My Situation
No two days are the same in the current state of my life. I don’t have a work schedule or anyone to tell me what I should work on. I keep track of all my projects and decide where I should spend my time.
I’ve been working toward this level of freedom for a long time. Now that I have control of my life, I’m learning new tools to allocate energy effectively.
The projects I’m working on vary widely. Typical days are a mix of research, writing, fixing things, chopping wood, shooting video, coding, design and other disparate tasks.
Past Experience
In the past, I’ve done a decent job keeping track of all the things I’m doing for “work.” This mostly consists of web development and client work. Before discovering Things, I would manage work related projects and tasks via a mix of email, reminders and notes.
I have tried lots of task/project manager apps, Todoist, Wunderlist, Evernote, Basecamp, Trello, and several others. This is the first app of this kind I’ve actually stuck with. The others were either too complicated for my needs, or didn’t fit my workflow.
What is Things 3?
Things 3 is a clean, intuitive app to help get things done.
To-dos/tasks are called things.
Things are organized into projects and projects into areas.
Features
Inbox for newly added things waiting to be organized.
Today tab with all the things to KO today.
Upcoming to get a look at future things scheduled.
Anytime is a good bucket to look in when pressing things are finished.
Someday is where big ideas and dreams go to be brought in later.
Logbook shows all the things I’ve done, helps stay motivated and track progress.
Trash, which is handy in case I want to resurrect a canned thing.
My Workflow
The things I’m working on are broken up into 4 areas each with their own projects:
Book - Chapters, outlines, ideas and need to write.
N2N - Thoughts, Livestream, Youtube, podcast, Instagram, Patreon, affiliates, Twitch, Nomad Notes.
Dev - Thou Mayest, Stark, Ninja CBD, Dust City (current web dev clients).
Scamp - Weatherproofing, kitchen shelves.
Adding Things
When I hit Ctrl-Space on my Mac, an entry field similar to spotlight pops up, I can then create a thing and send it to my Things inbox.
If I have an idea for a thing while researching, I pop it into my inbox without disturbing my workflow. I love that I don’t have to tab out or switch screens to add new things.
If you want to tag the new thing or assign it to a project right then, you can do that. I generally save the new thing quickly, then organize the new thing into its designated bucket and write notes under it later.
I also have my phone and iPad set up to forward my reminders into my Things inbox. This way I can use Siri reminders to add things to my inbox with voice. Super helpful while driving or walking.
Price
The only downside to this application I’ve found is the price. It’s $50 for Mac, $10 for iPhone/watch and $20 for iPad. I bought the Mac and phone app, $60 to have all my things organized and manageable is well worth the price.
If you want to try the application out, they offer a 15 day free trial. I went for the trial, and after 2 weeks I was hooked. If your workflow is similar to mine, give Things 3 a shot and let me know how it works.