Things 3 vs. Todoist: Which Is Better? (Review)

[@PeterAkkies]

Grab my free Things and Todoist cheat sheets: Things 3: peterakkies.ck.page/things-cheat-sheet Todoist: peterakkies.ck.page/todoist-cheat-sheet

[@movingkindaslow]

Hi Peter. Just some additional points about Things. 1. Things also has natural language input for the date/time when creating a task. 2. Using the standard "Quick Entry with Autofill" feature on the Mac version, you can automatically create a task with an embedded link to the object you're currently looking at. This works with web sites (not need to copy-paste the link, like you showed), emails (no need to forward the message to your Things address, like you showed), and even files (this is a good substitute for the missing file attachment function). 3. Time blocking is easy with Things on the Mac. Just have your calendar app and Things open side-by-side and drag a task from Things to the calendar - a calendar entry will automatically be created for the chosen date/time, with a default duration of one hour. This can easily be changed by re-sizing the event on your calendar. I hope you find this info useful.

[@PeterAkkies]

Hey Paulie. Thanks for replying and adding some info. A few comments: 1. Yes, you can use natural language to write the date. But I don’t consider it full natural language input because you can’t, for example, set up your repetition with natural language. And it doesn’t work to assign areas/projects either. 2. Thanks for mentioning Quick Entry with Autofill. I don’t usually bring Autofill up because I’ve found that it doesn’t work reliably and that can be frustrating. (For example, it doesn’t work in Apple Notes.) But you’ve got me thinking that perhaps I should at least tell people about the existence of the feature. 3. I know you can drag Things tasks to the Calendar app, but because there is no synchronization between the to-do and the calendar entry, I don’t like this as an option for time blocking. But again, the same comment applies that perhaps I should at least mention it to folks. Thanks again.

[@carlosrebolledoaguirre4682]

@@PeterAkkies Tanto los comentarios como respuesta son útiles. Se agradece a ambos

[@movingkindaslow]

@@PeterAkkies I find Autofill to be very reliable. According to the documentation, it only works with Mail, files or web sites. It doesn’t work with Notes. I agree about the natural language input - it’s pretty lacking. Perhaps, if we ever get a Things 4……. 😀

[@meeluanistyn1644]

Love your presenting style - you explain everything clearly, give examples and point out the pluses and minuses of what you’re comparing. Love your courses too. Both Things 3 and Todoist do a superb job; it’s more a question of which of them meets your specific needs. If a best of breed task manager were to be created from both of them it would be awesome.

[@CurlysCurated]

two other minor differences: 1) becauas of the way Things handles recurring reminders, you cannot check a task as complete until the repeat has spawned a second task. Which at times means if you complete a task early, you cannot complete it in the app. 2) Things projects have that like circle that shows you completion percents of the tasks within the project

[@BeckerMarten]

Great great content! Highly impressed by the condensed information you've put into the video. While considering myself as a hardcore todoist user, I learnt some new things by watching. Keep up the good work 👍👍

[@randomdoodles1470]

Hey dude. This is only the second one of your videos I’ve ever watched but just want to say, I saw from the other you were considering skydiving lessons and now you’re doing them, I’m happy for you! Happy new year

[@PeterAkkies]

Thank you! :D Happy new year to you too

[@ReggieLyell]

I enjoyed this video. I have bounced back and forth between Things 3 and Todoist and have landed on Things. The way I work around the lack of priority sorting is by using the MoSCoW method (Must do, Should do, Could Do, and Will try to do) and assigning tags to each category. I can then sort by tags (in a separate window on my Mac) and focus on what is important for today. Again, loved the video. Keep it up!

