I have just been having a good look at a new GTD application to hit the scene. It is called Things, and comes from CulturedCode.com.
I have not yet had chance to play with it although I have signed up to their newsletter so hopefully I will get on the Alpha/Beta program to test it out.
Must admit that it does "look" nice. I am still Alpha testing OmniFocus and I have migrated most of my projects and next actions away from iGTD to OmniFocus now. Must admit that I am loving OmniFocus. They just seem to have thought of so many keystroke saving usability functions that it makes using it a dream. I must admit that Things seems to "look" nicer than OmniFocus, but when I review them both I will report back on the findings.
I have been using both Things and Omnifocus for a while, and while I admit that I’m spending too much time testing and too little getting things done, I have to say that I enjoy Things more, because it has a cleaner interface, and it depends on tag combinations rather than outlining and hierarchies. I love outlines too, but Things requires so little effort to filter down to what you need to be doing. I suspect it will be a big hit.
As a practicing attorney and the managing partner of a small-ish law firm, I find that task management is one of the most important skills I try to have and get better at. So, I’m constantly trying out productivity tools like iGTD and OmniFocus.
My quick review is that while Things looks more Mac-like, it doesn’t seem to work as intuitively as OmniFocus at capturing tasks. Maybe I’m just too much of a Mann-iac, but I think that Merlin Mann’s influence on the development of OmniFocus has led it to be a piece of software that works intuitively with a GTD system. It’s flexible enough to work with a variety of programs and can turn on a dime when projects or needs arise, but most importantly, it stays out of your way and allows you to be productive. In the short screencast I watched on Things, it looks to be a bit bulky to work well. You’re clicking, sorting and re-sorting way too many times. There’s something to be said for simplicity in productivity and the infinite number of tags leads me to think that you can spend your time finding the ultimate way to set-up your day, instead of cranking widgets.
I’ll be eager to try this out, but they should iron out some of the fundamental philosophy behind task management and get the software out of its own way.
i have looked closely at things and omnifocus, and while both (soon) will have iPhone synchronization, i have to say things is the way to go for a few reasons. 1) its way cheaper than omnifocus and, frankly, i dont see how anyone could pay almost $100 for the omnifocus desktop and iphone apps. 2) things’ interface is way nicer than omnifocus’ and uses areas and tags (like contexts) so you have more organization options. 3) the customer service seems alot better as well. i sent questions to both omni and culturecode (things) and, while omni has still not gotten back to me, culturecode replied within just a couple of days.
all in all i think things will be a better program as they continue to release updates.