Wunderlist 2 vs Things 2.0 the final review on which is better
Many will tell you that I'm always trying new time management systems and as such I have tried just about all the GTD / Task apps out there and the two that I just keep coming back to are Things and Wunderlist. Both have their pros and cons but I think I've finally settled on one (well this week anyway!), so I thought I would give you my review on Wunderlist vs Things and which I think is better.
Things 2.0Cultured Code's Things has been a favourite of many for years now although it's had it's fair share of criticism over the last few years for it's lack of updates and no over the air syncing. I'm happy to say that with their release of 2.0 Things is now fully featured and quite a force to be reckoned with!
Things' stand out feature has been it's beautiful design and simplicity hiding some quite advanced features if you wished to use them. With the release of 2.0, Things now syncs over the air keeping your iPad, iPhone and Mac versions in sync and has implemented an ingenious way of using Siri to add tasks to the Things Inbox.
Things revolves around some basic lists:
Inbox - to collect all your stuff Today - for all the stuff you've marked you need to do today Next - to see all your next action in one list Scheduled - For all your scheduled and repeating tasks Someday - For all those things you you can't get to quite yet Projects - For all your tasks that have more than 1 step involved to complete them
These lists fit in nicely if your a decipal of GTD especially if you use tags as your contexts but can also be as simple as you wish. I especially loved the ability to use Siri to collect tasks into my inbox, it made it fun and easy to use.
I've been coming back to Things time and time again as I really love it's design and Siri integration but I always come unstuck as - for me, there are just to many options - Lists, Tags, Areas, Projects. I've found myself spending more time organising my tasks than actually doing them. It's the little things (no pun intended) thats seem to trip me up and the inconsistancies between the apps on the different platforms.
For example if I have a lot of projects, I can see the next item of each project in the "Next List" but there is no way to know if I haven't set a next item in a particular project as the "Next List" will only show projects with a next item, this gets even worse on the iPad as the project view shows you a bunch of folders but won't show how many tasks are within them - the end result being that I'm constantly doubting if I've updated my projects and have to keep jumping around views.
Things also doesn't allow me to share my tasks or lists with my wife which means we're living in two apps - Apple's Reminders and Things.
One of the major barriers for people though has been the price $50 for Mac App, $20 for the iPad App and $10 for the iPhone App
Things works beautifully for many people but for me I just find my self overcomplicating the system and as such I end up missing important stuff I need to do.
http://youtu.be/NVruDH16tRc
Wunderlist 26Wunderkinder's Wunderlist 2 has just been released and after a long hiatus I'm back and loving it!
6Wunderkinder wooed the productivity community with the original Wunderlist due to it's elegant design, super simple UI and massive multi platform support but it did lack some features such as subtasks and because of the way the original was created it never took advantage of all the features of the particualar platform it was on. Well that's all a thing of the past!
Wunderlist 2 has been designed from the ground up and now has native apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac and Web that all sync seamlessly over the cloud for free!
The striking simplicity of Wunderlist 2 is it's biggest strength, apart from an "Inbox", what lists you compose are up to you. Simply create a list and start populating it with all the tasks you need to achieve. You can set recurring tasks, local reminders or even subtasks which I have been using quite a bit.
You can also select different views including:
Today - for items due today Starred - for items that you have marked with a star All - to show all your tasks in one view Completed - for completed items
It's the "All" view that has made this my killer app, I can simply label any Mini Projects I have as a task and just add sub tasks so at a glance I can see anything I need to be working on.
Of course for things like "Bali Holiday" I can just set up a new list if I choose but this is the beauty of Wunderlist 2, you can use it how you want. Other features of note are the ability to share lists and it's activity centre so you can keep a tab on what's happening in your shared lists.
For me (for now anyway) I can finally answer the question of which is better Wunderlist 2 or Things 2.0 - Wunderlist 2 hands down!
http://youtu.be/PhYruJX4ek8