With office, I was glad to use the search function.
With notes, I was FORCED to change to using folder for my projects. With Outlook, I can get away with searches without a problem. Note's search is very picky. Sometimes the search appears to be case sensitive, or doesn't deal with extra spaces, ect. The search function is not worth bothering with in Notes. In fact, it's not even JUST the synatx, it's the search itself. It seems to take FOREVER to get search results.
Creating rules in Notes does take some of the 'noise' out and makes some things less of a headache, but even with the Notes mail rules, I've noticed that the rules do not work as well as office either (same picky syntax).