Thanks for the reply and the tip. I need to get my head around the idea of separating tasks and their results.

In my mind, I always have things grouped together like this:

Project (the goal; that which needs to be accomplished).

Tasks (the steps that, when completed, will achieve the goal of the Project).

Notes (details on the tasks and the results).

Resources (those external items that relate to the tasks, such as emails, pdf’s, and so on).

I have always tried to find a way to use just one program to rule them all, but something always falls short.

For example: OmniOutliner is superb for organizing, but not so good for attachments (of resources) and searching (I need to be able to see everything I have marked as “waiting,” without having to learn how to write scripts).

I may have to give up on the idea of an “all-in-one” solution.

That being said, TaskPaper does look great for managing just the task lists (but I wish I could drag and drop to rearrange things, like in OmniOutliner).

It’s always something :)

In fact, I thought I already had when I was writing that comment, but I couldn’t find it with google.

I use VP for notes too. I use the Append to VP page QS plugin for my Inbox and then punch them into TaskPaper when reviewing. But I like the idea of datestamping…

However, and this is definitely a matter of preference, I would suggest that a to-do list isn’t the best place to keep notes about a call. When I have meetings or telecons, I tend to keep those notes in VoodooPad, where I keep my permanent notes and logs – that way I get WikiWord linking, metadata like timestamps and categories. I feel like it’s a better place for notes.

For example, a telecon I need to take notes on would get a new VoodooPad page “MeetingOn2007-11-1″ and I’d write any notes I neeed in there. The date would be there, and I could even use a script I wrote for Quicksilver to add new notes as timestampted entries in the page. If the meeting turned out to be important later, I might add a page alias to the VP page like “PromotionTelecon”. And it’d be around to be searchable.

So the todo note to make the call itself can be deleted, since if it needed to be a record after the fact, I’d have made a page for it.

For example, I may have a task that says “Call Bob re bid on upcoming job.” When I call Bob, I need to take detailed notes to share with my boss later.

How could I do something like that with TaskPaper?

And, looking forward to any kind of QuickSilver scripts you might cook up! ;)

Two things I like in your review, the notion that it sticks and that ties into it’s text+engine makeup, and defining contexts as a search term…

Jesse Grosjean is a class act and not just for writing some elegant software. I blogged on TaskPaper too, and he sent me a license. He included an update to WriteRoom (which I own) that he figured I didn’t have… which I didn’t. He endorses his competitors products, not because he’s a good guy (which he probably is…) but because he’s smart.