You can control Things on your Mac, iPad, and Vision Pro with keyboard shortcuts. We’ve listed them all below.

Show keyboard shortcuts for:

To quickly view the most common shortcuts while in Things, press and hold ⌘ Cmd. To see System shortcuts, press and hold 🌐.

Create items

New to-do ⌘ Cmd N
New to-do below selection* Space
New to-dos from clipboard ⌘ Cmd V

A new to-do will be created for each separate row of text on your clipboard.

New checklist in open to-do ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd C
New project ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd N
New heading ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd N
New heading with selection ⌥ Opt ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd N
Open Quick Entry* ^ Ctrl Space

* On some keyboards, these two shortcuts can cause undesired results. You can disable them in ThingsSettingsGeneralKeyboard. If you’re looking for an alternative way to switch keyboard languages, you can use the fn key.

Edit items

Open selected item Return
Save and close item ⌘ Cmd Return
Duplicate selected item ⌘ Cmd D
Copy to-do or project ⌘ Cmd C
Paste to-do or project ⌘ Cmd V
Complete selected item ⌘ Cmd K
Cancel selected item ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd K

or hold down ⌥ Opt when clicking the checkbox.

Move completed to Logbook ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd Y

Select items

Select first ⌥ Opt
Select last ⌥ Opt
Extend selection upwards ⇧ Shift
Extend selection downwards ⇧ Shift
Extend selection to top ⌥ Opt ⇧ Shift
Extend selection to bottom ⌥ Opt ⇧ Shift
Select all ⌘ Cmd A
De-select all ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd A

Move items

Move item to another list ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd M
Move item up ⌘ Cmd
Move item down ⌘ Cmd
Move item to top of list ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd
Move item to bottom of list ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd

Edit dates

Show When ⌘ Cmd S
Start Today ⌘ Cmd T
Start This Evening ⌘ Cmd E
Start Anytime ⌘ Cmd R
Start Someday ⌘ Cmd O
Start date +1 day ^ Ctrl ]
Start date -1 day ^ Ctrl [
Start date +1 week ^ Ctrl ⇧ Shift ]
Start date -1 week ^ Ctrl ⇧ Shift [
Add a Deadline ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd D
Deadline +1 day ^ Ctrl .
Deadline -1 day ^ Ctrl ,
Deadline +1 week ^ Ctrl ⇧ Shift .
Deadline -1 week ^ Ctrl ⇧ Shift ,
Add repetition schedule ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd R

Control windows

Open new window ^ Ctrl ⌘ Cmd N
Open selected project, area, or built-in list in a new window ⌘ Cmd Return

Also works when selecting a project, area, or built-in list in the Quick Find popover.

Switch between open windows ⌘ Cmd `
Show/hide sidebar ⌘ Cmd /

Search

Search the app ⌘ Cmd F

You don’t actually need to use Cmd + F to start a search - simply start typing and the search box will appear.

Find in text ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd F
Find next in text ⌘ Cmd G
Find last in text ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd G

Navigate

Show navigation popover ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd O
Go to Inbox ⌘ Cmd 1
Go to Today ⌘ Cmd 2
Go to Upcoming ⌘ Cmd 3
Go to Anytime ⌘ Cmd 4
Go to Someday ⌘ Cmd 5
Go to Logbook ⌘ Cmd 6
Show in parent list ⌘ Cmd L
Enter selected project Return or ⌘ Cmd
Go back ⌘ Cmd
Scroll upwards 🌐
Scroll downwards 🌐
Jump to top 🌐
Jump to bottom 🌐
Navigate up in the sidebar ^ Ctrl ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd
Navigate down in the sidebar ^ Ctrl ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd
View the Tomorrow list ⌘ Cmd F + “Tomo…”
View the Deadlines list ⌘ Cmd F + “Dead…”
View the Repeating items list ⌘ Cmd F + “Repe…”
View the All Projects list ⌘ Cmd F + “Proj…”
View the Logged Projects list ⌘ Cmd F + “Logg…”

You can also navigate around the app with a feature called Type Travel. Simply start typing the name of the list or tag you want to jump to, then hit Return.

Tag & Filter

Edit tags for selected item ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd T
Toggle tag on/off within popover ⌥ Opt Space
Toggle tag on/off for selected item ^ Ctrl + shortcut
Choose tag to filter by ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd T
Filter by tag ^ Ctrl ⌥ Opt + shortcut

Control popovers

Save and close Quick Entry popover ⌘ Cmd Return
Open the context menu on selected item(s) ^ Ctrl Return
Escape ⌘ Cmd .
Move inside accessible fields or
Open Things’ Settings ⌘ Cmd ,

Use a mouse

Open the context menu ^ Ctrl + click
Enter multi-select mode ⌘ Cmd + click
Select multiple items ⇧ Shift + click
Expand/Collapse all areas ⌘ Cmd + click
Expand single area and collapse all others ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd + click

Other

Show/Hide later items ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd E

Inside of projects and areas

Style text with Markdown

Heading 1: # ... ^ Ctrl ⌘ Cmd 1
Heading 2: ## ... ^ Ctrl ⌘ Cmd 2
...
Italics: *...* ⌘ Cmd I
Bold: **...** ⌘ Cmd B
Bulleted list: - ... ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd L
Numbered list: 1. ... ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd L
Task list: - [ ] ... ^ Ctrl ⌘ Cmd L
Complete task: - [x] ⌘ Cmd K
Cancel task: - [~] ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd K
Quote: > ... ⌘ Cmd '
Highlight: ::...:: ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd U
Link: [...](url.com) ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd K
Strikethrough: ~~...~~ ⌥ Opt ⌘ Cmd U
Code: `...` ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd J
Code block: ```...``` ⌥ Opt ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd J
Increase indent (2 spaces) ⌘ Cmd ]
Decrease indent (2 spaces) ⌘ Cmd [

Things supports other Markdown features that have no keyboard shortcut. For a complete list of supported syntax, see the Markdown Guide.