I was like you. I thought that tabs were useless. Now I use tabs. The workflow is to open 3 or 4 tabs, not more. For example, first tab rails app, second tab a gem used by the app, third tab my vimrc (I need to tweak constantly), fourth tab my todo list. Here you find my comment about it with a screenshot http://syskall.com/my-biggest-vim-productivity-boost/#commen...