[@samueltremblay275]

I think you didn’t mention it but one thing that is wonderful in Things is that there is only to ways a task can leave the inbox: assigning a schedule date and/or a project. And what I want to highlights here is the deadline date won’t let the task leave the inbox. So not just Things has the amazing ability the handle two dates but also there is a defined value of schedule date which is an actionable date which is perfectly aligned with the GTD philosophy and where deadline date is a double feature to let appear the task in your today or upcoming but also has a meaningful way to emerge from other tasks with visual clue. Once you start using Things, it’s hard to go to Todoist. Sorry Windows / Linux users😢

[@ramysami]

Sorry you have to pay a hundred bucks

[@AlessioFurlan]

@@ramysamiCertainly. But you only pay for them once and then use it forever with updates included. With ToDoIst you pay forever, every year or month. After two years you paid as much as Things... After four years it costs you twice as much. I’m using things for 5 years.

[@barrygoldberg2767]

This seems to be an almost religious debate. I have been in both camps but in the end have settled with Thinigs. Although I miss the calendar integration- I find the interface in ToDoist inconvenient and overly complex. The question of integrating with a calendar or not seems to remain a cointoss. On the altar of simpicity, I set blocks of time on my calendar for clearing committed to-do's but keep the list and the organization in Things. I have been focusing on simplifying my systems which also argued for Things. But in the end, while it seems really ODD- the clear and uncluttered interface in Things is way more straightforward to use. Thanks for the Cheat Sheet Peter!

[@Abdullah-zl9ub]

I’m. Afraid to move to things from Todoist as I will lose the visual calendar integration. I don’t know if UI is that important.

[@solomon1021]

Things is for personal use, Todoist is for sharing and teams. Both are great

[@laserinsights771]

Maybe should have added that this is a totally new comparison review, I just assumed it was the same one I watched with a similar title over a year ago.

[@The_Trade_Academy]

thank you, looks like todoist is the winner for me

[@AlessioFurlan]

Hey... to capture web pages, mail etc... with Things, just turn on the feature on the app’s options. Once enabled just do the key combination and he captures you all by generating texts and links.

[@jimsilver52]

Excellent comparison video as usual. One additional new feature that Todoist just added is the ability to have AI build your filters. It works amazingly well.

[@PeterAkkies]

Yes, love that feature! Thanks for mentioning it.

[@carlosrebolledoaguirre4682]

¿Cuál es mejor? Es una pregunta cuya respuesta no pasa por las características (son importantes, pero no se bastan por sí solas para ser una respuesta), sino que principalmente por la metodología de trabajo de cada usuario. En lo personal, después de 2,5 años buscando aplicaciones que sean armónicas con mi metodología (que también mejora), siento que la fortaleza de Things 3 está en su simplicidad estructural y si bien Todoist tiene muchas características y puede adaptarse a distintas metodologías (GTD, la de Carl Pullien para Todoist y otras) no es del todo flexible porque su propia barra lateral le coloca límites a la flexibilidad. En síntesis, la mejor aplicación no pasa por sus características, sino que por la adaptabilidad de la aplicación con la metodología o sistema de trabajo.

[@jonneysings2938]

Does anyone know if they added a due date and due by feature yet to todoist

[@PeterAkkies]

No, there's just one date in Todoist.

[@martinxfinn]

What are your thoughts on TickTick? Do you think Things 3 can be used purely for personal reminders? I'm not a content creator or have any projects...

[@PeterAkkies]

Yes, Things is excellent for personal to-dos/reminders. I’ve looked into TickTick several times, but I prefer Todoist over TickTick.

[@samueltremblay275]

Tick Tick is in my opinion garbage in term of UI. Also, good luck if you want to find who is behind this application. Who are the team? I think it's a Chinese company and in term of privacy, they don't have a good reputation. However, I've read they have an AWS server in United States so they must follow some US policies. I don't say "Americans" are perfect too :D In anyways, if you want more features and not concern about beautiful UI and not concern about a very close company without roadmaps, Tick Tick is a solid application. Otherwise, choose Todoist. I would say in term of beautiful and minimalist design, Things is 10/10, Todoist is 8/10 and Tick Tick is 5/10.

[@comentorship]

Thank you for a great review! Can you please share what course platform you’re moving from to Kajabi? I’m thinking between Kajabi and Circle at the moment, but I don’t have an actual course recorded yet. Is it Teachable?

