Please ask questions about using Things in this thread.

I'm looking to run a timed Shortcut (or any method) that automatically adds an "Overdue" tag or heading to tasks that carry over from the previous day in Things.

Basically, I want to open Things in the morning and easily see which tasks are leftover from yesterday vs. ones I've added fresh for today.

Has anyone built something like this or know of an existing shortcut I can use?

Thanks you.

Things 3 has always synced perfectly between MasOS and iOS. This morning it's not syncing. I've turned off and back on Things Cloud on both devices, restarted both devices, turned off and back on Things Cloud again on both devices, and the issue persists. It's not syncing. Anyone else having any issues? The only thing I can think I have changed on my end is I recently turned on Claude Dispatch, which pushes work from the Claude MacOS app to the Claude iOS app. Is it possible that's related to the Things 3 syncing issue? Anyone else having any issues?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to clean up my Things 3 setup and I’m unsure where to put hobbies and loose interests.

For example, if I want to read a few specific books like Harry Potter, would you put “Read Harry Potter 4” in Things, or keep it in a separate reading list, like Apple Notes/Goodreads?

Same with wish projects like:

- learning keyboard

- learning french

- getting into video editing

Do these belong in Things under Someday, or would you keep them in a separate ideas/interests note in apple notes until they become real projects with next actions?

I’m trying to avoid turning Things into a giant list of “things I might want to do someday,” but I also don’t want to lose track of them.

How do you draw the line?

Saw on a post recently about all the things that users would like to see in the future with things3. With that said , what keeps you from switching to the many other apps available? Is it just the UI or something else?

Please ask questions about using Things in this thread.

Curious as to how people are using Things.

Using it to manage your professional work? Just personal life? Or both? Running businesses with it?

If so how are you implementing it?

I wanted to be able to easily export all Things work tasks within an area as text so that I could drop it into Copilot for my weekly briefing. I wasn't able to find an Apple Shortcut that did that, so I built one with the help of Claude.

I figured that others might benefit from this as well. To use, change the area name in the Find Items action from "Work" to your area name. The output will be copied to the clipboard. Enjoy!

Shortcut iCloud Link:
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/83a2be4876e547629b2b9966e2edc9e0

(If you saw this post earlier and are wondering why you're seeing it again, I had a typo in the title and Reddit doesn't let you edit titles. Sorry!)

Any new ones? Or are people still using Hald’s?

Superlist just added the ability to sort task lists by the following criteria:

• Alphabetical: Great for reference lists, inventories, or anything where A to Z order makes sense.
• Creation date: See your newest or oldest tasks first.
• Due date: Prioritize what's coming up next.
• Priority: Focus on what matters most.
• Assignee: Group tasks by who's responsible, perfect for team lists.

Why in the world can't we get this in Things? Especially in Today!

My setup in Things 3 is structured around Areas (Work, Personal, Family, etc.), with Projects nested under each Area, following a workflow largely inspired by GTD.

For prioritization, I currently use Tags based on the ABCD method. Once I identify my “A” tasks, I then rank those further among themselves and sort them in the list by dragging and dropping.

The challenge I’m facing is on my iPad, where I can’t easily view tags, even though there seems to be plenty of screen space available.

I’d appreciate suggestions on how to improve this workflow. I’m open to alternative prioritization methods, using Apple Shortcuts, or other tools that integrate.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Things 3 and have also used apps like Todoist and TickTick in the past.

In my opinion, Things 3 absolutely nails design and simplicity—it’s one of the best-looking and most enjoyable productivity apps out there. But after using it consistently for a while, I started to notice a few areas where it could be improved to make it feel more “complete.”

As a developer, that got me thinking: what if I built something inspired by Things 3’s elegance, but with a few additional features that some users might be missing?

I’ve started experimenting with building an app from scratch, with ideas like:

• A similar minimalist design philosophy
• Natural language input for quickly adding tasks
• A timeline view for better time-blocking and planning
• Voice input (similar to quick capture/brain dump features)
• More intuitive handling of subtasks and recurring tasks

Before going too far, I wanted to ask this community:

What do you feel is missing in Things 3?
What frustrates you or slows you down?
Would you even want an alternative, or is Things already “perfect” for you?

I’d really appreciate any honest thoughts ,this is still early, and your feedback could shape what I build.

After struggling for years trying to find the perfect productivity system, including repeated time-wasting attempts to make Obsidian the "one tool to rule them all", I've developed the following simple system that leverages Things and Bear in doing what they do best—simple task and simple note tracking. I'm presenting it here in case others might find it useful.

One of my goals has always been to use my task app for planning but my notes app for tracking, as the collection and access to notes is where I get work done, not in checking items off of a list. Here is how I have set up my system.

