THE BEST TASK APPS
How to set up Things
Learn how to structure Things for maximum productivity.
If you’re interested in the productivity space, it’s likely you’ve heard of Things. It’s been around for a while, but it now sports an update that makes the app the shiny new kid on the block.
Things is good for pretty much everything. It calls itself a “personal task manager.” I would call it your “personal task master.” The new Things is incredibly powerful and easy on the eyes.
Intrigued? Let’s walk through how to set up Things and all the nifty features you can use.
Setting up Areas and Projects
Before you start adding tasks, I recommend thinking through how you want to organize Things. There are two organizational components:
- Areas: Individual spaces for different parts of your life.
- Projects: Goals and projects you’re working on in those individual spaces.
Setting up Areas and Projects is super easy when you know how to do it. But, initially, the UX is a little confusing. You’ll want to select “+ New List” and then choose to create a new Area or Project.
Areas
In my Things, I created three Areas:
- 💼 Work: This is where I keep everything related to my 9–5 job.
- 💁🏻♀️ Slater: This is where I keep tasks related to running my life.
- ✨ Hey: An app I’m working on with my boyfriend and our friend.
Three Areas works for me because there are three spaces in my life right now. Other ideas for Areas you might want to use are:
- Family
- School
- Side hustle
- Health
- Romance
- Travel
Projects
I find Projects to be very helpful for my “work” Area, but I haven’t cracked how to use it for my “Slater” Area. For work, the grouping is obvious: I create Projects that correlate to my “work” Projects. Getting groceries doesn’t qualify as a Project for me, and, in Things, it would make more sense to set it up as a task with a checklist (to be explained later) than a Project.
Here’s what my organized Things looks like with Areas, Projects, and all:
Now, let’s add some tasks.
Adding and organizing tasks
After you organize Things, it might seem a little unclear where you should start adding tasks. I recommend dumping everything you need to do in your Inbox. Your Inbox is a place to put everything that comes to mind down so you don’t forget it. You can worry about further organizing those tasks into Areas and Projects later.
Once you’ve done a brain dump into your Inbox, double click a task to add detail to it. When applicable, you can add notes, set a time you want to work on your task, add a checklist, and set a deadline. This is also the time to assign a task to one of your Projects.
Go through all your tasks in your Inbox and add detail. Know that every detail is optional, but, the more detail you add, the more powerful Things will be.
This is a nice activity to do at the beginning of the week to make sure you have an organized start. As you add more information, Things will automatically organize your tasks into the appropriate Areas.
For tasks that don’t have a specific time frame, try putting them in the Someday category. We’ll cover how to use the Someday section in a bit.
Sections in Things
Things has four different sections:
- Today: A view of all tasks that you have assigned to work on today.
- Upcoming: An agenda view of your scheduled tasks for the coming days.
- Anytime: All your tasks that have no time frame assigned to them.
- Someday: Tasks that you’ve assigned to work on someday.
Today
Today is the section you go to to win the day. You’ll only see essential items for the day, allowing you to easily chip away at your list without distractions. I’ve connected Things to Apple Calendar, so I can also see an agenda view of my calendar in my Today section.
Upcoming
Whether you want to get a glance at what your week looks like or you’re ready to work ahead, the Upcoming section is a great place to see everything you have planned for the next while. I come here to see what my next few days look like so I can shift priorities accordingly.
Pro tip: You can easily move tasks by dragging and dropping them into your desired section.
Anytime
If you didn’t add a set day or date you wanted to work on a task, it will show up in the Anytime section. Now, don’t be confused — your task will not only be in the Anytime section. You can have tasks that you moved to Today or that have deadlines show up here. I think about this section as floating tasks that I will work on when I get a minute, but that I don’t want to forget about.
Someday
Tasks show up here when you specifically designate them to “someday.” Tasks that you designate to Someday won’t show up in Anytime. Initially confusing, right? I thought so too. But it makes sense when you think of Someday tasks like rainy day activities — they’re things you want to do in the somewhat distant future or when you get around to it. I’m not 100% sure what the difference is between Someday and Anytime, so, if you figure it out, please let me know.
Fun features to know about
So you don’t have to spend time rummaging around, here are a few of my favorite hidden Things features.
Recurring tasks
Having tasks repeat is essential for me. Things hides recurring tasks under a right-click, so it’s not in plain sight. Once you figure that out, you can set up recurring tasks for days, weeks, and even months, set reminders, and add deadlines.
Complete a Project
It took me a little bit to discover this feature, but it’s quite nifty. Once you finish a Project, you can mark it as completed. That takes it off your main screen and stashes it in your Logbook for safekeeping.
If one of your Projects gets canceled, use the same approach to take it off your main screen without losing all your tasks.
Sharing Things
I’ve never actually used this feature, but I think it could come in handy for some people. Things lets you share an Area, Project, or task. The catch: The receiver has to also have Things.
Want to use Things on multiple devices?
When you first download Things, you don’t have to create an account. You only have to take that step if you want to sync your tasks across devices. That’s what Things Cloud if for. You can find it under preferences.
Final thoughts
In my opinion, Things checks 95% of the boxes. The only thing I can think that it’s missing is prioritization.
If Things looks like something you want to use, you can start with a 15-day free trial. After that, you have to actually buy Things. No monthly subscription — it’s yours for life.
Thing is, it’s not cheap… Things costs $50 for Mac, $10 for iPhone, and $20 for iPad. And no, you can’t buy it once — you have to buy Things three times if you want to use it on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Is it worth it? You’ll have to see for yourself.
If you enjoyed this story…
You might also enjoy learning about Microsoft To Do — a suitable alternative to Things.
