Your Things 3 Projects setup

Tooth-saw

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I'am using Things 3 for my GTD setup (todo, projects, waiting for, recurring). Works great but I'am having trouble getting my 'Projects' in order and overview my next actions. Can you share your Things 3 'Projects' setup for inspiration?
 

nickmay

Learning and practicing, and then practicing more
A lot of people use a lot of different tools, so it may be awhile for someone who uses Things 3 specifically comes along. What troubles are you having? How long have you been using GTD? Is it just a software issue of getting your projects list and your Next Actions to display? Could you share a screenshot of what issues you're having? (No promises I can fix anything)
 

mcogilvie

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I'am using Things 3 for my GTD setup (todo, projects, waiting for, recurring). Works great but I'am having trouble getting my 'Projects' in order and overview my next actions. Can you share your Things 3 'Projects' setup for inspiration?
I do use Things but there are many ways to use it for GTD. I’m in the middle of simplifying my setup, so right now work and personal are set up a bit differently. The important thing is how you think you should set it up, and whether that way works for you. So please tell us how you’ve got Things set up, what’s going wrong, and what’s right.
 

FocusGuy

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@Tooth-saw There are 2 way of setting things for GTD
One is to set project as context eg create projects as @Call, @Computer then use tags as project name. This is the << classical way >> does. Buy the gtd set up from DAC which is great for this. The secont way is to make areas (or not) eg folders and then creat projects. You may have professionnal and personnal at the beginning and use tags as contexts. So you tag only but the next action. It was my way and the classical set up. It is more convenient whan you have many projects and many datas. Hope that's answer to the question and helps.
 
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MichaelB212

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Hi @Tooth-saw! I have been using Things 3 since 2018 and have experimented with different ways of setting it up. To @FocusGuy‘s point, the ”GTD Classic” setup as outlined in the fantastic Things 3 Setup Guide from DAC is an excellent option for using things in the traditional GTD way (i.e. utilizing ”Projects” in Things as next actions lists based on Contexts). For me, I found that Things’ built-in way of organizing projects and tasks by Area meshes with how my brain naturally wants to categorize things. So I have had success with that set up for a while now. Below is a screen shot of my current setup if it helps. Remember, there is no “right” way to set up your system except the way that works for you. But I, too, find inspiration from observing others’ implementations so take or leave whatever helps you.

I‘ve created 8 Areas (Work, Development, Finances, Health, Home, Leisure, Relationships, and Travel) that house my projects and next actions. If I have a project related to an area, I’ll create that project within the area and ensure that it has at least one next action and/or waiting for. Otherwise, the project gets set to Someday until I am ready to activate it again — this keeps my sidebar from getting too crowded. For the record, I will not always have current projects for every area but there may be several single actions within the area itself. I’ll use Tags for contexts and the ones I currently use are Agendas, At Computer, At Home, At Office, At Phone, Errands, Read/Review and Waiting For.

Peter Akkies (peterakkies.net) has a very good Things 3 training course. He also posts free content on YouTube which is a great place to start if you’re interested in working with Culture Code’s suggested setup.

Let me know if you have any questions and how your setup is coming along!

Also, shout out to @mcogilvie for the awesome suggestion on handling my remote workshop facilitation projects using start/due dates which has been working out terrifically!
 

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Dmitry Kultaev

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CAD5C393-2CC8-4B3D-8EBF-F00C66BEFF77.jpegI'am using Things 3 for my GTD setup (todo, projects, waiting for, recurring). Works great but I'am having trouble getting my 'Projects' in order and overview my next actions. Can you share your Things 3 'Projects' setup for inspiration?
I started from using Things Projects functionality as Projects and tags for contexts. But as volume grows I found 2 main issues:
1) Too much clicking assigning both project and contexts tag to actions
2) getting overview of contexts actions, e. g. to filter calls I needed to select both actions list and filter

All those created “mental tool barrier” for day to day usage. Then I tried classic setup described by Kelly to use Things projects for lists > and surprisingly it works really well so far. I was skeptical not having “tool link” of next action to project, but simplicity and speed of use simple lists with fast search overcome that fully. Here’s snapshot of my project buckets.

