Thanks for the feedback. We certainly want to do this, but it is a major change to the app, and will take time. Changing search so that it shows note summaries (eg unchecked items) is a major internal change. It also raises a heap of questions about editing: can you edit? what happens if you try to add a new paragraph in a filtered note? etc. All solvable, but it will take a big project to do this. It’s in the roadmap though, because we also see it will make Agenda a lot more powerful.
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Not to throw a wrench in things, but my key concern with the idea of checklist-items-as-tasks is that they don’t necessarily contain the context. If you look in major task managers (Reminders, Things, OmniFocus, I’m sure others), all of the tasks have a “note” field where you can add context.
I say this because as of today, it’s possible to add context to a checklist item by adding a nested list underneath it – but that context is related spacially, as opposed to structurally. In a task manager, the task itself and the note represent a single “chunk”, whereas in Agenda they are multiple lines. It’s possible to cut the “task” name, but leave behind any of the related context.
I’m curious to see how (or if) you’ll address that.
Thanks for the follow-up @drewmccormack. I appreciate the complexity of changing search to return notes summaries; however is it possible to contain this complexity by defining a new “task search” vs modifying the existing “notes search”?
For example, what if we defined “task search” as follows:
-
Only retrieve a list of the embedded tasks/reminders (not the containing notes) that match the search criteria (open tasks, closed tasks, and free form task text)
-
Only allow toggling task state (complete/uncomplete) on the returned list of tasks
That’s it. That simplified implementation would enable general, open and closed task search and completely address the functionality gap.
@Pat_Maddox, this implementation would give you the choice of just searching for and returning tasks. You would continue to use the existing notes search if you wanted to see the task in context.
@drewmccormack, this could be incorporated into the existing ui by either (A) adding a “Search Tasks” option in addition to the existing “Search All” option or (B) adding the option to select “Notes” or “Tasks” to the current search ui.
Thoughts?
Thanks for considering these suggestions — I know this is much harder to do than it appears. 
Yes, we could certainly do that, but I’m not sure it would be that much more simple than our planned search overhaul. And when you do such ad hoc feature additions, they often come back and bite you. Eg. If we later did do a full overhaul of search, we may lose some functions, or have to change how they work, and that is when people start getting angry that their favorite thing changed or disappeared.
It’s better not to rush features in in our experience. I know that is frustrating sometimes for all involved, but it leads to the best solution in the end. And an overhaul of search is quite high on our list of projects. It has a high priority.
Kind regards,
Drew
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@drewmccormack, thanks for the considered response. I’ve always appreciated the diligence and discipline of the Agenda team and it shows in the quality of the application. I also appreciate your thoughtfulness and willingness to listen to users and consider our input as in this case. I agree with your comment about the risks associated with ad hoc feature additions and the issues that may result from them.
Respectfully, I will press this conversation further because I am up against a wall with Agenda’s limited task search capability and the thought of abandoning it after investing a year in adopting it as my exclusive note taking and task management resource breaks my heart.
This is because (a) Agenda is an excellent tool that is 100% aligned with my requirement for an integrated note taking and task management tool, and (b) I believe what I’m requesting is also completely within the scope of Agenda as an integrated notes and task management tool — so it’s only a matter of time before it is accommodated. However, the indefinite timeline for addressing this critical gap through search overhaul is problematic for me because I am accruing risk as I continue to use Agenda — adding 10+ tasks each day.
The issue is simply that Agenda’s task search is a byproduct of its general notes search feature and as such, does not accommodate task-specific search considerations, such as searching for open tasks, and returning just the list of tasks instead of all of the notes containing the tasks. If search overhaul allows this, then problem solved.
The problem is that search overhaul is a major undertaking with no timeframe for completion. However, if these limited features can be accommodated relatively soon with minimal effort, I would welcome them and would be ok with any changes to how they operate when search overhaul is completed as long as the core utility is preserved — which I’m sure would be the case.
Thanks again Drew, for investing the life energy required to create such an excellent, user friendly and useful app, and for considering this request.
