[whpalmer4]

I think everyone has a differing ability to focus at times, and that it probably doesn't have a whole lot to do with the application, any application. I spend a lot of time working with kids in my son's first grade class, and they seem a lot like a lot of adults I encounter -- possessed of the attention span of a squirrel on crack at some times, and insanely focused at others. That ability to focus seems to vary quite a bit with the desire to actually get some work done, too.

I don't find Jem's request to be all that strange. I remember postings from someone who had difficulty concentrating if the sidebar list showed any contexts other than the ones he was actively using at the moment. There are plenty of people walking around who can't resist tinkering if there's something to tinker with, especially if the alternative is doing something that isn't nearly as interesting. Some of us get caught up in a desire to polish things that just don't really need to be polished, too. For example, I wrote some applescript the other day to look at projects where I had no more actions to complete and set the completion date of the project to the precise date and time of the most recently completed action in the project. Why did I do that? Beats me, I rarely even look at the completion date! It sure seemed important at the time, though :-) You can say "well, if OmniFocus was a simpler program, you wouldn't have those opportunities for distraction" and to some extent you would be correct, but I actively use most of OmniFocus' complexity, so that wouldn't be attractive, and even a seemingly simple program such as TextEdit actually has a bunch of cool stuff to play with, and I could easily waste a few hours exploring it in some detail. If Jem has figured out that a personal secret to success is to minimize the time spent in the presence of distractions, good for Jem! The notion that "I don't get to spend any time playing with OmniFocus until I complete these tasks" might even be a spur to productivity...

Some of us do well working or studying at the library because it is nice and quiet and there are thousands of books there to consult if needed. Others of us find it difficult or impossible to work there because there are thousands of books there in addition to the one we need to read, and the temptation to investigate them is hard to resist. Does that make the library somehow flawed? No, it just means that we might be better off grabbing the books we need for the next week and studying elsewhere.