Filed under: Software, Productivity
Things gets recurring tasks
The GTD app scene has been pretty quiet for a while now. Only OmniFocus seems to be regularly showing signs of development at a pace that offers some real hope for the new generation of task managers. But Things has updated to version 0.9, and offers a couple of new features that fill some major holes. Most notably, the addition of recurring tasks is an answer to a primary criticism of the software.
A lot of people love the simplicity of the Things philosophy. I count myself among those people from a conceptual standpoint, but the "simplicity" approach only goes so far when I find myself in need of some heavy-duty organization. I still find the lack of integration with applications like Mail and the lack of scriptability to be major impediments to incorporating Things into my workflow. In my time testing Things, I was able to create some AppleScripts for adding Mail messages and importing from OmniFocus using some brute-force "System Events" tactics. It's certainly not ideal, though.
I'm hoping the development pace of Things picks back up as it has the potential to be an ideal system, at least for users like myself. In the meantime, you can download the trial and/or get in on the pre-release discount of 20% off the $49 price. For more information on the 0.9 release, check out the release notes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vinod Ponmanadiyil said 3:37PM on 3-17-2008
This is definitely the best looking task management app for me. Most functional to date has been Actiontastic. Downloading Things right now..
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northernphoto said 3:50PM on 3-17-2008
I freaking love things. it is the best piece of GTD software I have ever used so far.
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motech said 3:56PM on 3-17-2008
i use this non stop . . most used app on my mac!!
love it!
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Ryan Powell said 4:17PM on 3-17-2008
"Only OmniFocus seems to be regularly showing signs of development at a pace that offers some real hope for the new generation of task managers."
Since when do the quantity of releases dictate the quality of the software? Cultured Code developers have discussed the design process for the big new 0.9 feature, recurring tasks, and how extensive and laborious the process was: http://culturedcode.com/things/blog/2008/02/habemus-dialogum-we-have-a-dialog.html
That is not a feature that can be added with a nightly (or weekly) build, and they spent the time required to get it right. Cultured Code has consistently shown leadership in design philosophy and putting the user experience first. They have been in active development with Things. Does the lack of nightly builds hurt the user experience with Things? How is the pace of releasing new builds relevant?
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Brett Terpstra said 4:37PM on 3-17-2008
No, it's definitely not the number of builds. It's the rate at which fixes and features are added/improved. I'm appreciative of the labor involved in creating a recurring task solution that is as elegant as Things itself, but with some major features that I need still missing, I feel that (for my personal needs) the development across the board is momentarily stagnated. OmniFocus shows the most signs of life, which is what I'm referring to, but has reached a development plateau as well.
OmniFocus has the most feature-complete product, in my opinion, at this point. That's not necessarily a great thing, as I far prefer the Things interface and ease-of-use. I'm just hoping for a certain amount of feature parity so the interface and overall philosophy differences can be the deciding factor for me.
AlanY said 8:50PM on 3-17-2008
Yes, the comment about OmniFocus being better because it has endless new releases is unfair. The whole reason OmniFocus knocks out a new release every few days (if you're on the beta "trail") is because they're adding features on an ad-hoc basis, with very little thought. And then OmniFocus gets stuck with them, even when they're a bad idea, like "singletons" (watching that feature evolve during the beta period, endlessly searching for usability was frustrating; I still don't think they add anything and should have been left out). The Things developers give constant updates on what they're working on via Twitter, updates every so often on their blog, and a release about every month. That's good enough for me.
JohnC said 4:33PM on 3-17-2008
I love this app. It is definetly on the way to doing it all as elegantly as can be. I own omnifocus but find it way to much work to use daily.
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Brooklynguy said 4:35PM on 3-17-2008
What really rocks about Things is something it has in common with iGTD: a tiny little setting for moving completed items out of your face IMMEDIATELY. Rock on, Cultured Code! Even at the simplest level of UI for a gtd app, you've already seen the light of day on one of the most important process flow implementation issues. (And shame on OmniGroup, as great as they are, for refusing to add this feature to OmniFocus.)
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2shae said 7:58AM on 3-18-2008
I'm not sure which one I like more OmniFocus or Things.
OmniFocus looks a little "too" clean, but Things can look a little cluttered.
They are both great and i'll be testing them for a while before I decide which one i'll keep and which one i'll ditch.
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mark said 12:11PM on 3-18-2008
"I was able to create some AppleScripts for adding Mail messages...."
Have you posted them somewhere for others to use?
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