Back to Things

I spent most of the past year using Apple Reminders. It was fine. It does a lot now—tags, smart lists, subtasks, scheduling. It even shows tasks on your calendar, which was the main reason I gave it a try. I figured if I could see everything in one place, I’d be less likely to forget stuff.

And while all of that worked, I just never really liked using it. Reminders always felt like more effort than it should be.

So I’ve gone back to Things. And it immediately reminded me why I liked it so much in the first place.

Things is packed with features too, but it doesn’t shove them in your face. If you just want a simple list of things to do today, it does that. If you want areas, projects, repeating tasks, checklists, tags, deadlines—it’s all there, but it stays out of your way until you need it.

Here’s a look at my default view in each app:

In Reminders, there are too many steps to do simple things. If I want to add something to Today, I need to find it in the right list, tap the info button, set the date to today, and back out. Or if I’m using Flagged as my daily list, I have to go into each list to flag tasks. It works, but it’s clunky.

In Things, I open “Anytime,” scroll through my tasks, and tap the star next to the ones I want to work on today. Done. The star makes the association with Today obvious. It’s just a smoother flow.

I also missed having a proper Inbox. I hacked one together in Reminders by creating a list called “Inbox” and setting it as the default, but it didn’t really behave the way I wanted. In Things, the Inbox is built in, shows a count in the sidebar, and tasks naturally leave it as soon as they get scheduled or filed into a project. I don’t have to think about managing it—it just works the way I want.

Everything I’m describing is technically possible in Reminders. It’s just easier in Things.

So I’m back. And it’s nice to be here.