If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

— Albert Einstein

Things
FIGURE 1 Things GTD Application by Cultured Code

I’ve never really been very organized. My files are a mess, and my desk, even worse.

I finally decided to do something about it a few months ago when I discovered a handy little tool called Things. Although Things won’t tackle the pile of papers on my desk, it does help with the stuff in between the ears.

What I like most about Things is it’s simplicity. It has very little built in structure, allowing me to use it how I need and not how they “think” I need. The developers at cultured code did a wonderful job at removing everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary, and have crafted a wonderful user experience.

I’ve been using the software for a little over 3 months now, and have received a lot of questions on how I use it, so I figured why not write a post about it!

Things
FIGURE 2 My Areas

Inside of things you can Collect, Focus, and Organize your tasks. The true power of things lies within it’s tagging system. Each day as I add new to-dos using the quick entry dialog, I use a tagging scheme based off of Ian Beck’s example. At the end of the day I organize these to-do’s into associated projects and/or areas and decide which to-do’s should be focused on the following day. Projects are sets of actions that correspond to a particular objective, whereas Areas (figure 2) are ongoing interests, which may never be completed.

I can then use Today focus in the morning to give me a list of all the to-do’s for that day and then filter the to-do’s by each tag.

Although it takes some discipline to get into the routine, I’m finding that it’s well worth the effort. No harm in trying, right?

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