I downloaded a $50 app to organize my entire life — here's what it's like to use

things 3

Thousands of disparate thoughts fly through our heads every single minute of the day.

"I need to do laundry this week."

"I have a big project coming up for work, I should spend some time on that."

"I should make tacos for dinner tonight."

"Oh, I forgot to call my mom yesterday."

There are plenty of apps to categorize your various to-dos, but there aren't many apps that can help categorize your whole life: including your to-dos, but also your random thoughts, ideas, projects, and areas of your life, like work, friends, and family.

Things 3, from the Germany-based software startup Cultured Code, is a 2017 Apple Design award-winning app for organizing your life that's both simple and robust. It works across Apple devices only right now (sorry Android and PC users), but if you have at least one-Apple made product it's probably worth your consideration.

Thanks to Cultured Code, which provided me with review codes to try Things 3 on my Apple devices, I can confidently say that Things 3 is remarkable organization tool. It's great for jotting down quick thoughts that come along, but it's really best for tackling more complex projects — like planning vacations, learning a new language, and especially prioritizing your various work tasks.

I've spent a few months importing my entire life into Things 3 — here's what it's like to use the app, and why you should consider buying it:

First thing's 😉first: Let's talk about price.

Things 3 can sync all your information across your various Apple devices, but you still need to buy the app for each device. Things 3 works the same way across all platforms, but Cultured Code put a lot of thought into designing each interface specifically for each device.

So, Things 3 costs $10 on the iPhone, $20 on the iPad, and $50 on the Mac.

Mac users also get a free 15-day free trial, so you can see if you actually like Things 3 before dropping a 50-bomb.

My advice: Consider which devices you use the most, and go from there. Personally, I use my iPhone and MacBook more often than my iPad, so if you're like me, I would highly recommend getting Things 3 for those two devices at least — to keep yourself organized while at work or on the go. But if you love your iPad, Things 3 works great there, too.

Here's a look at what my Things 3 looks like on my Mac. The left sidebar shows how Things 3 organizes all your information, and the folders at the bottom are divisions that I created myself, for Life, Work, and Projects.

The main part of the screen shows my Inbox, which has nothing in it at the moment.

The Inbox tab is where you can create tasks with unassigned due dates. Drop in any free thoughts you have lying around and organize them later.

A nice bonus: With a single button press, you can also import all of your calendar events and reminders if you use Apple's Calendar and Reminders apps, respectively, which is a very nice feature.