The reminders area is more than just calendar events, but I think that's beside the point. However, how does opening the reminders pop out drive you away from what you're doing? It's a separate window and doesn't impact the main SmarterMail client. Each item in the pop out opens its own modal, and you can manage the reminder from that modal, or manage multiple (dismiss, snooze, etc.) from the pop out.
I can see some validity to having the items "slide down" versus opening a new pop out, but isn't that essentially the same thing, just in a different form?
Derek Curtis
COO
SmarterTools Inc.
www.smartertools.com