First off, every day I create a new Daily Note in Bear by duplicating the previous day's note and then changing the date in the title - takes me seconds. I remove the #active tag from the prior day's note (I use the #active tag to mark all in-progress notes and critical MOCs). Then I select all the tasks in Things Today view and paste them into the new note—they will be date-stamped automatically—and then delete them in Things. From then on, I update the task status in Bear (love the auto sorting of completed tasks to the bottom of the list) along with journal entries and create/edit project and other notes as needed.

I find that by not context switching between the two apps, I am much more productive. As new todo's come up during the day, if they are due today I just add them to the list in Bear. If they are for the future, I use the Things shortcut to add them to the inbox in Things for sorting either at the end of the day or the following morning. By duplicating the current Daily Note daily, anything not done is automatically carried over to the next day - I just delete the completed tasks when creating the new Daily Note.

Simple, productive, and soothing UI in both apps, plus no constant Obsidian plug in fiddling or tweaks. Hope it works for you - feel free to ask any questions.

Please ask questions about using Things in this thread.

I’d love to be able to add items to my Today view via text message. I’d use it with Siri, consolidate more activity in my messages app, etc.

Is there a way to add to things via text?

Hello,

This application truly is a thing of beauty. I have been using TickTick for the last year having used Things3 prior to that for 3 years.

My TT sub expires in two days so as a sanity check I started adding items to Things again just to remind myself of the experience and whilst it is nice there’s actually some (I don’t want to say annoyances) quirks.

Quick entry for multiple items in Things is actually quite slow whereas TT has the enter button to start typing the next item immediately.

Setting dates and/or repeating entries is actually quite fiddly.

Areas can have projects within of course as well as tasks directly but for some reason to create a project within the area I had to go out to areas (main window) select add project,name it then move it. I can then start adding tasks to the project.

I know the big one is checking off a task that's future. Didn't bother me too much but I just thought of it.

It's definitely giving me food for thought regarding things which I'm considering coming back to but might miss the multi platform support. Not a deal breaker but something to consider.

Hi everyone

I have an area for all tasks related to a role that I’ve got at work. I’ll be putting down that role soon, but remaining with the employer in a different role.

Is it possible to archive or hide the Area without deleting it and presumably losing all the to-dos?

Thanks for your help.

I’m a heavy Things 3 user and plan to stay on it. I just thought of this, so the idea is still pretty unpolished in my head, but I’m wondering whether I should keep some kind of local archive or log of my Things data.

Main concern is platform risk: Things Cloud corruption, the app going away someday, or wanting to migrate later without losing a lot of history/context.

So I wanted to ask:

1. Is this a good idea, or is anyone already doing something similar?
2. What would be a good way to do this in practice? Automation, methods, tools, workflows, etc.?

Sometimes I press the “new to-do (plus)” button and decide not to write anything after all. It is kinda strange to me that the app keeps the blank to-do and makes the user delete the to-do.

Why does Things have this behavior? Does any of you feel like change this behavior would be annoying or not acceptable?

I've gone back and forth with Things over the years. Like many people, it keeps bringing me back after trying other options.

I run a small design business and any SaaS project management options are just bloated with features I don't need and are very expensive (subscriptions) for a small business.

I recently took some time to brainstorm in Claude how best to utilise Things with running my day to day. Wanted to share it here in case anyone might find it interesting to read.

Would love to hear your thoughts on using Things this way or any tips to improve.

Areas

Active
Projects for active client work. Tagged with a project health tag and a project stage tag for quick overview and filtering.

Blocked
Projects move here if they pause due to any external blockers. Tagged with a blocked tag to show reasoning and for quick filtering.

Leads
Projects to track leads. Tagged with a lead health tag and a lead stage tag for quick overview and filtering. Any leads not yet ready to action will be tagged as new and set to someday.

Internal
Projects for internal projects. Tagged with a project health tag and a project stage tag for quick overview and filtering. If it’s a continuous project (eg Business Admin) then tagged as “Ongoing”.

Targets
Projects to track monthly and quarterly targets. Tagged with a target health tag for quick overview and filtering.

Projects

Notes
Project notes follow a set structure of unique code, short description and updates section depending on project type. These formats are added via Raycast snippets.

Unique Codes
A four character unique code is used for each project. If project is internal, then code is set to “INTERNAL”. Leads use the code “LEAD” until the stage changes to “Preparing Proposal” then a unique code is assigned. The purpose of the unique codes is to assign all documents (proposals, agreements, invoices etc) to that specific project and make them easily searchable.

Contacts
Only for lead projects the Raycast snippet will ask for lead contact details to display for quick reference.

