Top Features of the Things 3 Task Manager App
Table of Contents
- Intuitive and Beautiful iOS & Mac Design
- Handy Evening Tab for After-Hours Tasks
- Calendar Integration for Meeting Reminders
- Multiple Windows for Simultaneous Task Management
- Project Headers and Deadlines
- Smooth Subtask Creation
- Areas View Cleans Up Project List
Intuitive and Beautiful iOS & Mac Design
One of the standout aspects of Things 3 is its clean, intuitive interface design. By removing unnecessary interface elements and clutter, Things 3 makes it easy to focus on your tasks. Both the iOS and Mac apps feature this simplified, yet powerful design.
In particular, the iOS app takes full advantage of native gestures to make adding and organizing tasks incredibly seamless. With just a swipe or a tap, you can quickly capture tasks into your inbox, add them to lists, or reschedule them. After using Things 3 for a while, I found myself trying to use the same gestures in other to-do apps like Todoist, only to be disappointed when they didn't work.
Things 3 proves that advanced personal task management doesn't have to come with a steep learning curve. Between the simplified design and natural gestures, it was easy to be productive right from the first launch.
Focus on Removing Unnecessary Elements
Unlike some other task managers, Things 3 doesn't try to be everything for everyone. Rather than packing in every possible feature, it focuses on doing the most important things very well. This simplicity permeates both the design and workflows. For instance, Things 3 doesn't have any options for sharing tasks or collaborating with others. For some users this may be a dealbreaker, but for personal task management, removing collaborative features helps simplify the experience.
Easy Gesture-Based Interactions
On iOS especially, Things 3 feels almost magical to use thanks to its extensive use of gestures. Adding tasks, rescheduling them, moving them between lists...all of these actions are just a simple gesture or two away at any time. Over time, these gestures become muscle memory. Things 3 on iOS feels almost as fast to use as a paper planner or notebook. Except unlike paper, your tasks stay perfectly organized and are accessible from all your devices.
Handy Evening Tab for After-Hours Tasks
One useful feature in Things 3 is the Evening section. This provides a place to capture personal tasks, errands, or reminders you want to deal with after work hours.
The Evening section cleanly separates non-work tasks from your daily to-do items. No more mixing shopping list items with your meeting preparation tasks! It's a small feature, but being able to silo your evening and weekend tasks makes Things 3 much more versatile.
Calendar Integration for Meeting Reminders
For those who spend much of their day in meetings and appointments, Things 3 offers excellent calendar integration. Upcoming calendar events appear automatically at the top of your Today view. Tap on one and you can quickly add prep tasks or meeting agenda items in Things 3.
Seeing your calendar events and task list side-by-side makes it easy to stay on top of your hours. No more surprise meetings because you didn't check your calendar! The Today calendar integration ensures you know exactly what your day looks like.
Multiple Windows for Simultaneous Task Management
Unlike most other task managers, Things 3 lets you open multiple windows side-by-side. For example, you may want to have your Upcoming tasks open as you process your inbox and add tasks to Today.
This power-user feature is invaluable when planning and organizing. Rather than constantly switching views, you can move tasks between multiple lists open at the same time. On the Mac, it feels much like having multiple desktops open for different workflows.
Project Headers and Deadlines
For sizable projects spanning multiple sub-tasks, Things 3 has a built-in Project feature. This is essentially a folder that can have its own header, notes, tags, and deadlines attached.
Within each Project, you can create detailed checklists of sub-tasks needed to complete the project. Sub-tasks even auto-complete as you check them off. For personal projects or goals with defined end dates, using Things 3 Projects with deadlines keeps you accountable.
Smooth Subtask Creation
Building on the Project feature, sub-tasks in Things 3 are extremely well implemented. Rather than managing sub-tasks in a separate interface, they live right alongside the parent task.
Sub-tasks can even have their own nested sub-task hierarchy, tags, notes, and deadlines. Collapsing parent tasks hides away sub-tasks until you need them. Managing tasks big and small is painless.
Areas View Cleans Up Project List
One downside of Projects in Things 3 is they used to clutter up your sidebar if you had more than a few. But with Areas, introduced in version 3.4, that changes.
Areas provide a way to group multiple Projects together under one master heading. Expand Areas to see their Projects, collapse them to hide Projects you're not actively working on. The Areas view hugely cleans up the Project list and feels much more organized.
FAQ
Q: What platforms can you use Things 3 on?
A: Things 3 is available for both Mac and iOS devices.
Q: What makes the iOS app design stand out?
A: The iOS app makes use of intuitive gestures and interactions to enable quick task additions and management.
Q: How can you separate evening tasks?
A: The Evening tab lets you plan non-work tasks for after hours and keep them separate from daily work items.
Q: What calendar integration options exist?
A: You can view upcoming calendar events at the top of your Today and Upcoming task lists.
Q: How does the windows feature help productivity?
A: Opening multiple windows side-by-side enables faster task plotting and weekly planning.
Q: What project planning features are offered?
A: Things 3 projects include headers, deadlines, and due dates to keep key tasks organized.
Q: How easy is subtask creation?
A: The process is smooth and less clunky compared to other task apps.
Q: What's the Areas view?
A: This view neatly groups project lists instead of a messy single column.
Q: How expensive is Things 3?
A: The combined Mac and iOS apps cost about $65.
Q: Who is Things 3 best suited for?
A: It works well for solo users looking to personally organize advanced workflows beyond basic to-do lists.