[@PeterAkkies]

Thank you. Actually Kajabi decided to leave tax filing up to creators, which is nonsense, so I’m staying with Teachable. Teachable has actually gotten a lot better lately. And I probably will stop using Circle too. Circle is good but not worth the expense for me right now.

[@comentorship]

@@PeterAkkies got it. Thank you!

[@kristendanes1770]

Well done, very clear

[@markblndal4809]

There's a plug-in for Things, to grab the website as well?🤔

[@PeterAkkies]

Not that I know of, Mark

[@SpanischlehrerinYasemin]

@@PeterAkkies There is a Keyboard Shortcut for that - no need for a plug-in 🙋🏻‍♀️ Control + Option + Spacebar 🎉

[@movingkindaslow]

@@SpanischlehrerinYasemin Yes! It’s called Quick Entry with Autofill, a standard feature in Things.

[@PeterAkkies]

@@SpanischlehrerinYasemin Yes, Quick Entry with Autofill. Thanks for pointing that out Yasemin. I find Autofill unreliable and limited (it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t) so I don’t usually recommend it to people.

[@carlosrebolledoaguirre4682]

@@SpanischlehrerinYasemin así es, pero sólo funciona con Safari

[@devarni]

How do you distinguish whether you are using a project or a task with subtasks in Todoist?

[@PeterAkkies]

There's no hard-and-fast rule. As a rule of thumb, though, if I'm likely to complete it all at once, it'll be a task with subtasks. If I am unlikely to complete it all at once, for me it'll probably be a project.

[@hubbiemid6209]

So is tick tick not in the conversation for the best one out there then?

[@PeterAkkies]

This is just a comparison video between Things and Todoist. It has nothing to do with TickTick. But since you mentioned TickTick: I am not a fan of the app. The UI feels clunky and I see very little reason to recommend it to anyone over Todoist.

[@devarni]

Isn't that the app from China? Bad copy of Todoist but the calendar and habits function is good. But most people don't trust the Chinese.

[@samueltremblay275]

I'm wondering to know why when you shown that Todoist can add a website as a task you didn't shown that Things 3 can do the same thing with the Opt+Ctrl+Space with the Quick Entry auto fill feature. And I follow every single post of Todoist on Reddit and they don't have a plan to add a deadline date in their app. They plan to add a duration like you said but not a deadline, second date. Also, that would be great if you would show what is on you Anytime filter in Todoist except if it is reserved to your course subscribers. The way I understand Things 3, here is my Anytime filter: (overdue | today | no due date | @Anytime) & !@Someday & !subtask My Someday is super easy compared to: @someday & !subtask Why I exclude subtasks? Because I have many tasks with a lot of sub-tasks and I don't want to clutter my interface with them. I almost never schedule sub-task so this is not a problem. My main task always has a "next action" task so every time I complete it, I update the main task based on that result. I'm a Windows programmer but I have a Mac with Logitech Mx Key and Mx Master mouse which give me the ability to switch between devices near like if they would be one PC but when I say "near", I say, it's not like if it would be one PC. Like many other, I would say that Things 3 works perfectly with Bear in term of minimalism and beautiful design. Bear will on next Tuesday release the very awaited version 2.0 of their application. That would be nice if Things 3 would do the same thing. But if I want to be 100% honest, if you don't share tasks with other, except the ability to complete a recurring task before that date and resize the font of the application, this application is perfect. I have both Things 3 and a Todoist pro subscription (Yes, this is definitively not productive .... but it's fun!) and I would say that Things 3 is way much functional than Todoist and don't forget that there are constantly new bugs in Todoist where in Things 3, I don't even remember one in 10 months of full use. Anyways, it's always a pleasure to way your videos :)

[@PeterAkkies]

Man, people are mad that I didn’t mention Quick Entry with Autofill! I probably should have mentioned it. I didn’t initially because it doesn’t work reliably for me and I’ve heard many others have the same experience. As for the second date in Todoist, I know for a fact that they are planning to work on that after adding the duration feature.

