Things 3 vs. Todoist: Which Is Better? (Review)

Things 3 and Todoist are some of the best to-do list apps out there. But which one’s better? Which one should you use? Here’s a review and comparison.

TIMESTAMPS
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00:00 Introduction
00:40 Capturing To-Dos
04:17 Organizing To-Dos
08:52 Planning Your Days
19:33 Summary of Pros & Cons

COURSES & RESOURCES
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Free Cheat Sheets:

Free Mini-Courses:

Full-Length Courses:

List of Tools, Apps, & Services I Recommend:

CONNECT WITH ME
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[PeterAkkies]

Grab my free Things and Todoist cheat sheets:

[movingkindaslow]

Hi Peter. Just some additional points about Things. 1. Things also has natural language input for the date/time when creating a task. 2. Using the standard "Quick Entry with Autofill" feature on the Mac version, you can automatically create a task with an embedded link to the object you're currently looking at. This works with web sites (not need to copy-paste the link, like you showed), emails (no need to forward the message to your Things address, like you showed), and even files (this is a good substitute for the missing file attachment function). 3. Time blocking is easy with Things on the Mac. Just have your calendar app and Things open side-by-side and drag a task from Things to the calendar - a calendar entry will automatically be created for the chosen date/time, with a default duration of one hour. This can easily be changed by re-sizing the event on your calendar. I hope you find this info useful.

[ReggieLyell]

I enjoyed this video. I have bounced back and forth between Things 3 and Todoist and have landed on Things. The way I work around the lack of priority sorting is by using the MoSCoW method (Must do, Should do, Could Do, and Will try to do) and assigning tags to each category. I can then sort by tags (in a separate window on my Mac) and focus on what is important for today. Again, loved the video. Keep it up!

[mikeskiff]

Pro-tip for time-blocking duration of tasks in todoist - simply add in brackets the duration in minutes at the end of the task. For example: Study Peter’s todoist course [180m]
Now when I schedule that task for a specific date+time it shows in my fantastical as 3 hour duration 😊

15:26

[CurlysCurated]

two other minor differences:

1) becauas of the way Things handles recurring reminders, you cannot check a task as complete until the repeat has spawned a second task. Which at times means if you complete a task early, you cannot complete it in the app.

2) Things projects have that like circle that shows you completion percents of the tasks within the project

[nicob]

This is a very timely video as I'm in the process of deciding if I will switch back to Things after having used Todoist for about 2 months. Things always finds a way to draw me back in with its beautiful design and how it handles dates. But it seems to me Todoist is much better at getting new features out and is very customizable, which I why I had switched to it in the first place.

[meeluanistyn]

Love your presenting style - you explain everything clearly, give examples and point out the pluses and minuses of what you’re comparing. Love your courses too. Both Things 3 and Todoist do a superb job; it’s more a question of which of them meets your specific needs. If a best of breed task manager were to be created from both of them it would be awesome.

[randomdoodles]

Hey dude. This is only the second one of your videos I’ve ever watched but just want to say, I saw from the other you were considering skydiving lessons and now you’re doing them, I’m happy for you! Happy new year

[pacbilly]

Most important factor for some of us: Things lets you purchase and own it outright. Todoist employs an indentured servitude pricing model that many people can't support. Apps like BusyCal / BusyContacts and Agenda offer a great compromise between ongoing payments and outright ownership. Pay a yearly fee and have access to all the features released within that year. At the end of that term, you own the software in the state that it exists at the time of expiration. Pay again to unlock further updates for the next year (or whatever the term is set to). The devs benefit by the ongoing payments, and the users aren't plagued by ongoing nickel-and-dime hostageware extortion.

[Scan_Speak]

I won’t say Things 3 is better. I will say I preferred it over Todoist.

[jesperweiland]

I started my journey with Todoist right after watching this video, but removed it a day later. The main reason was the non-native OSX app versus the Things3 app. I do miss functionality in Things, but the user experience is next level.

[BeckerMarten]

Great great content! Highly impressed by the condensed information you've put into the video. While considering myself as a hardcore todoist user, I learnt some new things by watching. Keep up the good work 👍👍

[samueltremblay]

I think you didn’t mention it but one thing that is wonderful in Things is that there is only to ways a task can leave the inbox: assigning a schedule date and/or a project. And what I want to highlights here is the deadline date won’t let the task leave the inbox. So not just Things has the amazing ability the handle two dates but also there is a defined value of schedule date which is an actionable date which is perfectly aligned with the GTD philosophy and where deadline date is a double feature to let appear the task in your today or upcoming but also has a meaningful way to emerge from other tasks with visual clue. Once you start using Things, it’s hard to go to Todoist. Sorry Windows / Linux users😢

[DjangoGroen]

I’ll go with todoist since I have a windows laptop for work and pc for personal use. Still interesting to see the difference. Thank you

[barrygoldberg]

This seems to be an almost religious debate. I have been in both camps but in the end have settled with Thinigs. Although I miss the calendar integration- I find the interface in ToDoist inconvenient and overly complex. The question of integrating with a calendar or not seems to remain a cointoss. On the altar of simpicity, I set blocks of time on my calendar for clearing committed to-do's but keep the list and the organization in Things. I have been focusing on simplifying my systems which also argued for Things. But in the end, while it seems really ODD- the clear and uncluttered interface in Things is way more straightforward to use. Thanks for the Cheat Sheet Peter!

[AlessioFurlan]

Hey... to capture web pages, mail etc... with Things, just turn on the feature on the app’s options. Once enabled just do the key combination and he captures you all by generating texts and links.

[SenorBiloba]

Todoist does now have Deadlines and Calendar View. Things 3 is so much prettier, but also looks like it hasn’t received significant updates in ages.

[movingCrazy]

The biggest disadvantage of things - is that it supports only apple devices.
Used things for a while, but it is really big deal for me, I need windows or at least web app.
Unfortunately they won`t do it so now I am looking for alternatives.

Now trying to understang what better ticktick or todoist. For now I think I'll prefer todoist.
But how it hurts to say "goodbye" to on the same task... 11 month gone from publishing of this video, todoist still don't figure out nothing with it.

[jimsilver]

Excellent comparison video as usual. One additional new feature that Todoist just added is the ability to have AI build your filters. It works amazingly well.

[alexmartinez]

I know that you always make a good reviews about productivity apps, please could you try sorted 3 and make a review a I really want to use this app but you always touch important points, good video btw