Copy Things 3 to Calendar

This is a simple Shortcut I made to copy tasks in Things 3 to a Calendar in Apple Calendar.

Designed for only one-way copy, this helps visualize tasks in Things 3 alongside other events. At some point I’ll work on a 2 way sync, but for now this Shortcut will take all the tasks from “today” onwards and copy them to the chosen Calendar.

This is how it works:

• From today onwards…
• To 3 months out (this can be changed)…
• In the calendar named Things (this can be changed)…
• Find items copied from Things 3 prior and delete them
• Add new items from this timeframe from Things 3 to the calendar named Things

Before you begin…

Get the most out of this Shortcut

Allowing Shortcuts to delete large amounts of data

Because of the way this Shortcut was made, it will delete and re-add calendar events. I’ll improve this at some point, but for now this means that Shortcuts will pop up a warning every time it’s run.

Follow the instructions here to fix this:

• Open the Settings app
• Go to Apps
• Find the Shortcuts entry and navigate into it
• Navigate to “Advanced”
• Enable these two options:
  • “Allow Deleting Without Confirmation”
  • “Allow Deleting Large Amounts of Data”
• Run the Shortcut again and confirm with “Always delete”

Set up an Automation

I’d suggest setting this up so the Shortcut runs every time Things 3 is closed. That way, your Calendar is always fresh when you go to view it. To do this, follow these instructions:

• Open up the Shortcuts app
• Go to the “Automation” tab
• Create a new automation by clicking the ➕ icon, and scroll down to select “App”
• Under “App,” click “Choose” and then find Things.
• Unselect “Is Opened” and select “Is Closed”
• Choose “Run Immediately”
• Tap on “Next”
• Find the Shortcut by searching for “Copy Things 3 to Calendar”
• Do this on each device you use Things 3 on

Version History