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Things is a very easy-to-use task management tool that helps us approach the GTD (Getting Things Done) philosophy proposed by David Allen. The concept is very simple, and the application is neat, clean and powerful.

The idea behind this article is not to explain or detail every single feature of the application, but instead, to share my personal experience using it and giving one more try to the art of organizing every activity I’m in charge of.

What is GTD

I think one of the really important things you need to know is a little bit about GTD is and what it stands for. This is not a simple To Do application, and you won’t be able to take full advantage of the software if you don’t bother getting a little background first on the ideas behind Things for Mac.

If you start putting down some tasks with no general sense of where they go or how you should organize them, it’s very likely you will end up doing some unnecessary work or sub-utilizing the software.  If I could give you some advice on how to do it, I’ll say:

1. googling GTD
2. watching the Things screencast
3. organize your ideas, tasks and activities according to that new info (hint: concepts over priorities now).

This will be one of those time investments that really pays off at the end. Believe me, I did it the other way and I paid the price.

Features

Of all the features you get in Things, there are a few I find pretty special. Even if they could be perceived as regular features for some, to me they’ve been the key in making this application an indispensable tool of my day.

The Focus area is very important. Here, you realize that Cultured Code knows exactly which is the difference between a regular To Do app and a full-featured GTD app. Each category of this area has a specific function, meant to help you organize tasks according to their nature or final goal.

Being able to understand the difference between Projects and Areas is another key factor in the road to the correct use of Things. Projects are meant to be finished; you have to mark as a project any group of activities which belong to a main concept that will end in time.  You can use this category to group the tasks for your thesis, a paper you need to prepare and introduce next week, etc.

Areas is meant to be used for those activities on which you’re constantly working, like writing new articles for Appletell, updating your blog, or making your company succeed.  Every activity in your life will end eventually, but the ones you have in your agenda with a clear due date should be placed in Projects, the long lasting ones with no end in sight should be considered for the Areas section.

Even though we have a lot more features in Things, my favorite overall is the Quick Entry option. Quick Entry allows you to use Things throughout your system without even knowing it’s open and running. No matter which application you’re using at the moment, if you remember something you have to turn into a Things entry, the only thing you need to do is press the configurable key combination to invoke a translucid window that will allow you to quickly set up a new entry and record a note, set the tags, due date and the destination of this new To Do (Collect, Focus, Projects, Areas, etc).

Make Things a Habit

The last advice I have for those of you considering giving this a try is to keep in mind that you need to constantly go over your data inside Things. You have to review your tasks, check their status, refresh everything you have pending and add every new task that will need attention in the future. As David Allan suggests, if you have a task that will take you around two minutes to complete, don’t bother setting it up in the application, just go and do it already. You will consume the same time setting that in the software as it’d take you to finish it.

Getting your life organized is possible with the support of great applications like Things for Mac, but even though you get to know all its features and some hints to make it work efficiently, you’ll need to take it as a part of your life in order to succeed with it. Make the use of Things a habit; take the advice from those of us who already know most of the mistakes and start organizing your activities now. 

There’s no better day than today to change the way you do your Things.

Product [Things for Mac]