Things Icon

About levels of commitment

Things starts with a few lists that help you organize your to-dos. The following gives a quick overview:

Logbook Icon

Logbook

When you're busy, completed to-dos might clutter up your lists — but not in Things. Things will regularly and automatically put these completed items into the Logbook, where they are kept sorted by completion date.

By default, Things will log completed items every day. This means that when you start fresh in the morning, all completed to-dos will be put away nicely. Of course, logging can always be done manually, e.g., by choosing Items > Log Completed Now from the main menu. You also can change the default setting in the General pane of Things' preferences.

Someday Icon

Someday

Amidst those items you want to do as soon as possible, there might be those that you aren't really sure of. Tasks that might be great, but whose value aren't yet determined, such as items you may want to review when enough of your current work has been done. The Someday list is a natural home for these tasks. There, they won't interfere with current work, but you will be able to reconsider your commitment periodically.

It certainly makes sense to put a project on hold. And it is useful to be able to brainstorm future work. Besides simple to-dos, the Someday list can also contain projects.

Scheduled Icon

Scheduled

It makes no sense to consider some tasks before a certain date has passed or event has occurred. Let's assume you want to follow up with a client next week. It is not ideal to have a corresponding to-do on your current agenda, since you cannot do anything about it for several days. With Things, simply drag the item onto the calendar icon. A dialog will appear letting you specify how long you want to postpone the dragged item.

You can decide what should happen on the specified date. There are two options, "Highlight" and "Move to Today". If you choose "Highlight", the items will be kept in the Scheduled list and Things will gracefully notify you when a date has passed. You then have the choice to either move the item to another list or to postpone it again. If you choose "Move to Today", the items will be automatically moved to your Today list on the specified date.

Just like the Someday list, the Scheduled list can contain projects and areas.

Next Icon

Next

The Next list is where the real work is done, all active, uncompleted to-dos reside there.

In the Next list, to-dos are grouped by the projects or areas of focus they belong to. Each project displays three of its remaining to-dos by default. This number can be customized using the View > Next Action Steps submenu from the main menu.

When an entire project is put on the Someday or Scheduled list, none of its to-dos appear in the Next list.

Today Icon

Today

It is not unusual for the Next list to contain well over hundred to-dos. Of course, using the Tag Bar, it is still easy to make best action choices. To record these choices, to-dos can be marked. All marked to-dos will then also appear in a dedicated Today list.

A number that is shown next to the Today icon tells you how many to-dos on today's agenda are still waiting to be completed.

Inbox Icon

Inbox

What if you want to quickly enter an idea without thinking about what your level of commitment should be or where to file it? This is what the Inbox is for. Later, at your convenience, you may then review the Inbox to decide on your commitment for each item. A number next to the Inbox icon will tell you how many items still need processing.

You can customize a global hot key in the General pane of Things preferences, which will display a Quick Entry window to enter to-dos from any application. By default, those to-dos will be stored in the Inbox.