A Things 3 alternative for when the task lives in the note.
Updated
Things is one of the best task managers on Apple devices, and I am writing about leaving it. So here is what it does better than I do.
Things has Areas, Projects, and headings inside a project. It has Today, This Evening, Upcoming, and Someday, drawn with more care than anything else I have used. It has an Apple Watch app. It is bought once per platform, with no subscription. Its notes field takes Markdown now, and it can search them. If your work is a long list of tasks that you arrange and rearrange, stay.
Where the notes go
Things puts a notes field on a task. The task is the object and the note hangs off it.
Mine run the other way. I am writing a note about a supplier call, and halfway down it a task appears. The note is the object. The task is a sentence in the middle of it.
To use Things I copy the sentence into a new task and paste the paragraph into its notes field, so the task can carry its context. That is a second copy of what I just wrote. The note still has the line, undone, and the task has the same line, undone, and I tick one of them.
A notes field is also a small window. Context for a task is usually a page.
What Remlo does instead
Type a checkbox in any note. That line is a to-do and it shows on the To-dos page with every other one, next to a link back to the note it came from.
Tick it in the note or on the page. It is one to-do in two places, so it is done in both.
A slash command schedules it for today, tomorrow, or a date you pick. A to-do carries a due date for when it must be finished, a scheduled date for when you mean to do it, and a someday flag for neither. Whatever is scheduled or due shows up in Today.
The To-dos page has a list and a board. The board’s stages are yours to name, which is the one place Remlo is ahead of Things on structure: Things is a list, and some of my work sits in waiting or review.
Remlo makes a page for every day, so there is somewhere to type before I know whether the thing is a task.
What you give up
Areas, projects with headings, and the Evening list. A Remlo project is a page that collects the days that mentioned it, which is looser.
The Apple Watch app.
Recurring tasks written as a repeat rule.
A purchase you make once and forget. Remlo is a yearly subscription, with a lifetime option.
Years of polish. Things is mature. Remlo is new.
Who should switch
The person who keeps Things for tasks and another app for notes, and spends the day carrying sentences between them. The person whose Things notes fields are getting long.
If you open Things, add a task, and close it, and your notes are somewhere else on purpose, you do not need Remlo. The side-by-side is on the Remlo vs Things page.
Remlo is native on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, works offline, and syncs through your iCloud. It costs $19.99 a year with seven days free, or $149 once.
Things asks me to move the task to the note. I would rather the task stayed where I wrote it.
Common questions
Is Remlo a replacement for Things 3?
For one person on Apple devices who writes tasks inside notes, yes. If you want a focused task manager with an Apple Watch app and years of polish, Things is the better choice.
Does Remlo have Areas and Projects like Things?
No. A project in Remlo is a page, and the notes and to-dos that mention it link to that page. There are no Areas, no headings inside a project, and no Evening list.
Is Remlo a one-time purchase like Things?
Not only. Things is bought once per platform. Remlo is $19.99 a year with seven days free, or $149 once, and one purchase covers Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Does Remlo have an Apple Watch app?
No. Remlo runs on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Can I import my Things to-dos?
There is no importer. The tasks you still mean are quickest to retype as checkboxes on a page.
Give your mind one place.
Remlo is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and on the Mac App Store. One purchase covers all your Apple devices, with 7 days free to start.
