[iam-TJ]

May I recommend Zotero [0] to you?

"Your personal research assistant

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research."

Like you I am an avaricious multi-tasker over extended periods of time and was heading towards the same state you appear to have reached.

I realised it was not optimal and did some research and discovered Zotero. I use it personally and require it at my businesses.

It adds several wonderful abilities - best is the ability to share and collaborate on research at will.

[0] https://www.zotero.org/

[wutbrodo]

> Like you I am an avaricious multi-tasker over extended periods of time and was heading towards the same state you appear to have reached.

> I realised it was not optimal

I will take a look, thank you! Would you mind briefly elaborating on what you found suboptimal about the workspace/window/tab hierarchy for organizing your tasks? So far it's working very well for me, and the low friction is a really important part of it. Though it's completely possible that I have blind spots around my pain points, or am about to run into a wall. Thanks in advance for your thoughts?

[iam-TJ]

My issues with tabs, even with extensions that organise them:

  * sheer mental challenge of quickly relocating related tabs and the context for why they were kept and relationships between them

  * inability to easily add WIP notes and commentary

  * difficulty of sharing tabs and context with others

  * possibility of losing them if power lost unexpectedly (during extended suspend for example) or accidentally close a single window instead of doing File > Quit

  * moving between different devices and different browsers

  * efficiency; affect on the browser and system of keeping tabs open for long periods of time (without quitting browser)

I don't use workspaces for the same reason I don't like tabbing between applications on the same monitor. I use multiple monitors so I only need to move my eyes to switch focus.

[wutbrodo]

This all makes sense, thank you. The friction-free aspect of browser windows is still pretty critical to my workflow, but I'll look into whether it makes sense to grow the habit of "migrating" a task to Zotero when it gets heavy-duty enough.

[iam-TJ]

I first discovered Zotero via the Mozilla add-ons search whilst looking for an extension to help me. Using the Firefox/Chromium connector puts it a context-click away:

Zotero Connector > Save To Zotero > "Web Page with Snapshot" / "Web Page without Snapshot"

So I can both maintain the tab workflow whilst 'tracking' progress with Zotero application itself.

[catchmeifyoucan]

This describes Amna quite well. I think you'd love it! It's still early, but a lot fo the things you mention, we're working on.

https://getamna.com

It's designed like a todo list which is a layer out to keep that context

[iam-TJ]

The promo looks slick but there are two blockers for me:

  1.  Not FOSS (Hard requirement *)
  2.  Basic/Free version doesn't claim Firefox connector

* I insist all my businesses use only FOSS for core functionality and we have on-premise capability (no 'cloud'). As well as putting us in control of our own destiny (we have the talent) we can add specific functionality at-will and do contribute that back to projects as well as buying support contracts or making regular donations.

[catchmeifyoucan]

Thanks for calling it out! Open Source is a consideration, but we're not there just yet with it. You still have 'On' Premise with Amna. All data is stored on your machine.