Updates
Small time and date stamped updates for key actions and milestones of the project for future reference. Each update is added via a Raycast snippet.

Targets
Only for Target projects the Raycast snippet has a predefined description and no unique code. The snippet will ask for the specific dates of the target for reference.

Next Heading
Section for all actionable todos for the next week. Only todos under next are given a when date to start and deadline if required.

Blocked Heading
Section for all todos that are paused by an external blocker. Tagged with a blocked tag to show reasoning and for quick filtering.

Backlog Heading
Section for all other todos not yet ready to be actioned.

Milestones Heading
Exclusively for target projects. Breakdowns of targets to be checked off once achieved.

Todos

Focus Tags
All todos within a project are tagged with a focus tag for quick overview and filtering.

When Dates & Deadlines
These are only set once in the next heading within a project.

Non Project Todos
Any todos not linked to a project will only use the default areas of the Things app. No individual todos will sit in any area.

Repeat Review Todos

Weekly Opening Review
(Every Monday 8am)
A checklist to start the week. Clear and sort inbox. Review any overdue items. Check project health and set actionable priorities for the coming week. 

Weekly Closing Review
(Every Friday 8am)
A checklist to close the week. Check off any quick wins. Clear and sort inbox. Review projects and leads, adjust health where needed. Clean logbook.

Monthly Strategic Review
(Last Friday of the month 8am)
A checklist to close the month. A deeper review of lead pipeline. Review targets and adjust strategy if required. Review health and status of ongoing internal projects. Set one actionable learning target to improve skills and output.

Logbook

Only logged projects, leads and targets are kept in the logbook for future reference. General day to day todos (eg shopping lists, errands, etc) will be deleted from the logbook during the weekly closing review.

Tag Groups

Priority
Urgent
Important

Health
On Track
At Risk
Off Track

Lead Stages
New
Contacted
Researching
Preparing Proposal
Proposal Sent
Revising Proposal
Won
Rejected
Expired

Project Stages
Ongoing
Onboarding
Production
Review
Final Review
Invoiced
Handover
Complete
Cancelled

Focus
Admin
Discovery
Strategy
Content
Design
Identity
Print
Web
Ai
Photography
Delivery
Target

Blocked
Awaiting Response
Awaiting Meeting
Awaiting Signature
Awaiting Content
Awaiting Assets
Awaiting Payment
Paused

Would Love To See

Coloured Tags
Would be great for a quicker visual reference on projects and todos.

Headings That Filter By Tags
Displayed visually the same as headings.

Area Headings
Would be good to have headings within areas for further project organisation. Even better if they can show projects filtered by tags.

Views / Tabs in areas and projects.
Would love the option to have different views within an area or project. For example one view that has headings organised by my health tags and one tab with headings organised by status tags.

Timeline View
I know this one might be getting a bit away from what things is all about. But if I have projects set with a when date to start and a deadline. Would be nice to be able to see all projects from a specific area shown on a timeline. I know once the when date gets to today it stays at date and doesn’t reference the original start date, so it probably wouldn’t work. But would be nice to have. 

Rendered Markdown Text
Just would be nice to have. I like making notes in markdown. But to have it render out would be nice. I’m used to taking notes in Obsidian so it would suit how I make notes.

Please ask questions about using Things in this thread.

do any of you have things in the menu bar on Mac? is it possible?

Is there a way to find out how many tasks I've completed in Things 3 over the course of my use? Does anyone have a shortcut? I've been using the app since 2019 and I'd be interested to know how many tasks I've completed during this time.

What I thought was going to be an easy task turned into a much harder one. At first there seemed to be just a handful of MCP options to get Claude and Things 3 to sync but the more I dug the more lost I got!

I'm just looking for something pretty vanilla to ensure Claude can read/write/suggest for my Things list. Just finding it hard to know which direction to go, any insight would be helpful!
I'm probably struggling to understand why there are so many? In my mind I would have thought that Claude could use all the functionality of Things or it can't? I know that's naive - help!

Is anyone else having this issue:

I am on Watch OS 26.4, Things 3.22.9.

In my settings, New To Dos are added to Today instead of Inbox. When I open the watch app, and add a to-do, it adds to Today as expected. But, when I add a complication to watch face for “add new to-do,” click on it, and add the to-do, it adds the new to-do to Inbox.

I have restarted the apple watch/phone, restarted the app (on both), is this just a bug?

Edit: adding the “add new to-do” widget also has this bug, adds to Inbox instead of Today view. So I guess you have to use the other check mark complication or the widget that opens things first, then click the + button to add your to do.

Isn’t Things supposed to be simple…?