Comments on: Things 0.9.2 Brings Support for Leopard’s System-wide To-do Service

By: Jürgen

Jürgen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:33:20 +0000

@George, I think what happens is the following. The link in the notes section is actually created by Apple Mail. It is also available in iCal. Mail creates a link to the To Do item in Mail and not to the email message itself. Whenever you do anything that leads to this To Do item being removed from Mail, then the link ceases to be functional. I wished that Mail would create a link to the email message instead or even better automatically reverted to the parent email when the To Do item is gone. But since this is not the case, I will be looking into whether we can provide a work-around

@Janice, we actually do have some ideas here. But don’t tell anyone… Don’t hold your breath either, since this will not make it into 1.0.

@Nelson, you can specify multiple tags or areas. You could for example list all areas except the secret one. You can do the same with tags. But this might not yet be feasible: due to a bug – which will be fixed soon – parent tags do not match their children.

@Mattias Thurfjell, I see that you are actually talking about “hard landscape” :). What you could do already is to use due dates. That way to-dos that have to be done on a particular day would at least be highlighted in iCal. Additionally you could check the “Hide To Do items with due dates after the calendar view” in iCal’s preferences.

By: Mattias Thurfjell

Mattias Thurfjell — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:08:26 +0000

@Jürgen: I do get that it is too complicated… and would be confusing. I guess it is not so hard to add those tasks by hand in iCal…

Thanks for a great app!

By: Mattias Thurfjell

Mattias Thurfjell — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:06:31 +0000

@Jürgen: Yes, the tickler file is a huge aspect of it. In the seminar “Getting Things Done… Fast”, though, David says that actions that MUST be done on a specific day should be jotted down at the very top of that day in your calendar, not JUST on a list. The Today list is not just stuff I have to do Today, it is also things I want to or should do Today. I guess what I want is a way to show day specific MUST-tasks on the calendar in iCal, not just on the to-do list.

Of course, Things is still awesome (at present, I would never switch to any other GTD app), but that feature would be a killer. It is bo no means a necessary feature.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:09:45 +0000

(I also sent this in as a feature request.)

When choosing which items to sync with iCal, there should be another option aside from syncing ONLY items with a given tag or area. You should also be able to sync all items EXCEPT those with a given tag or in a given area. That way, you can keep some items “secret” and not have to manually add new areas or tags every time you make new ones.

My use case: I want to share everything with my significant other except for to-dos relating to surprises for her or her family, e.g. birthday presents.

By: Janice

Janice — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:12:15 +0000

Jürgen, I read your response to Chris above and understand the complications. Is there a means to create an option to view Events in the “Today” view? Or is that equally complicated?

By: On Things, RapidWeaver | View from the Dock

On Things, RapidWeaver | View from the Dock — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:35:51 +0000

[...] for free!). Last saturday, Cultured Code released a small version update with a big new feature: system-wide To Do integration. Enter a To Do in Things, and it’s instantly in Mail and iCal. It’s a significant step [...]

By: Martim

Martim — Sat, 31 May 2008 03:09:52 +0000

Congrats! I would suggest that the next really important feature to be added is the ability to schedule individual actions inside projects. This is the only GTD feature that is really missing for me in Things in terms of workflow, and I imagine for a lot of people to. Besides, I would guess it’s not hard to implement…

By: George

George — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:21:13 +0000

Hey Guys – fantastic app!

I’m having a little trouble when items sync into Things, the email link to use for referencing (which is an awesome feature) doesn’t work. It goes to Mail.app and nothing happens.

Any thoughts?

(I am ready to hand over money to you)

By: Jürgen

Jürgen — Thu, 29 May 2008 09:28:06 +0000

@Chris N., trying to sync to-dos in Things with events in iCal is something that has the potential of causing a great deal of confusion. Events and to-dos are very different objects with different attributes (events cannot be checked off). We’d like to keep sync (already complicated enough by and off itself) as clean as possible.

On the other hand, having a way to display tasks say by due date would be quite useful. We have some nice ideas to do this in a Things like way without using iCal as a hack :).

@Mattias Thurfjell, I believe what you are referring to in the GTD book is where Allen describes the tickler file. It is a means of sending yourself reminders in the future. When something cannot be done before a certain date, you put a note in a place specific to this date (a dedicated tickler file or maybe a regular calendar). When the day comes you will be reminded of the task, but that doesn’t necessarily mean, you need to do it at that date. This is very different from what Allen calls the “hard landscape”.

We implemented the tickler file through the Scheduled list. You can make items move to the Today list at predefined dates. If you sync the Today list, then the recently moved items will indeed show up in iCal but as regular to-dos not as events.

@Janice, @falcn, @dan :) thanks so much.

By: Janice

Janice — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:53:28 +0000

falcn. I’m right with you. Things is becoming a guilty pleasure. I’m ready to compensate the talent and hard work.