Kindest regards,
Donovan
Donovan, I to would love this feature! As a workaround I’m trying out the Time Sector method with Agenda and Reminders. I think it’s promising. The Time Sector Method (If only Agenda allowed creation of undated Reminders!)
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@trebso thanks for the vote and Time Sector Method suggestion. Your summary of Time Sector Method alignment with Agenda in the other thread is spot on, and your ideas for integrating Agenda with Reminders to implement it is well thought out. And I agree with your assessment that it is a promising workaround.
So far, your suggestion is the best (and perhaps the most reliable) workaround I’ve seen because it (1) leverages Reminders integration which is hopefully less likely to break with future changes to either Agenda or Reminders, and (2) implements a comprehensive task management philosophy. So, thanks again for thinking it through and sharing your approach.
The only drawback for me is that it introduces another app into the workflow, simply to work around two gaps in Agenda’s core functionality (searching for open tasks, and returning just the list of tasks instead of all of the notes containing the tasks). However, integrating another app into my workflow is preferable to abandoning Agenda and forfeiting its excellent features, user experience, amazing support and over a year of investment with nearly 100 projects, hundreds of notes and tasks and their associated historical perspective. So I’m willing to give your considered suggestion a try.
Have you implemented it yet? If so, how is it working?
Donovan
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To give a bit more context within this (really great!) discussion, the solution we have in the plans actually consists of two parts. One is to make search much more powerful (ie show notes with open tasks and many other search wishes), but also secondly to allow for showing only partial content of notes (which would then allow you to only show the open tasks and hide the completed ones.
These are two separate (rather large) projects so will take time as we’re only two, but the good news is that it’s getting to the top of the list now that version 10 (and the upcoming 10.1) are out of the way.
Having said all this, as @drewmccormack pointed out, we prefer to take the time to do it well rather than rushing to halfway solutions. Hope that gives some more insights in the thought process.
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@mekentosj, thanks for the context, prioritization and sense of timing. It is really helpful. The approach you outlined sounds very good as it will allow the option of only showing the open task — which would eliminate the need to wade through a note to find the task of interest. Thank you 
.
One additional item for your consideration is my rationale for wanting this feature (I suspect it may be similar for @trebso, @learned and others but I don’t want to presume):
- I need an efficient way to pull a list all open tasks across all notes/projects
- I need an efficient way to update one or more of the open tasks shown on that list — directly on the returned open task list instead of having to go into the associated notes and completing the tasks one note at a time
I trust you and Drew to figure out the best way to implement the features, but wanted to share some additional perspective on the why for your consideration. I hope you find it helpful.
Thanks again for the gift of Agenda and your gracious consideration of our ideas and suggestions.
Donovan
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Ask me again at the end of the week! Only fully migrated over the weekend.
@mekentosj and @drewmccormack, I’ve spent some more time exploring interim solutions for identifying and managing open tasks across Agenda notes and wanted to share some observations and get your thoughts on an idea for an interim (user-implemented) work-around.
Observations:
- Checkboxes are not Reminders — I’m truly ashamed that I only discovered this after more than a year of notes with checklists that I use to track to-dos.
- Reminders can be easily created from checklist items
- The Reminders app can provide a single view of all Reminders across all notes if the reminders are added to the same Reminders list
- Completing a reminder (either in Agenda or Reminders) toggles the associated checkbox
- Completing/Closing a checkbox in Agenda does not complete a Reminder
Idea for user-implemented workaround:
- It appears that Agenda supports my desired single-view for viewing and completing open tasks (Checklist items)— if those tasks are used to create Reminders
- If I had been adding Reminders to my Checklist items from the start this would largely be a non issue for me
- If there’s a way to bulk-create Reminders from Checklist items I might be able to retroactively add Reminders for all of my checklist items
Question: Is it possible to use Shortcuts to iterate through Agenda notes and create Reminders from Checklist items?
Working rather well!
I’m managing to dos in GoodTask, rather than Reminders, beause it provides clickable links back to Agenda notes, and I find the interface much better. (GoodTask works with Apple Reminders in the background). And I’d already bought it for iOS. On Mac I use Reminders if I need to, don’t think I’ll spend on GoodTask for Mac as I tend to do my daily review in ipad or iPhone.
