Things 3 Keyboard Shortcuts
Things 3 was designed by a small team that clearly cares deeply about keyboard-driven workflows, and it shows — nearly every organizational concept in the app (moving a to-do to Today, scheduling it, assigning it to a project) has a single-letter shortcut, reflecting the GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology's emphasis on rapid, low-friction capture and triage. The single most important shortcut system-wide is Quick Entry, a globally available capture window that works from any application, letting you jot a to-do without switching context away from whatever you're currently doing. Being Mac/iOS-only, all shortcuts here use Cmd as the base modifier with no Windows equivalent, since Things has never been ported to Windows. This page is aimed at people already using or evaluating Things specifically because of its GTD lineage, rather than as a generic to-do list — the scheduling versus deadline distinction, the Someday holding area, and the numbered jump-to-list shortcuts all reflect deliberate GTD design choices that are worth understanding conceptually, not just memorizing as arbitrary key combinations. If you're new to GTD as a methodology, it's worth reading a little about the underlying philosophy before trying to memorize every shortcut here, since several of them (Someday, deadlines versus scheduled dates) only make full sense once you understand the workflow they're built to support.
Capture Entry
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Quick Entry (global) | — | Ctrl+Space (system-wide, configurable) | Pops open a small floating capture panel over whatever app you're currently in, so a new to-do gets written down in seconds without pulling you away from the actual work you were doing. |
| Create new to-do | — | Cmd+N | Creates a new to-do item within the currently open list, ready for immediate typing. |
| Create new project | — | Cmd+Shift+N | Creates a new project, Things' higher-level container for grouping related to-dos, distinct from a simple to-do item and capable of holding headings and sub-tasks. |
| Quick Find | — | Cmd+F | Opens a fast search overlay for jumping to any to-do, project, or area by typing part of its title, similar in spirit to a command palette. |
| Add a heading within a project | — | Cmd+Shift+H | Inserts a heading inside the currently open project, letting you visually group related to-dos into sub-sections, such as separating a renovation project's to-dos into 'Permits,' 'Materials,' and 'Contractors' headings. |
Organizing
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move selected to-do to Today | — | Cmd+T | Schedules the selected to-do for Today, moving it into the Today list regardless of which list it currently lives in. |
| Move selected to-do to Someday | — | Cmd+Shift+S | Moves the selected to-do to Someday, Things' holding area for items with no immediate deadline or scheduled date, keeping them out of active lists without deleting them. |
| Open 'When' scheduling picker | — | Cmd+Shift+D | Opens the date/scheduling picker for the selected to-do, letting you assign a specific start date beyond the default Today/This Evening/Someday buckets. |
| Set deadline | — | Cmd+Shift+L | Assigns a deadline to the selected to-do, a distinct concept from a scheduled start date — deadlines display in red as they approach and represent a hard due date rather than just when you plan to start working on something. |
| Add tags to selected to-do | — | Cmd+Shift+T | Opens the tag picker for the selected to-do, letting you attach one or more tags for filtering later, such as an energy-level or context tag ('Errand,' 'Calls'), a common GTD contextual-tagging habit for filtering what's actionable in a given situation. |
Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark to-do complete | — | Cmd+Return | Marks the currently selected to-do as completed, moving it to the Logbook, without needing to click its checkbox directly. |
| Go to Today list | — | Cmd+1 | Jumps directly to the Today list, one of several numbered shortcuts (Cmd+1 through roughly Cmd+7) for jumping straight to each of Things' core built-in lists — Inbox, Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday, and Logbook. |
| Go to Inbox | — | Cmd+2 | Jumps to the Inbox, where new to-dos land by default before being triaged into projects, areas, or scheduled dates. |
| Go to Logbook | — | Cmd+6 (varies by sidebar order) | Jumps to the Logbook, the archive of every to-do you've marked complete, organized by completion date, useful for reviewing what you actually accomplished over a given period rather than just what's still pending. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Quick Entry work even when Things isn't the active application?
Quick Entry is registered as a system-wide global hotkey rather than an in-app shortcut, meaning macOS itself listens for the key combination regardless of which app currently has focus, similar to how screenshot shortcuts work system-wide. This is deliberate, since GTD-style capture is meant to interrupt whatever you're doing for the shortest possible moment rather than requiring an app switch.
What's the actual difference between a scheduled date and a deadline?
A scheduled date (set via the When picker) represents when you intend to start or work on a to-do, and determines which list it appears in — Today, a specific future date under Upcoming, or Someday. A deadline is a separate, optional hard due date that displays with red urgency styling as it approaches, independent of whatever list the to-do currently sits in; a to-do can have a deadline weeks away while still being scheduled for Today because you're starting work on it now.
Why do the numbered list-jump shortcuts sometimes not match what I expect?
The Cmd+number shortcuts map to Things' built-in list sidebar in a fixed top-to-bottom order (Inbox, Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday, Logbook, Trash), so if your sidebar's visible items differ due to hidden lists or custom areas pinned above them, the number-to-list mapping can shift slightly from what long-time users of the exact same list order remember.
What's a practical example of using tags versus just organizing by project?
Projects group to-dos by outcome or deliverable — 'Kitchen Renovation' or 'Q3 Report' — while tags cut across projects by context, letting you filter for, say, every to-do tagged 'Phone Call' regardless of which project it belongs to, so you can batch all your calls together in one sitting rather than jumping between unrelated projects to find every task that happens to require the same type of action.
Does adding a heading inside a project create a separate list, or just a visual grouping?
A heading is purely an organizational label within a single project, not a separate list or container with its own independent settings — to-dos underneath it still belong to the same overall project and inherit its scheduling and area, the heading just visually breaks the project's to-do list into labeled sections for easier scanning.
Does Things 3 have a shortcut for scheduling a task to a specific date rather than just Today or Someday?
Yes — Ctrl+S (Cmd+S) opens the scheduling popover for the selected task, where typing a specific date, or a relative phrase like 'next Tuesday,' schedules it precisely, going beyond the simpler Today/This Evening/Someday quick-schedule buttons for when you need an exact date rather than a general bucket.