Things
Personal task management.
Version: 1.2.5
Final Decision
Feedback Type: Review
Contributed by: robbnashville Monday, January 05 2009 @ 01:45 AM PST
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: 6-12 months
Recommend Product: YES
I began testing both THINGS and OMNIFOCUS last summer and didn't make my final choice until after the near-final version of Things was released a few days ago to those using the beta version.
Things is a beautiful program & it is very easy to use. However, my final decision is to go with OmniFocus because of it's superb power. IMO the purpose of a program like this is the ability to organize and view data easily in a number of ways to facilitate planning and actually accomplishing goals.
While Things provides a great deal of what I need, the bottom line is that I found it's approach a little too scattered. It was often difficult for me to see all my actions & projects in one view for a given period of time. Because I am an organizer, I would file some tasks in "Someday", others in "Scheduled" and the rest in "Next". When I would try to see where I had an opening for another task or project, I often could not get a clear sense of my planning with Things. It's heavy use of tags is just not to my liking. I prefer the use of contexts, which are like categories. OmniFocus follows the use of contexts. (Things has something similar called "Areas"; but they are just not the same thing in practice.)
Things does not allow the use of start dates as well as due dates. Even though it is true that projects should be constructed of single actions that can be accomplished at a given time, the ability of OmniFocus to assign start dates allows tasks to be unavailable until their start date. This approach gets them out of the way until I am ready to review them or focus on them.
Also, Things just doesn't use dates well. OmniFocus not only allows easy entry of dates, it also presents the due date more clearly for each task and, because it has an inspector panel, it's easy to see more about repeating items, when items are due for review, etc.
The final straw that broke the camel's back for me was the difference between the iPhone clients. If iCal had been able to handle to do items better (especially repeating tasks) and present them on the iPhone, I might never have started this journey. Both Things and OmniFocus have iPhone clients; but there's no real comparison. Things, like it's desktop counterpart, is very scattered on the iPhone, while OmniFocus is just as organized on the iPhone as it is on the desktop. Things only allows syncing while on the same wireless network. OmniFocus allows syncing via a number of methods; and since I am a MobileMe subscriber, I use that method, which allows me to sync from anywhere.
I'm sure Things will meet the needs of many people; and for those who place a big emphasis on price, it will probably win. For me, time is money; and OmniFocus helps me get the most done.
Overall Rating:
Ease of Use:
Support:
Features:
Quality / Stability:
Price:
Agreed - robbyx--2008
I feel much the same way. I've wanted to embrace Things because of its very elegant UI. OmniFocus, on the other hand, could have been written by M$. Yet I bought OmniFocus and keep downloading each new version of Things hoping that it might finally be the right app for me. At this point, I've given up on that idea and decided to stick with OmniFocus.It's not that I don't like Things. Quite the contrary. There's so much to like. However, I never managed to get my workflow moving smoothly in Things for many of the reasons you describe. Everything feels scattered to me. With OmniFocus, there's a clear method to the madness. Things, on the other hand, is neither structured nor free-form enough for me.
Finally, I agree 1000% on the iPhone client. The Things client is really weak compared to OmniFocus. Things might be the #1 selling paid iPhone client (as CC claims), but how many people actually USE it after buying? I sincerely doubt it would be #1 if a trial were available. I feel completely ripped off by Things for iPhone. I used it once and found it so laughably inferior to OmniFocus for iPhone that I deleted it right away...but CC already got my $10. SIgh.
Reply to This
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 09:11 AM PST