In my daily workflow I have found that when using different tools and systems with each other removing friction can be key. This is not a original insight or even a leap of the imagination but I do find myself eliminating friction in workflows in new ways. One of those ways I recently Implemented is to use Alfred on the Mac to quickly jump to lists or filter in my preferred ToDo app Things3.

This is how it works

Things3 URL Scheme

You can easily create custom URL schemes using the Things3 URL Scheme Creator . Using the things/// will tell you macOS or iOS device to use the Things app to open the action. Some examples of Query’s I use on the daily:

• things:///show?id=inbox To show the Inbox
• things:///show?query=WORK%20-%20JIRA To show the list WORK - JIRA from Things
• things:///show?id=today&filter=WORK To show ToDo’s that are scheduled for Today with the tag WORK

You can add these URL’s to any place that allows links so you can even add links from .md documents or text documents to refer to projects which can be a great workflow.

Alfred open URL Action

Opening URL’s with Alfred is easy using a custom workflow. To focus the app and make sure it’s running I include the open app action in my workflow.

I use the - sign as a prefix to trigger the workflow. Using the list filter you can add Query’s to the workflow:

Putting it together

A simple workflow get’s a simple demo, this is how mine works. When the Keyword - is activated it pop’s up a list of all my saved search query’s. Choosing one of these will open Things3 to that list