Things 3 Review: The Task Manager I Keep Coming Back To
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I first used Things way back when it was Things 2, probably around 2012 (when a Things 3 review would have been just a twinkle in Things 2’s eye). I’d just crawled out of an OmniFocus hole (and I mean deep). Setting up OmniFocus felt like I’d done a degree by the time I had it set up. It was DEFINITELY a case of tinkering with the system rather than doing the tasks that were in the system. The whole point was to get things done, and OmniFocus had me getting things UNDONE.
I downloaded Things, and the simple clean interface and clarity made me feel like I’d come out of some sort of hibernation into a glorious Spring, like Punxsutawney Phil checking “predict weather” off his to do list.
I used it for a couple of years before my business swallowed everything. When almost every to-do involves other people, you move into collaborative tools: Slack, Monday, ClickUp, whatever the team was using that quarter. Things 2 got shelved.
Then January this year hit. Day job. New business. A house purchase. Two international trips to plan. Too many open loops, not enough ground under my feet. I needed a system and I needed to stop researching systems and actually pick one.
I knew Things. I trusted Things. So here we are.
What Things 3 actually is
Things 3 is a personal task manager for Apple devices. It’s built around GTD (Getting Things Done, David Allen’s methodology) without forcing you to become a GTD monk to use it. You can go deep or you can stay surface level. It works either way.
It is not a project management tool. It is not a team collaboration platform. It is not trying to be your company’s onesourceoftruth™. That’s the whole point.
(Cultured Code have started dropping the version number in their branding, but until Things 4 exists, I’m calling it Things 3.)
How I use it
My setup is straightforward. Inbox, processed daily. Morning routines. Weekly review. A Someday list. A Waiting For list. Areas covering the main domains of my life: Home, Finance, Health and Wellness, Day Job, LLC, Personal Projects.
I don’t use many tags. My 30,000 and 50,000 foot views (GTD speak for your longer-horizon goals and life purpose) need work. My structure isn’t perfect, and I’ve made peace with that, because if you keep trying to perfect it, you won’t get anything done. The perfectionism is the procrastination. A documented, imperfect system that you actually run beats an optimised one you’re still configuring.
I’m a dictionary-definition perfectionist. This site is my daily reminder that done beats perfect. Things 3 is the tool that lets me act on that.
The GTD principles I actually follow: the two-minute rule (if it takes less than two minutes, do it now), inbox zero (process daily, don’t let it pile up), and aggressive archiving (some have argued too aggressive, to them I say…no comment) . What I’m still working on: breaking projects down into small enough tasks that I don’t freeze, and not giving myself decision paralysis by leaving things too vague. A work in progress, like everyone.
What Things 3 does better than the alternatives
The thing ClickUp and Monday will never understand is that onesourceoftruth™ is a holy grail for most people, not a realistic destination. Both tools are built around the fantasy that you’ll move your entire life and work into them, that every task and project and communication will live in one place. For some teams and workflows, maybe. For most people running lean, it’s an unattainable goal dressed up as a productivity solution.
Things 3 doesn’t try to be everything. It does enough, and it does it well. The interface is clean, fast, and logical. It gets out of the way. You open it, you see what you need to do, you close it and go do it. After years of tools that wanted to be my entire operating system, “does enough” is the highest compliment I can give. (I talk about my current culled stack here).
Where it falls short
The visual design is minimal to the point of being a little uninspiring. If you’re the kind of person who gets a dopamine hit from Asana’s confetti cannon when you complete a task, Things 3 will feel austere. You’re ticking a circle, that’s it, no fanfare.
It has no collaboration features. If you need to assign tasks, share projects, or work in any kind of team context, Things 3 is not your tool.
And if you’re coming from OmniFocus, you’ll miss location-based reminders. Being nudged to pick up dry cleaning when you’re near the dry cleaner is really quite useful, and Things 3 doesn’t do it.
Who Things 3 is for
You’re running solo or mostly solo, you’re on Apple (iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple only), and you want a system that works without becoming a part-time job to maintain. You don’t need your task manager and your project management tool to be the same thing. You understand that different tools serve different purposes, and you’re not chasing the onesourceoftruth™ dream.
Who should look elsewhere
If you collaborate with a team on tasks, look elsewhere. If you need complex multi-step projects with dependencies and automations, look elsewhere. If the minimal Apple aesthetic isn’t your thing, Todoist is a solid cross-platform alternative with more visual flexibility.
And if you need external motivation baked into the tool: streaks, points, celebrations, look elsewhere. Things 3 assumes you’re an adult who doesn’t need a unicorn to appear when you send an email. (even though I sort of am an adult who needs a unicorn to appear when I finish a task thankyouverymuch).
Note: I’m working on a full comparison of the major task managers — I’ll link it here when it’s live.
Things 3 Review – The Bottom Line
Things 3 costs $49.99 as a one-time purchase on Mac, $9.99 on iPhone, $19.99 on iPad. No subscription. In a world where everything wants a recurring fee, that alone is worth something.
I’ve come back to it twice now. The second time, I stopped looking for something better. Not because Things 3 is perfect (it isn’t), but because the search for perfect is exactly the trap it helps you escape.
Chloë Scout previously built and exited an ecommerce business that grew to nearly $10M in annual revenue with over 100 employees. She writes about the practical, unglamorous, nuts-and-bolts side of building and running a business, without the MBA.
