Use natural language to quickly schedule to-dos, add reminders, or set deadlines.

It’s easy to set a start date, reminder, or deadline in Things by using your own words. No need to do any math or scroll through the date picker – the natural language processor will figure out when exactly “17 days from July 9” is.

Different exapmles of using natural language in the When date picker

The following languages are currently supported for natural language input: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.

See Natural Language Input in action

Mac
Use natural language to assign start dates, reminders, and deadlines. Keyboard shortcuts like ⌘ Cmd S or ⌘ Cmd ⇧ Shift D even work on closed to-dos.

Add a start date and/or reminder

  1. On your Mac, open Things.
  2. Select any to-do, or create a new one.
  3. Press ⌘ Cmd S
  4. In the When popover, type the start date, for example tues 8am (Tuesday at 8am).
  5. Press Return to save it.

Add a deadline

  1. On your Mac, open Things.
  2. Select any to-do, or create a new one.
  3. Click the icon, or press ⌘ Cmd ⇧ Shift D
  4. Type the date.
  5. Press Return to save it.
iPad & iPhone
To quickly access the date picker, swipe right on a to-do. Pull down in the date picker to use natural language.

Add a start date and/or reminder

  1. On your iPad or iPhone, open Things.
  2. Swipe right on any to-do to reveal When.
  3. Pull down in the popover to see Search.
  4. Type the start date, for example tues 8am (Tuesday at 8am).
  5. Tap Done.

iPad users with a hardware keyboard can use natural language in the Deadline picker as well as handy keyboard shortcuts to speed up the process.

Vision

In Things for Vision, please follow the same steps as described in the iPad & iPhone tab above.

Natural Language Input examples

The following list is by no means exhaustive, but it showcases examples of natural language that Things understands. Also, feel free to be lazy – you don’t need to completely spell out words for them to be recognized.

Input Result
tod… Today / Today

Any relative date can be used in both When and Deadline, like tomorrow, Monday, next week, etc.
10-3 October 3 / October 3

The format of the actual date input depends on your device’s region settings.
10-3 9 9AM/PM on October 3

Reminders can only be attached to start dates, not deadlines.
2p 2PM reminder
17d 17 days from today

Use w for weeks, mo for months, and y for years.
17d from jul9 17 days from the specified date (July 9)

Alternatively, type jul9 + 17d
wed jul… Pick any Wednesday in July from a list of suggestions
3rd wed jul… Third Wednesday in July
3rd wed jul 2024 Third Wednesday in July in 2024
last fri jul… Last Friday in July

Use natural language in When and to set Reminders on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Vision. Natural language for Deadlines is only supported on Mac, and iPads & Vision with a hardware keyboard.

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