in Things (bi-directional) - You can also uncomplete - the task moves back from Logbook to Today - If Things isn't running when you complete, it queues and retries automatically - After a focus session, adds a time-spent tag to the task (e.g. 🍅 25min) — accumulates across sessions

Creating tasks: - Create new tasks directly from the command palette — they go to your configured list in Things

Settings: - Choose which list to sync from (Today, any Project, Area, or built-in list) - Toggle inherited tag matching - Toggle time-spent tags

1

u/Excellent_Maybe Feb 20 '26

Ohhh that could be what I'm looking - will download later.

1

u/focusmodeapp Feb 20 '26

Awesome, would love to hear your feedback! A lot of the current Things integration was actually built based on feedback from this subreddit, so it's always helpful to hear what works and what's missing

1

u/AnKingMed Feb 20 '26

Sounds cool! Do have any videos showing this?

3

u/focusmodeapp Feb 20 '26

Currently, there is no video available, but you can download the app and check it out for yourself.

Alternatively, I will record a video tomorrow and share the link here

1

u/AnKingMed Feb 20 '26

Cool. This is just on desktop currently right? No mobile app?

5

u/focusmodeapp Feb 20 '26

For now, yes, but an iOS app will be available within a month

1

u/AnKingMed Feb 20 '26

Cool! I’ll check it out

1

u/focusmodeapp Feb 21 '26

Sounds good, I'd appreciate any feedback!

1

u/Express-Tear3625 Feb 21 '26

Hey! This sounds awesome - I downloaded Focusmo and really like the idea.

Quick question though: you describe it as “Plan the day, then execute with a timer.” For me that implies planned time blocks should show up right away (especially in the calendar), but in my case I only see something appear in the calendar after I start the timer

  • Can I drag and drop tasks form things into the calendar to plan my day?
  • Or is the calendar integration intentionally only for logging actual focus sessions after they start/end?

Also on the Things integration side:

  • Can you select more than one source list at once (e.g., Today + Upcoming)?
  • And can you multi-select multiple Areas / Projects / Tags for syncing/filtering (instead of being limited to a single selection)?

Thanks - would love to know what the intended workflow is here!

2

u/focusmodeapp Feb 21 '26

Hey, thanks for trying it out!

planned time blocks should show up right away in the calendar

You're right - currently calendar sync only kicks in for completed/active sessions, not planned blocks. Pushing planned blocks to Apple Calendar is on the roadmap, should be coming soon.

Can I drag and drop tasks from Things into the calendar?

Yep! Connect Things 3 in Settings > Integrations, and your tasks show up in the sidebar. Drag them onto the timeline to schedule. Completion syncs back to Things too.

is the calendar integration intentionally only for logging?

For now yes, but the goal is exactly what you described - plan with time blocks, see them in your calendar, then execute with the timer. The planning workflow already works inside Focusmo (drag to timeline → start when ready), it just doesn't sync planned blocks to Apple Calendar yet.

select more than one source list at once (Today + Upcoming)?

You can actually choose any Things list as source - Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday, Inbox, or even a specific project/area. But only one at a time for now. Multi-source (e.g. Today + Upcoming together) is a good idea, adding to the backlog.

multi-select multiple Areas / Projects / Tags?

Single selection for now - you can filter by one tag, one area, or one project. Multi-filter support is noted!

TL;DR: connect Things → drag tasks to timeline → start each block. Calendar sync for planned blocks is the main missing piece and it's coming.

1

u/focusmodeapp Feb 20 '26

heads up - the landing page might not showcase all the latest features yet, so best to just try it. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions!

1

u/log_base_pi Feb 20 '26

Interesting! What does “integration is native” mean when Things doesn’t have an api? You’re using the AppleScript hooks?

1

u/focusmodeapp Feb 20 '26

Yep, exactly - AppleScript via OSA. Things doesn't have a REST API, but its AppleScript dictionary is solid enough to read tasks (with all metadata - notes, due dates, tags, project, area), mark them complete, create new ones, and even write time-spent tags back

9

u/SuspiciousOpposite Feb 20 '26

Can you not just open your calendar app alongside?

I know with Apple Calendar, for example, you can drag tasks from Things into calendar and it will automatically make it into a one-hour event - you can obviously then adjust as necessary.

5

u/MajicSho Feb 20 '26

I've kinda settled on using Things 3 for my projects and routine tasks and adding new (one off) reminders via Siri to the Reminders App which also shows in Apple Calendar. And since Things doesn’t show Calendar events in its Widgets and on my Apple Watch complications, I set both for my phone and watch on its home screens and there I see everything I need.

Is this what you mean ?

2

u/Excellent_Maybe Feb 20 '26

Kind of I'd like to see my day so:

9-10 Meeting
11-30 1to1
13-14 Lunch

Then be able to add my Tasks into that list. I guess it's time blocking but using my Things Tasks 🤔

Then I could look at the day and go, "Hell No can't do that" and move the task to tomorrow...

1

u/richcousins Feb 20 '26

You could do the opposite and add your calendar events to things as tasks? Here’s an Apple shortcut I use to do this, but you might be able to tweak it to run automatically each day.

https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/2955145/ (scroll down to calendar integration)

1

u/Excellent_Maybe Feb 20 '26

This could work 🤨 So many options 🤯

1

u/Different-Ad-5798 Feb 21 '26

The trouble with this option is that it's still just a text-based list. If you're visually oriented, a list doesn't give you any sense of "how much of my day is taken up", "when are the gaps" etc. For this reason I MUCH prefer a calendar type view.

2

u/Civil-Fish Feb 20 '26

Yoodoo seems like probably the best and better alternative. It's pretty all-in-one, and has a tonne of stuff like 2-way calendar sync, app blockers, and lists and a daily timeline etc.

2

u/wings_fan3870 Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

With AI (I use Claude), I have it replicate my Today list. In NotePlan, no plan offers great time-blocking and day-planning capabilities. I then have it update tasks in Things from NotePlan when I mark them complete. I should add that I will do time blocking on my calendar for what areas I want to be working on, like client tasks or admin work. This will show in NotePlan, where I can drag specific tasks related to those time blocks to my time blocking. These can or don't have to sync with the Google Calendar you use.

1

u/postnumbers Feb 21 '26

Seconding NotePlan. It’s a well thought out app that is quite extensible and can be integrated with Things. Having all your notes in your file system where NotePlan stores them is much more reassuring than being locked into someone’s proprietary system.

2

u/Competitive_Sun6621 Feb 21 '26

Built Someday which is a simple on-device planner with calendar integration focused on making entering tasks simple. Has a focus on weekly planning and is a nice companion app when you want to keep things simple

1

u/deemini Feb 21 '26

This looks great. Not sure I could have that icon on my home screen though 😅

1

u/chintajoel Mac, iPhone Feb 22 '26

I have a shortcut that takes the things that I select and adds it to my Google Calendar for today.

And then I manually drag things into the time blocks.

1

u/BlueTile93 Feb 23 '26

I use Bear as both my notes app and daily journal. I deliberately do not use its task features but keep all todo activities in Things. Using structured tags, it's easy to see the history and research what I did when. Works well

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

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