All the commented stuff is ideas that I had that didn't seem to work, so you can remove them.

As you can also see, my plan was/is to put this in an abstract base class, so that sub-classes can use this same functionality by just using a variable (say customSQL) that will be the input to the SOQL expression in the getTasks method (willl have to use Database.Query (I believe that's the call)).

For anyone who is interested, I re-route the save task to a VF page (saveComplete) which just says "saving ... wait while next record loads." And then the Ajax stuff hits and automatically loads the next task. When all tasks are completed, the whole page is refreshed (code that I have not listed -- but parent.refreshPage() should give an idea -- yes I had to do it all in iframes because I couldn't figure out a better way with the current code base we have). Anyway, the idea being that it pushes tasks (events, cases, what have you) to people instead of them having to select them (prevent them from cherry-picking their tasks and giving everyone else the crappy one :)

public class DashboardTaskController { //extends DashboardAbstractController {

//private String dt = null;
public String recordType {get; set;}
public String teamLeaderId {get; set;}
public String objectId {get; set;}
//public Task currentObject {get; set;}
//public String updatedItemStatus{get; set;}
public Integer numLeft {get; set;}
public Integer total {get; set;}
private Integer startNdx = 0;
private static Integer PAGESIZE = 3;
private List<Task> fullTaskList = new List<Task>();
private List<Task> displayedTaskList = new List<Task>();
//private String prefetchedNextObjectId;

public DashboardTaskController() {
// dt means done today
//this.dt = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('dt');
recordType = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('recordType');
//this.teamLeaderId = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('teamid');
//customQuery = Database.getQueryLocator([select name, id, closedate, stageName from Opportunity where stageName = :qualifier]);
}

public PageReference getDetailPage() {
getTasks();
System.debug('getting detail page for object with id : ' + this.objectId);
PageReference pg;
if (this.objectId != null) {
for (Task t : fullTaskList) {
if (this.objectId.equals(t.id)) {
pg = new ApexPages.StandardController(t).edit();
}
}
//pg = new ApexPages.StandardController(currentObject).edit();
pg.getParameters().put('saveURL', '/apex/saveComplete');
//get next open item to use as page to show up after saving
/*Task nextObject = nextTask();
this.prefetchedNextObjectId = nextObject.id;
PageReference nextPg = new ApexPages.StandardController(nextObject).edit();
pg.getParameters().put('saveURL', nextPg.getUrl());*/
pg.getParameters().put('isdtp','mn');
pg.getParameters().put('nooverride', '1');
}

System.debug('returning : ' + pg);
return pg;
}

public List<Task> getTasks() {
if (fullTaskList.isEmpty()) {
fullTaskList = [select id, subject, status, isClosed from Task where RecordType.Name = :recordType and isClosed = false];
numLeft = fullTaskList.size();
total = numLeft;
this.objectId = ((Task) fullTaskList[0]).id;
//this.currentObject = (Task) fullTaskList[0];
}

displayedTaskList.clear();
Integer endNdx = startNdx + PAGESIZE;
if (endNdx > total)
endNdx = total;

for (Integer i=startNdx; i<endNdx; i++)
displayedTaskList.add(fullTaskList.get(i));

return displayedTaskList;
}

private void updateTaskStatus() {
System.debug('before : ' + fullTaskList);
Integer i = 0;
for (i=0; i<fullTaskList.size(); i++) {
Task t = fullTaskList.get(i);
if (this.objectId.equals(t.id)) {
System.debug('updating status of ' + t);
Task tmp = [select id, subject, status, isClosed from Task where id = :t.id];
fullTaskList.set(i, tmp);
System.debug('updated to ' + tmp);
//this.updatedItemStatus = tmp.status;
break;
}
}

System.debug('after : ' + fullTaskList);
}

/*private Task nextTask() {
System.debug('currently using object : ' + this.objectId);
Task retVal;
for (Task t : fullTaskList) {
System.debug('looking at object with id ' + t.id);
if (!t.isClosed && !this.objectId.equals(t.id)) {
System.debug('found non-closed object with id ' + t.id);
retVal = t;
break;
}
}

return retVal;
}*/

private void nextTask() {
for (Task t : fullTaskList) {
if (!t.isClosed) {
System.debug('found non-closed object with id ' + t.id);
this.objectId = t.id;
break;
}
}
}