[@Abdullah-zl9ub]

it’s really confusing which app to use and why not just use the reminders app. Each app has something missing which is really annoying. I need a calendar view and I need a good UI with good natural language input and I can’t find this combination. Why things3 is really that important and expensive although it does not have a lot of features. I’m currently using Todoist but I need one app for everything.

[@AlessioFurlan]

@@PeterAkkiesIt’s not a matter of being angry, it’s that you showed it as a ‘lack’ that doesn’t actually exist.😂 I don’t know how many have told you it works badly, but it actually works very well.

[@PeterAkkies]

@@AlessioFurlan I get it man. I've had some issues with Quick Entry with Autofill in the past and other people reported some issues too. But it seems to actually work fine for most people. That's great! I wouldn't say the same thing now if I did the video again. But I can't edit the video now.

[@la6188]

Reminders

[@chanky25]

OmniFocus !!!!M

[@charlesbonfante9188]

Not relevant for me.. Windows users. Todoist wins hands down across all platforms

[@Scan_Speak]

I won’t say Things 3 is better. I will say I preferred it over Todoist.

[@mikeskiff]

Pro-tip for time-blocking duration of tasks in todoist - simply add in brackets the duration in minutes at the end of the task. For example: Study Peter’s todoist course [180m] Now when I schedule that task for a specific date+time it shows in my fantastical as 3 hour duration 😊 15:26

[@PeterAkkies]

Hmm. Interestingly, this doesn’t work for me. Initially it shows up as three-hour task, but it quickly gets reset to the default. The Todoist team is working on creating a duration feature, though, so this should “soon” be much easier to do.

[@mikeskiff]

@@PeterAkkies that is bizarre for sure. Works flawlessly for me… however, it only works correctly if I make the edit to the task in todoist, not in fantastical. Maybe that’s the issue?

[@nicolasbraunhaiti]

This is a very timely video as I'm in the process of deciding if I will switch back to Things after having used Todoist for about 2 months. Things always finds a way to draw me back in with its beautiful design and how it handles dates. But it seems to me Todoist is much better at getting new features out and is very customizable, which I why I had switched to it in the first place.

[@jimsilver52]

I agree. It seems like Things is “sitting on its success” while Todoist is actively working to build on what is already a great app.

[@Abdullah-zl9ub]

Updates?

[@jesperweiland]

I started my journey with Todoist right after watching this video, but removed it a day later. The main reason was the non-native OSX app versus the Things3 app. I do miss functionality in Things, but the user experience is next level.

[@PeterAkkies]

Yeah, that happens with cross-platforms apps: they usually don’t have a native macOS app. Which, from the developers’ perspective, is very understandable.

[@pacbilly]

Most important factor for some of us: Things lets you purchase and own it outright. Todoist employs an indentured servitude pricing model that many people can't support. Apps like BusyCal / BusyContacts and Agenda offer a great compromise between ongoing payments and outright ownership. Pay a yearly fee and have access to all the features released within that year. At the end of that term, you own the software in the state that it exists at the time of expiration. Pay again to unlock further updates for the next year (or whatever the term is set to). The devs benefit by the ongoing payments, and the users aren't plagued by ongoing nickel-and-dime hostageware extortion.

[@dabbyfps]

I dont know if Things saw this video and decided to knock out low hanging fruit but they seem to have a few of the things you said they didnt like adjusting the font size in the app settings. Or manybe this is a Sonoma update?

[@PeterAkkies]

Yes, Things supports adjustable font sizes now. That was their update, nothing to do with Sonoma. They had been working on that for a long time though, I’m pretty sure.

[@boblaycock6812]

This detailed comparison between the two apps is fantastic. Thank you. Todoist intrigues me, but this video has made me confident that I should stick with Things. HOWEVER, I wish desperately that Things would add document attachment & some font/size control. Is there any hint that a Things 4 might be in development?

