As I'm testing this app and deciding whether or not to make the switch from iGTD, one issue that is persistently troubling me is OmniFocus’ approach to task notes. If I clip an email into OF, it shows as a task with no display of the note. If I want to see the content of the email or the link to it, I have to click on the tiny Note icon in the right corner of the line. Then everything is beautifully displayed, but within the task list display.
I’m not arguing this was a good or bad design decision. I can see why some would prefer this paradigm. But I've grown accustomed to the iGTD paradigm of a separate Notes display under the task list, and that as soon as a task is highlighted in the task list, any notes are auto displayed along with any links. For me, a great many of my tasks come from emails. I’d say, conservatively, at least a third. I find myself constantly looking at a task in OF and thinking “is this an email based task? Do I have notes I need to see for this?” then I click on the Note icon, and sometimes I get notes, sometimes I find it’s a task without notes.
For MY workflow (again, I'm not trying to impugn the app), this is highly inefficient. Takes me much longer to really view all I need to see about a task, and then when I do view notes, having them display within the task list now ‘crowds out’ the other tasks in the list, pushing them off the display.
The more I use OF, the less I like this behavior. This alone might be enough to keep me with iGTD, frankly. I know some would hate it but I'd far prefer to display notes automatically in a separate pane along with any links to files, emails or websites and not have to hit a small greyed out icon to see what I need to see. This paradigm seems, to me, to underemphasize the importance of what Notes can mean to a task.
Just my two cents.
I’m not arguing this was a good or bad design decision. I can see why some would prefer this paradigm. But I've grown accustomed to the iGTD paradigm of a separate Notes display under the task list, and that as soon as a task is highlighted in the task list, any notes are auto displayed along with any links. For me, a great many of my tasks come from emails. I’d say, conservatively, at least a third. I find myself constantly looking at a task in OF and thinking “is this an email based task? Do I have notes I need to see for this?” then I click on the Note icon, and sometimes I get notes, sometimes I find it’s a task without notes.
For MY workflow (again, I'm not trying to impugn the app), this is highly inefficient. Takes me much longer to really view all I need to see about a task, and then when I do view notes, having them display within the task list now ‘crowds out’ the other tasks in the list, pushing them off the display.
The more I use OF, the less I like this behavior. This alone might be enough to keep me with iGTD, frankly. I know some would hate it but I'd far prefer to display notes automatically in a separate pane along with any links to files, emails or websites and not have to hit a small greyed out icon to see what I need to see. This paradigm seems, to me, to underemphasize the importance of what Notes can mean to a task.
Just my two cents.
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