The Things You Need To Get Things Done

Posted by AppBite Team

Things iPhone App Review.

Things is more than your average GTD (Getting Things Done) application for the iPhone. I've tried many ToDo's before, some I've even posted reviews on, some were discarded minutes after instalation. But I believe these were all necessary steps before moving on to the major league and appreciating true value of a pieace of awesome iPhone software that gets you on your way to putting your daily tasks in order.

At the fore-front, Things looks just like a to-do list. Create items, add notes, set due dates, and once you've completed with a task, mark it off your list. All in all, pretty basic features. But with Things you get much more than organizing your daily tasks and routines. The popular task manager for the iPhone adds more functionality while keeping a clean and neat user interface that's easy to use and even easier to control.

Things revolves around lists. These lists are broken down and organized into several categories you will be assigning tasks into. Things features seven all-important areas. In the Inbox, you add items for review and categorization later. Higher priority tasks end up being filled under Today, while Next keeps track of what's next on your list of things to do. You can also schedule actions that need to be done on a specific date and file them under Scheduled. An interesting feature that acts as an idea bin is Someday, where the tasks you'd like to do someday in the future end up. Projects allows you to group several tasks as relating to a single outcome, hinting at some of Things project management features. Whenever you're done with a task, it will end up in the Logbook, for easy later access.

Once in a category, adding a task is a breeze. Tap the "Add Item" button at the bottom left of your screen which will open up the next screen, where you can set a title for the task, add notes and finally assign the task a deadline in the Due Date option.

Perhaps the most awesome feature in my humble opinion is Things's Inbox. This is the main repository for all your ideas that you have, but aren't sure where you should file them. This is the default option that the app will set for any new task you enter. There's nothing worse than a lost idea, and the Inbox will make sure that doesn't happen to you. As a writer and designer, ideas come and go, so having my iPhone close at hand to enter the ideas for later use is nice to have. But with the iPhone having only Notes it wasn't much good. This is where Things comes in to let me organize and store effectively everything and everywhere the idea might hit me.

Another killer feature with Things is its ability to sync with your MAC version of Things, currently in beta. The two versions work well together, save for a few details and crashes. There are however some features missing from the iPhone version, some much needed features. First off: tagging. The MAC version of things allows you to set tags for tasks as to where, what and even who and filter by one or a combination of tags. The feature is planned for the official release to take place at the beginning of next year. So is the option to sync through your MobileMe account.

But until you're able to use "the cloud" to sync your MAC and your iPhone for Things, there's the option to do it via your WiFi network. Simply make sure your MAC and iPhone are both using the same network, start up the app on both devices and the syncing will take place straight away.

Things is featured at a pretty steep price of $9.99 and whether it's the right price for the value it's adding to your experience is disputable. There's no lite version to let you experience Things, which is another let down on the part of the developers.

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