[@PeterAkkies]

Thanks Bob! I also wish Things would add those two features. The developers know people really want attachment support and font size control. I have no insight or information about whether and if so, when, Things 4 is coming… trust me, I wish I did!

[@movingCrazy]

The biggest disadvantage of things - is that it supports only apple devices. Used things for a while, but it is really big deal for me, I need windows or at least web app. Unfortunately they won`t do it so now I am looking for alternatives. Now trying to understang what better ticktick or todoist. For now I think I'll prefer todoist. But how it hurts to say "goodbye" to Anytime/Areas/Someday/When+Deadline on the same task... 11 month gone from publishing of this video, todoist still don't figure out nothing with it.

[@PeterAkkies]

I get what you're saying. Todoist is making good progress though. They just added the ability to show your calendar events in the app, just like in Things. You can also now copy my recommended Todoist setup into your Todoist from the gallery in the app, which replicates some of the Anytime and Someday features. But yeah, no start dates-yet.

[@TeamDjembé]

Merci

[@AnarchySane]

After ClickUp and other similar applications of this kind Todoist, Things 3 look and feel like children who accidentally got into university and were left without parents.

[@DjangoGroen]

I’ll go with todoist since I have a windows laptop for work and pc for personal use. Still interesting to see the difference. Thank you

[@macpretorians]

Peter powiedz, który program jest Twoim zdaniem najlepszy: Things3, Todoist czy OmniFocus 4?

[@alexmartinez6864]

I know that you always make a good reviews about productivity apps, please could you try sorted 3 and make a review a I really want to use this app but you always touch important points, good video btw

[@jonramos]

what about tick tick?

[@teadish1448]

Amazing video! So thorough. Thank you!!!

[@sabriilies7424]

what about google task ??????????/

[@laserinsights771]

Hi Peter, do you feel like Todoist start dates is finally going to give it the feature which will make it your preferred task manager of choice? I think Things 3's unrivalled deadline feature was the one really killer feature which I always missed from Todoist, but not enough to make me switch permanently to Things, because Todoist has just about everything else you could need.

[@PeterAkkies]

Good question. It will be a huge plus when Todoist gets start dates. I’ve stopped thinking in terms of “my preferred task manager” and instead I’m thinking about which best app is best for whom, given people’s different circumstances and preferences. Not a sexy answer, I know, but I can help people better when I customize my answer.

[@geraldreif1910]

Todoist knows two kind of dates: due dates (as mentioned in the video) and reminder dates. That makes it quite flexible. I think you missed that reminder feature.

[@PeterAkkies]

Hey Gerald. You’re right that Todoist allows you to set reminders. But they are not a substitute for start dates. For example, with start dates, you could use the start date to time block on your calendar, while still tracking hard deadlines. You can’t do that with reminders.

[@kiwiinexile]

Hi Peter, sometimes I feel that despite all the positive features of these apps, I can easily spend more time sorting the app than actually getting the tasks in it done. A nice, not quite minimalist option for me is Reminders. However, it drives me nuts that I cannot find a way to keep reoccurring tasks from appearing until closer to the date. I have looked around the net and it does not appear that Apple has included this in the app. Being a glass-half-fill kind of guy, I am hoping that something that most other apps have will be included in IOS17. Lastly, I am very much looking forward to you making a video about the IOS17 version of reminders as it seems like it might have had a long overdue makeover. Love your channel btw - really appreciate your work.

[@PeterAkkies]

Thanks Colin. Yeah, I hear you on not wanting to spend too much time on organizing your to-dos with apps. That’s one of the reasons I make tutorial videos and courses, so you can spend a bit of time setting it up once and then just happily work with them for years. As for Reminders: yes, I am planning to make a video about Reminders in iOS 17. It has some nice new features.

[@ivanvolti]

Thanks for the video. How did you turn on that "Completed" tab in the side-nav?

[@PeterAkkies]

It’s a Todoist setting

[@jacquelinevs]

Tick tick is the best

[@devarni]

Its from China? No thanks!

[@Mark-ji4vx]

😊 "PromoSM"