I get things that I need to get done using Things.
One of the features that Things lacks natively is the ability to link to-dos together.
What would linking to-dos allow? The ability to link related to-dos, put together sequences across to-dos and references.
It was by chance that I stumbled on a way to tie to-dos together to form a link. This is by utilitizing Things’ URL scheme.
What is a URL scheme?
You might already be familiar with URL schemes that start with https:// or ftp://. In macOS and iOS there’s a way to create app-specific URL schemes, that when clicked on, interacts with the app in a specific context.
Things has a its own URL scheme which allows you to do all sorts of neat things such as creating a new to-do, adding projects and more.
What it looks like is this,
things:///add?title=Sleep%20early
Linking together to-dos using Things’ URL scheme on macOS
Let’s start with creating a to-do in the Inbox.
I’ll then create another to-do, I’d like to create the link with.
After creating the second to-do, I can right click on the to-do to pull up the context menu. Once, the menu is up, if I go down to the Share option it expands out additional options.
One of those options is Copy Link. Clicking on this will copy the link of the to-do item to your Mac’s clipboard.
I can then paste that link into the notes section of the first to-do and now the first to-do is “linked” to the second one.
Let’s say I move my first to-do to Today. When I complete the to-do. I can expand the to-do and click on the link.
This will take me directly to the folder in which the second to-do is currently in—Inbox.
Now, I’m ready to work on the second to-do and I can schedule the task to get done Today.
How to get Things to-do links on iOS
The neat thing about Things’ to-do links is that it is device agnostic. Meaning if you’re like me and use Things on the Mac, iPhone and iPad and sync using Things Cloud, the linked to-dos will still work no matter which device you use.
Here’s how to get to-do links on iOS.
First, swipe left on the to-do you’d like the link for.
This will cause the toolbar to pop-up.
Select the ellipsis ... on the bottom right hand side which will pull up a menu with more options.
One of those options will be the Share option which is the last option on the menu. This will pull up iOS’ share sheet.
On the share sheet, you should see an option to Copy Link.
Selecting the Copy Link option will copy the to-do’s unique Things link. You can now use it to link a different to-do back to this one.