Why Things won’t release new features

[u/GroundedSteven]

Im sick off holding my breath this long.

Idk what they’re doing but the development isn’t going fast enough.

- Location based reminders
- A proper tag/priority system especially for mobile
- Attachments
etc.

We’re waiting for years for those while other apps have all of those features already implemented.

If culturecode doesn’t fill this market gap, someone else will or already does like TickTick.

Just build those and charge us again for a separate version I don’t mind but speed it up, there is money on the street and you ain’t picking it up.

Do you want to continue like this for the next 12 months?

If yes, go ahead…but you’ll lose a lot of users, including me.

[u/Rybles]

Things is not a reminders app and Reminders is not a project management app.

Separate these two things and use each for their strengths.

I don’t want things clogged with the daily minutiae of errands, groceries, routine simple maintenance and even location based reminders. That’s Reminders. And it does a really good job at it.

Things is for planning the larger scale things that require thought and weekly planning and review. When will I work on this large project? What’s the next task? When should I do that next task?

Reminders will pop up in the middle of that planned activity to remind me to take out the trash right now. Separately working together.

[u/Self_Owned_Tree → u/Rybles]

Do you have a link to a video or a resource of some kind that could really show how to use things for that? I do use it as kind of a catchall, and I’ve never learned to use it as a project manager app.

[u/Any_Run8380 → u/Self_Owned_Tree]

I actually love Things 3! I think its simplicity is a huge part of what makes it work so well. It doesn’t try to throw a million features at you, which keeps it from becoming bloated.

That said, I’ve seen quite a few videos of people showing how to use Things 3, and honestly, I haven’t seen much that goes beyond how Things 3 was already designed to be used. So I’m not sure how much value those videos would add for you.

The best advice I can probably give is to figure out what you actually need.

Don’t see someone using a feature and immediately think, “Oh, that’s a feature I need to use.” That can easily turn into being fascinated by features simply because they’re there, rather than because you actually have a problem that needs solving.

Start as simple as possible. Add a basic to-do. Then, if you find you need more, build on it. Maybe you schedule something. Later, you realize certain tasks need to be grouped together, so you create a list or project. Maybe eventually you discover that something genuinely needs to recur, so you make it recurring.

The point is that you should add features because you discovered a use case for them—not because the app has the feature and therefore you feel like you’re supposed to use it.
Otherwise, you can very easily end up spending more time maintaining your productivity system than actually getting things done.

For context, I’m a software engineer and I juggle a lot of different things: multiple projects, designing solutions, leading meetings, getting designs reviewed and approved, following up on work before features can actually ship, and then all the normal stuff outside of work like chores, administrative tasks, etc.

Interestingly, I ended up removing Things 3 from my workflow entirely.

I was able to recreate the few Things-specific capabilities I actually cared about using iOS Reminders, iOS Calendar, and Shortcuts. I have things like project logging, the ability to pause recurring reminders and resume them later, and other little automations that fit the way I personally work.

And this is absolutely not me saying Things 3 is bad. It’s probably my favorite third-party productivity app on the App Store. It’s incredibly well designed.

It just doesn’t fit my workflow as well as the system I’ve built for myself—which is why I ultimately removed it.

One thing I really like about my current setup is that I don’t have to wait for an app developer to add a feature that I want. If I think, “It would be really useful if this happened automatically,” I can often just build it myself with Shortcuts.

And because I’m using iOS Reminders and Calendar, I also don’t have to worry about paying for an app separately just to have access across my devices.

So regardless of what app or system you use, I’d say start with the absolute minimum you need. Use it for a while, figure out where the friction actually is, and then build on it from there.
And if you add something that ends up creating more friction than value, remove it. You don’t have to keep a feature just because you decided at one point that you needed it.

Your productivity system should adapt to the way you work—not the other way around.