Daniel’s blog

When I was young I could remember everything. Never forgot anything. It was not even a consideration. At 51 years old now, however, it’s a very different situation.

I find myself forgetting things easily, even a shopping list I discussed with my wife before setting out for the shop, which is let’s than 5 minutes away. I’ll get home and my wife will ask me, “where’s the lettuce?” or whatever else I’ve forgotten.

Sometimes I’ll even forget that we spoke about it: “You didn’t tell me we needed lettuce!”…. that never ends well…

But it’s not only shopping items I’ll forget, but many other little tasks and things I wanted to do, ideas I might have had and so on.

It was really getting ridiculous so I decided I need to do something about this and get myself a to-do app. As you do, I did some web searches for the best to-do apps for iPhone and read through many reviews, checked out the websites of the various options and was amazed at how many capable to-do apps are available.

My personal criteria were the following:

• No app subscriptions
• Must be beautifully designed
• Must be intuitive to use
• It must have reminders
• It must have repeating options

After looking at all the top options there was one clear winner which met all these criteria and it turns out it was an app I’d had on my first iPhone, the 3G, back in 2008.

That app is Things 3 by Cultured Code, based in Germany.

The website is [culturedcode.com/things/](https://culturedcode.com/things/)

The other two “best to-do apps for iOS” were Todoist and Tick-Tick but those were way too much for my needs. They seem more like Professional Project Managers rather than Personal To-Do apps, and the pricing reflects that impression too. And they are subscription based.

Things however is a one-off payment per device. I paid €10 for the iPhone app and there is also an iPad app available for €23 as well as a Mac version for €60. If you were to buy all three it would set you back €93 but it would be a once-off purchase.

Some people will prefer a monthly subscription model so they can stop using it at anytime but the way I see it, if you seriously need a to-do app and use it properly, you’ll be using it for a long time to come. And a subscription will add up over time.

I like the flexibility of Things’ pricing because you only buy the app on the platform you need. And if it’s for personal use, most likely it’s the iPhone and/or iPad app you’ll be after. And that makes it a very good value proposition.

Things has won Apple Design awards and has been on iOS from roughly the beginning, so you know it’s not a fly-by-night company. They know what they are doing and both the methodology of the app as well as its design make it powerful and compelling to use, as well as easy and flexible.

I know I’ve banged on about this a bit much but you’ll be surprised at how many to-do apps exist just to collect a monthly subscription. And with vibe coding about to take off I think we can expect to see a deluge of subscription-based apps from thousands of people hoping to make a quick buck.

Cultured Code however are not vibe coders but well established Apple-specific Developers who know how to both code and design extremely well. Things has worked flawlessly for me from day 1 with zero issues. It’s rock solid and their website is a fantastic resource for any questions you might have on using the app.

For me it’s become my brain. I’ve trained myself to stop what I’m doing and capture a thought, task or idea I might have in the moment I think of it because I’ll guaranteed forget it later. And Things lends itself to that. You capture everything in the Inbox and you can leave it there for when you have time to assign it a date or you can do so right there in the Inbox.

I found it useful to sit down when I have time and look at the Inbox and set a date to complete an action for important stuff. However there are many things which don’t need a due date which you want to capture and do at some point. They are captured there for you to remember otherwise you’d forget.

Some things you may want to capture:

Personal goals you plan to implement at some point

Things you need to do around the house

Movie watchlist

Book reading list

Daily reminder to practice guitar

Monthly reminder to collect your meds

Annual car service

Annual tax return

Places you’d like visit

Blog posts you’d like to write

Planning an upcoming trip or event

Chapters for the book you plan to write

Literally anything

It’s really powerful to have somewhere safe to capture these things and it saves your brain having to remember everything. Even if you aren’t like me and do remember everything, writing them down can help you plan exactly when and how you would like to do things. That way they go from ideas and plans and turn into action.

I personally have become far more productive as a result. I actually get things done now and am doing things I would have forgotten to do otherwise. And that’s just my personal life. But I love that Things makes it easy and enjoyable to do these things. It feels like fun, not like a chore because you can keep as simple as you like, or complex if you need that.

I won’t delve into all the features, you’d be better served by taking a look at their equally gorgeous website to see everything. My goal was to encourage you to look into using an app like this because you’ll not forget stuff anymore, you’ll do more things that you enjoy and want to do, and just feel better overall.