I think this is the dream, but we're paddling upstream here as the OS itself is app-centric and apps are mostly document-centric.

Xerox Star & Smalltalk had the task-centric approach and Alan Kay @alankay has said that Steve Jobs/Apple missed that aspect in their takeaway from their visit: "(they) missed a few things about the GUI. For example, that it had unlimited and persistent “desktops” which could be used to sustain work/projects over time without having to tear down and build up, and without stovepiped apps, etc."

https://www.quora.com/What-was-it-like-to-be-at-Xerox-PARC-w...

So happy that I could remember enough of this story to find that link.