iOS “Projects”

What I think is holding back iOS for work productivity isn’t necessarily the iCloud services at present, although the lack of file sharing with users is certainly a problem. The challenge is the complete inability to define a “project” that includes files of different types across different applications. This isn’t a huge problem for simple tasks — I can remember that all my handouts for classes are inside Ulysses, for example, or that Numbers has my spreadsheet data. But, any real long-term project will mix files from several sources, such as a spreadsheet, text, and slides. I have many long-term projects to track at any one time as well. As is, I have only two options. I can either do a brute force search for keywords to pull up related files, which banks on my consistently spelling targeted words when making a document and making a search. Or, I have to re-create the same folder structure inside every iOS app I use for work, so that to locate anything for one project I have to hop from one app to another to uncover what I have for it. This requires I mentally recall the folder structure I use across each app.

Unless Apple moves to a standard folder structure for iCloud Drive, I need a way to define a “project” with links to different files across apps, and an organizable way to view a list of those projects. A card should present itself with projects and files that I can drill down and open, individually or in concert. The ability to add comments and due-dates to projects would be fantastic.