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Getting Things Done with THINGS

Productivity guru David Allen's book Getting Things Done caused a big splash when it was published a few years ago. He instantly earned himself many converts to his way of organizing, increasing productivity and breaking through performance barrier issues such as procrastination and the stresses of a heavy workload.

David's website is here.

GTD on Amazon.com here.

Things: Task Management App

The book has spawned user groups and even software, like Things. Things is a Mac-based task management program rooted in some of Allen's thinking. It lets you quickly enter tasks, tie those tasks to larger task sets such as projects (any group of tasks that has a finish line, like 'Spring Conference') or areas (any group of tasks without a finish line, such as 'Website'.)

There are other GTD apps out there but Things has some nice features the others do not. First, it's Mac-based (sorry PC users - I have no review for a PC equivalent but you can find a few by Googling GTD) and has a very Mac-familiar interface. It also uses tags so you can group tasks together in ways beyond just projects and areas. One of the things I like best about Things though is the way it synchs with Mac's iCal. Any time-related task automatically gets dropped into iCal.

If all this isn't good enough, it gets better: There's an iPhone/iPod Touch version available on the Apple App Store for $9.99. I'm not an iPhone user so I can't comment on it but it sounds like there's still one vital feature missing, and that's the ability to synch with your desktop Things. This functionality is supposed to come soon. I suspect that when it does it will be the killer productivity app on the App Store.

Things is from Cultured Code, who is all about user experience in a way that Mac users can appreciate. Things is currently in Beta and can be downloaded for free. When they launch in January 2009 it will be $49 but you can save $10 by pre-ordering now. 

Very simple to use, very friendly, familiar interface. You can download Things at the Things website.

Incidentally and somewhat ironically, I was never able to finish the book, Getting Things Done. For a book on organization, I thought it could have been better organized, and, quite frankly, half the length. If there's a Cliff Notes on GTD I recommend you find it. There are some gems in there but I felt like he made me work to find them. Maybe this (spoof) version of the book would have been more for me. :)