Cultured Code's Things is a very powerful task management app that can help you plan your time and complete creative projects
irrespective of how well-designed it is, you might think that dropping £11.99 on a glorified to-do list for your iPad is insane when the world contains Post-it notes.
But, if you take the time to set Things up well, it can help make you more productive - which means you can make more money and be less stressed.
The joy of Things is that you can chuck all the tasks you have to do - professionally, personally, whatever - into it, and as long as you've been disciplined enough to give each item a due date, and built in a bit of a warning for yourself, you can just open the app each morning and be presented with a list of things you need to do that day. So here's our guide, especially for creative professionals, to getting started with Things for iPad.
But, if you take the time to set Things up well, it can help make you more productive - which means you can make more money and be less stressed.
The joy of Things is that you can chuck all the tasks you have to do - professionally, personally, whatever - into it, and as long as you've been disciplined enough to give each item a due date, and built in a bit of a warning for yourself, you can just open the app each morning and be presented with a list of things you need to do that day. So here's our guide, especially for creative professionals, to getting started with Things for iPad.
01 - Though you can start just bashing in to-dos straight away and worry about organising them all later, you get the most out ofThings if you use its filing and management features. Tap on Projects at the left, then the plus sign at the top right to create a new project.
02 - Once you've named your project, you can assign tags to it. Any task assigned to this project will have those tags applied automatically, making it easy to filter lists later. Tap Tags, then scroll to the bottom and tap Manage Tags. Add, nest and reorder at will.
03 - Though individual tasks can have their own due dates, you can also set one for the entire project. Tap Due Date, then spin the dials to set the date. You can also use the'Show inToday'option to tell Things when it should alert you that the project is due.
04 - Once you've set up your projects, start adding tasks. Make sure you've selected any entry at the left other than Projects, then tap the plus sign at the top right to create a new to-do. Give it a name, assign it a due date and tell Things when it should appear in Today, Tag it...
Pro tip: Desktop version
As well as the iPad apa there's also a desktop version of Things for Mac. Costing £44.55, it's not exactly cheap, but it does have a myriad of features that enable you to manage to-dos in a more familiar desktop environment The fact t tat you syn cit: it with the Pad appand your iCal calenders very handy, too.
As well as the iPad apa there's also a desktop version of Things for Mac. Costing £44.55, it's not exactly cheap, but it does have a myriad of features that enable you to manage to-dos in a more familiar desktop environment The fact t tat you syn cit: it with the Pad appand your iCal calenders very handy, too.
05 - .. .and then tell Things where to file it. If yoj rap Create In Then select one of your projects, as we've done, the task is assigned to that project and will have its tags applied. You can dump random tasks into the Inbox, or use Scheduled and Sometime.
06 - After you've configured all your projects and added your tasks, you can tap on Next to get an overview of all the tasks you have to do, split by project.Tasks not assigned to a project appear at the top of the list. The checkboxes for due tasks appear red.
07 - To get a better idea of the things that you need to do sooner rather than later, tap the alarm clock icon at the top right to order tasks and projects by due date. (If you haven't given a task a due date, but have assigned it to a project, ii inherits the project's date.)
Pro tip : Scheduling tasks
A great feature of things is the ability to schedule future taste and to-dos.This means That if you know you've got a project to do with a deadline In a few months, you can set Things to remind you about it when work needs to be started ■ helping you get it out of your head until the time is right.
A great feature of things is the ability to schedule future taste and to-dos.This means That if you know you've got a project to do with a deadline In a few months, you can set Things to remind you about it when work needs to be started ■ helping you get it out of your head until the time is right.
08 - Now all the work you put into creating tags and assigning them to projects and tasks finally pays off; tap the tag icon at the top right to filter to-dos by tag, so you can concentrate on just client work, say. If, like us, you've nested your tags, you can select'parent'tags too.
09 - Alternatively, you can tap Projects at the left to see all your added projects as a series of books; tap on one to focus on tasks for one particular job or client. Like to-dos, Projects can be made inactive by filing them in Scheduled with a start date in the future.
10 - Things uses the'Show inToday'field for each project and task to know when it needs to automatically show tasks in the Today tab. However, you can tap the star icon at the top right to move things to Today manually if you want to get them done sooner.
11 - And here's where it all comes together. If you've been disciplined in flagging tasks and projects with due dates and 'Show in Today'alerts, you can open Things in the morning, tapToday, and find out what you need to do. Note the manually-added task in yellow.
12 - Then comes the good bit: simply tap the little checkbox next to a task to tick it off the list. Completed tasks are archived to the Logbook daily. You can also mark off entire projects when they're done; if it contains uncompleted tasks, you'll get a warning.
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