It looks a bit clunky written down, but my morning routine is:
- Review to dos in GoodTasks, mark those I plan to work on as Due Today
- In Fantastical, drag the Due Today tasks to the time I want to work on them. (I could allocate times in GoodTasks or Reminders, but it’s easier and more visual to do it Fantastical. Not sure if you can do the same in other calendar apps)
The rest of the day Agenda is my hub: I have my notes and I have the calendar pane showing meetings and my tasks for the day. I check off the tasks in the Agenda calendar window.
I create Reminders in Agenda, related to the note I’m working on, often minuting a meeting. I also create reminders my dictating to Siri when I’m out walking etc.
There’s some weirdness with links to Agenda notes that I’ve not had a chance to explore. Something to do with GoodTask and Reminders handling URLs differently I suspect.
@drewmccormack it would be really useful for the Time Sector method if we could create undated, untimed Reminders in Agenda.
This is a must!
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@drewmccormack it would be really useful for the Time Sector method if we could create undated, untimed Reminders in Agenda.
The problem is not the ability to create undated, untimed reminders, the problem is that after creating them there would be literally nowhere in the UI of Agenda where these would appear. I don’t think this makes it a good idea as it means you have no way to give any feedback to the user that the reminder was actually created.
Stepping back in here for what has evolved into a wonderful discussion, and the reason I do keep coming back to try and fit Agenda into my workflow. I love the fact that we can have meaningful dialog on these subjects.
To @mekentosj’s comments about the two huge goals they have, I applaud that and love the ideas of both. I can also say that the first one would go a long way by itself in solving the friction that exists today. If I could have a search that just returned notes that have an open task in them anywhere, I don’t mind searching for the task. The friction today is remembering to add and remove tags to notes in that state. So, while I want not only to have my cake, but to eat it too, that first step would go a long way towards satisfying at least my immediate need. I can’t speak to the other contributors ever and I want to go back and study the workarounds, but if it’s possible to get there in stages, I’m all for it.
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As somewhat of a workaround, I have created a List (named:Agenda) in Reminders, which contains my undated reminders. They’re all in one place for review and give me the opportunity to make changes easily later on, if I with.
I’d know it was created because it would be in my inbox in Reminders. 
I think part of the problem is that there are two fundamentally different ways of thinking about “reminders”:
- Part of an automated process to alert me to an upcoming due date (in which case the date is crucial)
- A flag that this task is important, which I will later decide when to work on it (date is irrelevant until later, when I plan my work). Basically I’m not capturing ‘reminders’ but ‘chunks of work’ that need to be added to my calendar (and I’m using Reminders app because it’s a convenient way to do it).
When I create a reminder in Agenda I’m generally in the flow with the meeting or project I’m engaged with, all I want to do is capture “here’s a thing I’ll need to deal with” - generally it’s a distraction to have to decide what date to set. (As a workaround I just accept the default date and fix it later when reviewing my Reminders inbox.)
The exception is when there is a specific deadline, eg in a meeting I promise to send a report by next Friday. But even here, using \remind(next Friday) is not helpful, because I don’t want to be reminded on Friday - I need to work on it before then! So what I need to do in Agenda, as I’m making notes of the meeting is write
Send report due(next Friday) \remind
accepting the defaul date to close the pop up.
I realise this is a niche use of Agenda, and don’t necessarily expect to be able to do all I want without workarounds. I just think it’s interesting thinking this through.
I suppose the bottom line for me is what lead me to abandon Things for Agenda: I absolutely hate tasks automatically popping up in Today etc. For me, being in control means that I make the decisions when I do which piece of work, based on ‘manually’ reviewing what else is going on in my work and life at the time.
That’s what I was trying to say. In addition to everything else you included.
I’d be happy with a OneNote (on Windows) approach where it basically allow you to generate a report of all your tasks, grouped with headings by the title of the note.
I care less about context, more about triggering my memory of anything that might have fallen through the cracks