/*private void nextTask() {
//System.debug('currently using object : ' + this.currentObject);
//Task retVal;
for (Task t : fullTaskList) {
System.debug('looking at object ' + t);
if (!t.isClosed) {
System.debug('found non-closed object');
this.currentObject = t;
break;
}
}

//return retVal;
} */

public PageReference showDetail() {
// since I can't get the assignTo to work in the VF page/component
this.objectId = System.currentPageReference().getParameters().get('objectId');

/*
bizarre ... if I call setObjectId, the id returned from the detailPage method is null
but if I directly set the id in this method, everything works correctly
setObjectId(System.currentPageReference().getParameters().get('objectId'));
*/
return null;
}

public void previous() {
startNdx -= PAGESIZE;
}

public void next() {
startNdx += PAGESIZE;
}

public void refreshNumbers() {
// the only time this method should be called is when a submit is done
// on a record -- we assume the submit closes the record (or at least
// puts the record in a state where we are not interested in seeing
// it in our todo list anymore
updateTaskStatus();
nextTask();
this.numLeft = 0;
for (Task t : fullTaskList) {
if (!t.isClosed) {
this.numLeft++;
}
}
//this.objectId = prefetchedNextObjectId;
}

public Boolean getHasNext() {
return total > (startNdx + PAGESIZE);
}

public Boolean getHasPrevious() {
return startNdx > 0;
}

public Integer getNum() {
return total;
}
}

<apex:page controller="DashboardTaskController" standardStylesheets="true" showHeader="false">
<!-- close date will be null since we will only display open ones ...
but might want to be more flexible here so management view will look different ... see class -->
{!recordType}---{!num}
<apex:form id="taskList">
<script>
saved = 0;

function refreshToDoNumbers() {
//alert('checking : ' + saved);
if (saved == 1) {
saved = 0;
refreshNumbers();
}
}

function checkIfNeedRefresh() {
//alert('checking for full refresh');
var left = document.getElementById('{!$Component.taskList.numberOfItemsLeft}');
//alert('found items left todo : ' + left.innerHTML);
var tmp = parseInt(left.innerHTML);
if (tmp == NaN || tmp == 0) {
parent.refreshPage();
}
}

function taskSaved() {
saved = 1;
}
</script>
<apex:pageBlock id="pageBlock">
<apex:pageBlockTable value="{!tasks}" var="o" id="table">
<apex:column >
<apex:commandLink action="{!showDetail}" value="{!o.subject}" reRender="detail">
<apex:param value="{!o.id}" name="objectId" assignTo="{!objectId}"></apex:param>
</apex:commandLink>
</apex:column>
<apex:column value="{!o.subject}"/>
<apex:column id="status" value="{!o.status}"/>
</apex:pageBlockTable>
</apex:pageBlock>
<apex:panelGrid columns="2">
<apex:commandLink action="{!previous}" rendered="{!hasPrevious}">Previous</apex:commandlink>
<apex:commandLink action="{!next}" rendered="{!hasNext}">Next</apex:commandlink>
</apex:panelGrid>
<apex:outputText id="numberOfItemsLeft" value="{!numLeft}" style="visibility:hidden"/>
<apex:actionFunction action="{!refreshNumbers}" immediate="true" name="refreshNumbers" rerender="numberOfItemsLeft, detail, table" oncomplete="checkIfNeedRefresh();"/>
</apex:form>

<apex:outputPanel layout="block" id="detail">
<!--unfortunately can't use apex:iframe since onload is not supported-->
<!--apex:iframe rendered="{!linkSelected}" id="editFrame" scrolling="no" src="{!detailPage}" height="3000" frameborder="true">apex:iframe-->
<iframe onload="addOnCompleteEvent();" id="editFrame" scrolling="no" src="{!detailPage}" height="3000" width="100%" frameborder="true"/>
<script type="text/javascript">
function addOnCompleteEvent() {
// first see if all items complete and so need to refresh the page
refreshToDoNumbers();

// find the save button(s) on the edit form and add the oncomplete event to them
var editFrame = window.frames[0];
var inputs = editFrame.document.getElementsByTagName('input');
for (i=0; i<inputs.length; i++) {
if (inputs[i].type == 'submit' && inputs[i].name == 'save') {
inputs[i].setAttribute("onclick", "parent.taskSaved()");
}
}
}
</script>
</apex:outputPanel>
</apex:page>