I keep few tags like finance and health, but their current number never goes above 5-6.
 

theberg

Registered
Hello !

I’m pretty new to the GTD system and I’m currently reading DA’s book.

By the way I’ve also read the GTD Setup guide for things 3.

In things 3 if you create a “project” you can add “activities”. For each activity you have the possibility to:
- add a textual note
- add a bullet list

In the things 3 setup guide it’s suggested to add projects as things 3 activities inside a things 3 project called “Projects”.
Then one can use the note/bullet list for the given project plan/support BUT NOT for current next actions or waiting for which need to be tracked under the proper context list.

If one has to create a next action related to a project it assigns the same tag both to the project and to the next action, and then has to place the next action inside the proper context.

So, it’s not clear to me why bothering using the bullet-list at all since I have to create the next actions in other places.

Can someone clarify better on that ? It seems the projects are just placeholder.

Thanks

F.
 

mcogilvie

Registered
Hello !

I’m pretty new to the GTD system and I’m currently reading DA’s book.

By the way I’ve also read the GTD Setup guide for things 3.

In things 3 if you create a “project” you can add “activities”. For each activity you have the possibility to:
- add a textual note
- add a bullet list

In the things 3 setup guide it’s suggested to add projects as things 3 activities inside a things 3 project called “Projects”.
Then one can use the note/bullet list for the given project plan/support BUT NOT for current next actions or waiting for which need to be tracked under the proper context list.

If one has to create a next action related to a project it assigns the same tag both to the project and to the next action, and then has to place the next action inside the proper context.

HeSo, it’s not clear to me why bothering using the bullet-list at all since I have to create the next actions in other places.

Can someone clarify better on that ? It seems the projects are just placeholder.

Thanks

F.
The idea is that possible future actions can be stored with the project as project support. You can also store information with the project. This is a bit clumsy, but it does give a clean next actions list, organized by context. I’ve used this set-up, and it’s workable, but I no longer use it. Currently, I use Things pretty much the way Cultured Code recommends, which is close to the “alternative set-up” in the GTD guide.
 

theberg

Registered
The idea is that possible future actions can be stored with the project as project support. You can also store information with the project. This is a bit clumsy, but it does give a clean next actions list, organized by context. I’ve used this set-up, and it’s workable, but I no longer use it. Currently, I use Things pretty much the way Cultured Code recommends, which is close to the “alternative set-up” in the GTD guide.
Hey !

thanks, for your input ! What do you mean by “the way cultured code recommends” ? Could you please point me to any document/website related to that ?

thanks again

f
 

FocusGuy

Registered
@theberg
I don't use things 3 anymore. I use Omnifocus. But I know it by heart and made many configuration with it.
As I explained before Things has 2 setting for GTD

#1 is to use project as contexts. That's DA setting.
So you have a project list containing actions which are in fact project
and you have project ordered as context such @Call, @Computer and so on.

You use sublist in each project to follow your action and when they are ready they go on each context

The trouble with this way of doing is that there is no link between the project itself and it very next action. You can tweak that using tags but I feel it very uncomfortable

#2 is the second way
You use areas and then but inside projects as project and inside each project you can use headings ands sublist.
It is much better because Things is made for that way. You then use tags as context @call and so on.
I prefer that way of making it. Why ? because you can drop in your areas (H2) task and projects.
Things works perfectly that way. The weekly review is easy and you have an automation for this which makes side by side your calendar and things.

I indeed think Things 3 is an elegant system for GTD. It is beautiful. I quit it for omnifocus because OF is much more powerful than many software including things. It has subfolders, it is able to manage a tons of datas, it security is just incredible. But it takes time to understand. Understand perspectives and so on...
Also when you type inside OF there is a special effect. It is addictive. I just can't explain why.

Anyway I love OF (but I hated it before) and I still like things, I would use if OF doesn't exist.
 
