Area of responsibility
An area of responsibility is a standing commitment with no end state — Work, Home, Health, Finances. It is not something you complete; it is something you maintain.
By Bohdan StefaniukLast updated
Why it is not a project
A project has an ending you can describe: “Move flat” is done when you have moved. An area does not. You will still have Health in ten years, and asking what “done” looks like for it is a category error.
Mixing the two is what makes a sidebar stop meaning anything. Once a folder holds both “Move flat” and “Home”, the structure has stopped telling you which things will be finished by November. See task vs project.
What goes in one
This differs by app and is worth checking before you build a system on it. In Things 3 an area holds loose to-dos as well as projects — Cultured Code describe it as grouping “all of your projects and to-dos”. In TaskPocket an area groups projects only, so a stray task needs a project to live in or it stays in the Inbox. See projects and areas.
What they are for
Reviewing. An area is the unit you scan to notice the thing you have not thought about in a month — the whole point of step 9 of the weekly review. Projects tell you what is moving; areas tell you what has gone quiet.