the hit list and things
I originally posted this here, but based on its positive response I have decided to repost it here.
I recently purchased The Hit List, a to-do list management app for the Mac, through the MacHeist bundle. I have been using Things, another to-do list app, for a while now. I was drawn to Things by its visual appeal. The first time I used it, I ran into some user interface issues, but decided to live with them given its apparent simplicity.
After trying out Hit List, I am convinced that it is far superior. I did not know how much Things sucked until I started using The Hit List. The Hit List seems to have been modeled after people’s actual working habits, as opposed to arbitrary and fangled user interface decisions. Some of these problems I was fully aware of and annoyed by, others I did not even realize them until I used The Hit List.
Here are some of the reasons why I prefer The Hit List over Things:
1. In real life, the difference between a single task and a multi-step “project” is very tenuous. Having to manually “promote” a task into a project every time you want to specify more granular steps (like in Things) can get very annoying. Not to mention that one can have a long list of projects, cluttering up the side bar. In The Hit List, every task automatically has the ability to have sublists.
2. Despite tags and areas, tasks in Things tend to get cluttered up in the “Next” list, with no satisfying or effective way of organizing or sorting them. It turns into a jumbled and unorganized list. One can sort by tags, but it still feels messy. The Hit List provides folders and lists, which is a natural way to organize tasks.
3. “Areas of Responsibility” in The Hit List is treated like tags, as opposed to like folders in Things, which seems more intuitive to me.
4. One can “Cancel” tasks in The Hit List, one can only delete or complete tasks in Things.
5. Things archives completed tasks automatically, and pushes them all into a giant bucket (the logbook), which means you loose information about how they were sorted/organized. The Hit List only archives when you hit “Archive”, and keeps the archived task in the same place (you can hide or show archived tasks in lists).
6. Ability to set “Start” dates, which allows one to automatically have tasks move into “Today” when desired. In Things, you have to manually move tasks into Things.
7. Priority rating is treated separately from tags, which means your tags are not cluttered and messy like in Things.
8. When I first tried to create recurring tasks in Things, it literally took me hours to figure out how the settings work. This is very typical of Things – its visual simplicity is deceptive. I was able to schedule recurring tasks immediately in The Hit List.
9. The Hit List can sort tasks by all sorts of attributes. I don’t understand why Things doesn’t have this – another reason why the Next list in Things is so cluttered and messy.
The ONLY thing that will keep me using Things is the lack of iPhone sync for The Hit List. I know the developer said this is coming soon, but I can’t realistically use The Hit List unless I can have it on-the-go.
