Things Productivity Application for Mac and iPhone

Things is an elegant task manager from Cultured Code. It recently won the Apple Developer Award (ADA.) The ADA is something that is given only to applications that reach the epitome of Apple's standards in interface design, ease of use, and originality. This is something not easily done. Things loosely follows the Getting Things Done methodology, for more information visit David Allen's site.

Things starts at the Inbox. Here you deposit all your tasks, no matter how big, no matter when they are due. To enter a new task, press the space bar. Alternatively, there is the quick capture box that can appear in any application by hitting your set key command. The anatomy of a task is divided into three main elements; the title, tags, and notes. A few examples of tags are Work, Errand, and Call. You can also add a due date, and choose if the task should show up at a certain date. Once all your tasks are entered, you should create Projects for any tasks that require more than one action to complete.

The Project interface is just like individual tasks, except they encompass multiple tasks. You create a name, tags, and due date. From the Inbox, you can sort your tasks into projects by clicking File, at the bottom of the menu. Now we move on to the Next view.

Next is an assortment of various tasks from your projects. From here you can filter by tags. For example, say I am going out, I filter all my tasks by Errands, and I can choose what I have to do while I am out. Simple, right? Once you have the tasks you wish to accomplish, add them to your Today in the bottom of the menu. The Today view is your personal agenda.

The largest level of categorization is Areas. Areas can encompass Projects and Tasks. An example of an area would be, for example, your small business, or your family. In my case I have one for my blog, and one for my online writing.

Things also has a powerful scheduling feature. From it you can set when something should appear in your Next view. You can also have a repeating item. Things sorts scheduled tasks nicely. One nice feature is the format, rather than 6/15/09, it says the June 15, 2009, for example. I find this very helpful for scanning due dates.

If you want Things with you where ever you go, for instant capture of new tasks, try the iPhone version. It syncs perfectly on with your Mac, and allows you to do everything the Mac app does, but on the go. The only flaw is to sync you need to be on the same wireless network. A problem if you are away from home a lot and on a desktop.

Things has iCal synching support as well. You can sync all your tasks to certain calendars, or just certain tags. You choose which set of tasks you want to sync, today, inbox, next.

Things sports a someday menu, perfect for those far off goals and dreams. Although I usually create one of these myself, it is nice that it comes bundled for people who wouldn't even think to.

Things is available for $49.95 at Cultured Code. The iPhone apps runs for $9.99 on the app store.