I've been a power user of Evernote for over 10 years now, using it at first just for basic note keeping with a few extras. As the years go by, I find myself using it more and more for all sorts of projects; In my work developing and growing my business; In my personal life, for everything from helping me keep organized during my home buying process all the way to the odd thought I just need to get out of my head. We have even been using Evernote for family projects like putting together our weekly menu and groceries list.
While I found it valuable [and necessary] to put these thoughts down on "paper", keeping track of all these notes for ongoing activates, especially across multiple categories was becoming to be a bit much. That is why I was excited to see Tasks go beta on Evernote. This is HUGE! For the longest time, it used to be if I needed to come back to a note later, I had one option. To set a reminder on the note itself. That works OK enough if the note is brief, but even then it's not ideal. With Tasks, you are now able to set multiple different reminders, in-line with the body of the note, each with their own due date and reminders. If the Task is extra important, you can flag it and view flagged items in isolation which can be a helpful safeguard, moving it away from the "catchall" that the older reminders feature felt like.
By it self, this is definitely a big step in the right direction. But that's just it- It very much feels as though it is all by itself. Sure, you can add a reminder and a little blurb about what needs to be done, but the text can't do basic format edits to be BOLD, italicized, or underlined? OK, so maybe graphics or highlighting isn't feasible. How about making it possible to add a link within a Task? Without being able to add a link within a Task, I find myself making a secondary list of links to reference, which can become messy fast.
One part of the Tasks feature, I found interesting is the calendar that shows up for setting due dates, reminders, and flags. Being able to see even a basic calendar like this one can help us better schedule Tasks quickly, on the fly. It would be equally, if not more helpful to be able to see your other scheduled tasks during this process to avoid double booking.
It is nice to be able to see a list of Tasks, especially being able to sort by note, due date or flagged. Eventually it would be nice to be able to see all scheduled Tasks in a calendar format. Better yet, to be able to integrate Tasks with my existing calendar [eg Google] as an event or task.
Viewing and editing tasks from here feels a little clunky with the page changing after each selection or edit. Furthermore, opening up the parent note from this view lends to a few issues. The only way to see the parent note is to leave the Tasks view and go the note by clicking on the note's name. This will open the note in your main evernote window and some functions seem to disappear such as the ability to pop that note out into its own window [something that I'll do frequently when referencing multiple notes]. There are workarounds, but still. It seems odd that you would not be able to see/edit the body of the note in the main part of the window while still being able to see the list of notes [or Tasks] on the left, as you normally would interact with evernote.
All in all, the Tasks feature is a keeper. I can really see [and already am] using this as an essential part of my daily life. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, I wouldn't be surprised if Tasks take a more central role in the Evernote environment in years to come. I can't wait to see which bugs are fixed and how the feature gets refined.
