Love Things 3 but need more than task lists?

Pricing checked against Things 3’s own pricing page on 2026-09-15. Vendors change prices; verify before deciding.

Why a dedicated to-do list stops working on its own

You check off tasks all morning, yet your day still feels scattered. That isn't a failure of willpower or discipline. It happens because tasks don't exist in a vacuum. Your energy depends on how well you slept, your afternoon focus depends on your calendar commitments, and your projects depend on what you can afford to spend.

When you isolate to-do lists from the rest of your life, you end up doing clerical work all day. You finish a workout and log it in one app. You tick off an errand in another. You balance your bank account in a third tab, and you scribble thoughts into a separate notebook. None of those tools talk to each other. You become the manual bridge between half a dozen interfaces, copying details back and forth just to decide what to tackle next.

That friction is why people outgrow pure task managers. A crisp list of unchecked boxes gives you a quick feeling of order, but it can't tell you that an upcoming project collides with your budget or that your output dropped because you ran short on sleep for three nights straight. You spend your attention updating software instead of making real progress.

Connecting tasks, money, habits, and your calendar

Plannr gathers your day into one private workspace. Instead of forcing you to link separate subscriptions, it handles your tasks, calendar views, kanban boards, habits, sleep, mood logs, linked notes, journal, goals, and a financial ledger with budgets and cash forecasting. Everything works from the same foundation, so you never re-enter information across different tools.

Capture works without friction because the system routes your thoughts automatically. Type a coffee purchase, and it logs an expense straight into your ledger. Type an appointment for the gym tomorrow morning, and it builds a calendar entry. You don't have to navigate menus, pick categories, or hunt through nested folders just to clear your head.

Once your information lives in Plannr, different parts of your routine update on their own. Recurring subscriptions post transactions directly to your ledger. Meal plans automatically generate your grocery shopping list. Your calendar entries sit right beside your daily priorities, keeping your schedule and tasks aligned.

Those connections pay off in our cross-hub insights. Plannr reads across your habits, spending, sleep, and tasks together. You can see how an erratic sleep schedule hurts your completion rate, or how spending patterns shift during demanding weeks. That context is impossible to see when your personal records are split across separate products.

Your data stays completely private. Plannr uses end-to-end encryption, runs zero ads, and never sells your data or uses it to train machine learning models. It works offline and syncs across all your devices. We built this strictly for individuals, so you won't find team workspaces, collaborator seats, or shared project permissions cluttering your screen. It is designed to serve you alone.

Where Things still holds the advantage

Things remains one of the finest pure task managers ever made. If you only want a task list, its craft is hard to top. Every interaction feels immediate, polished, and lightweight. It hooks directly into the Apple ecosystem with desktop shortcuts, home screen widgets, Apple Watch support, and rapid quick-entry that feels native.

Its payment model is equally refreshing. You buy it once, and you're done. There is no recurring fee, no upsell screen, and no ongoing subscription to worry about. If you work exclusively on Apple hardware and want software that stays completely out of your way, that single purchase is an honest, compelling offer.

The tradeoff is scope. Things is strictly a task manager. It won't track your habits, manage your budget, store your notes, or monitor your sleep. To cover those areas, you must buy and maintain separate apps. Because most modern software charges ongoing fees, buying other apps to fill those gaps quickly erases the savings of that one-time payment.

Choosing between a pure task list and Plannr

If you already have a journal you love, keep your finances in a spreadsheet, and only need a fast task checklist on Apple devices, buy Things. It handles that job with remarkable grace. There's no reason to dismantle a personal setup that already works for you.

If you're tired of switching between disconnected apps just to understand your day, try Plannr. You get your daily plans, finances, habits, and schedule in one cohesive system without managing multiple accounts and passwords. Take a look at the pricing page to review the plans and start your trial. Put your routine into Plannr, and see what happens when your day actually connects.