I use Things to manage my TODOs, and ensure that they surface when I need them, when there’s some chance of making progress on them, or when I better know what I need to know to schedule them.

Lately I haven’t been making good use of Things, because I had one week where my whole plan obsoleted by events, and I didn’t have time to go back through and adjust. I feel a second wind coming on though, and in fact, there’s a task in there now to "Make Things work for me".

As explained in What’s Best Next, I really need to pick a day of the week on which I go through my outstanding tasks and schedule them for days of the week, a "week planning session". Then I imagine that as new tasks enter my system, I can safely schedule all tasks that should be done soon to resurface on that day, and all other tasks don’t need to be scheduled at all (because I revisit them frequently anyway), but rather categoried for later consideration.

I also need to decide that "Things runs it all", and consult it frequently to know what comes next. This will validate the system, inculcate the habit, and ensure that my weekly scheduling work is actually valuable. I should make it a habit to complete all of the tasks in Today every day, or else reschedule them.

Lastly, I should ensure that my filing and categorization system in Things makes sense, and that I know when to peek in each box. I currently use Things as if the categories didn’t exist (like a flat list of tasks except for the schduling system), but it has support for Projects, Areas of Responsibilitiy, and tags, each of which can help me with different ways of knowing what to do and when once I have a weekly planning ritual in place.