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Zenminimalismo

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For my Projects, I group 'em by areas of my life (like "Work," "Personal," "Hobbies"). Within each, I break it down further. For next actions, I always tag 'em and review daily. Helps me stay on track.
 

mcogilvie

Registered
For my Projects, I group 'em by areas of my life (like "Work," "Personal," "Hobbies"). Within each, I break it down further. For next actions, I always tag 'em and review daily. Helps me stay on track.
One of the things I did which made everything a lot easier in Things was to reduce the number of Areas I use in Things to four: Work, Us, Me, Everyone. I have around 10 Areas of Focus (level 2), so for example Us (my wife & I) includes travel. household, and finances. I also push projects into the future, either someday/maybe or a later scheduled start. Much easier to see what I’ve said “Yes, Now” to, and to spot things that need some TLC.
 

FocusGuy

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I don't like the way DA does for following project.
With headings and check list Things the way projects works in things 3 is much better than many software.
There is a Third way I discovered of setting things

Put contextes at the top like DA proposed
Then areas contening projects as it is usually set by cultured code
and use tags for linking the next action to the project
Then you have the best of the 2 worlds
I found it
Faster than using tags for context
Intuitive
It makes the following of project easier.
 

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mcogilvie

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Put contextes at the top like DA proposed
Then areas contening projects as it is usually set by cultured code
and use tags for linking the next action to the project
Then you have the best of the 2 worlds
I found it
Faster than using tags for context
Intuitive
It makes the following of project easier.
Do you mean that each project has a tag applied to next actions? Or that projects and next actions get area tags? Or something else?
 

FocusGuy

Registered
Do you mean that each project has a tag applied to next actions? Or that projects and next actions get area tags? Or something else?
The very next action goes into the context list eg Call + There is a tag about the project eg Project x
Project x has headings, reference material, notes, check list...
 

FocusGuy

Registered
If I compare the way I work with Omnifocus and Things 3 there is no real difference. It is really a question of feeling.

However there are some core differences :
- Things is better for organizing stuff into project planning and doing stuff and very friendly on daily use.
- Omnifocus is better for managing datas and Context list are easier for GTD. Omnifocus needs more effort to maintain but is indeed more powerful thanks to its perspective eg Getting a project list sort alphabetically, see all what was created today or yesterday or even before... See a list of all done items and when... It is more complicated than things but it is also more professional.

Things is an incredible software very well thought and intuitive too. If you make it simple it is very easy to maintain.

I still have a problem about using and making widget. It seems to be possible to make some automation which could make what I made with OF

However, I really can't move to Things. Omnifocus is really great for my use even if it is sometime cumbersome and non intuitive...
 
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Brenaud10

Registered
If I compare the way I work with Omnifocus and Things 3 there is no real difference. It is really a question of feeling.

However there are some core differences :
- Things is better for organizing stuff into project planning and doing stuff and very friendly on daily use.
- Omnifocus is better for managing datas and Context list are easier for GTD. Omnifocus needs more effort to maintain but is indeed more powerful thanks to its perspective eg Getting a project list sort alphabetically, see all what was created today or yesterday or even before... See a list of all done items and when... It is more complicated than things but it is also more professional.

Things is an incredible software very well thought and intuitive too. If you make it simple it is very easy to maintain.

I still have a problem about using and making widget. It seems to be possible to make some automation which could make what I made with OF

However, I really can't move to Things. Omnifocus is really great for my use even if it is sometime cumbersome and non intuitive...
I’m frustrated by the way Things displays your tags/contexts on mobile. I like the fact that OmniFocus has perspectives that allow for a context list without having to take so many steps. I know these lists are contained within things and Todoist for example, but it’s the hassle of digging for them.
 

mcogilvie

Registered
I’m frustrated by the way Things displays your tags/contexts on mobile. I like the fact that OmniFocus has perspectives that allow for a context list without having to take so many steps. I know these lists are contained within things and Todoist for example, but it’s the hassle of digging for them.
I think most people would like to see tags on at least iPad, but it hasn’t happened. I keep checking on the Omnifocus 4 beta, but so far I don’t feel much attraction. Although filtering by tag (context) only takes 3 taps in Things, it somehow seems like a lot of work. So we have choices, but not perfect ones.
 
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