---
title: "Area of responsibility"
description: "A standing part of your life or work that never finishes — Work, Home, Health. The counterpart to a project, which does finish, and the reason both exist."
canonical: https://taskpocket.io/glossary/area-of-responsibility/
lastUpdated: 2026-09-01
---
1. [Home](https://taskpocket.io/)
2. [Glossary](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/)
3. Area of responsibility

# 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 Stefaniuk](https://taskpocket.io/about/) Last updated 2026-09-01

## 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](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/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](https://taskpocket.io/features/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](https://taskpocket.io/guides/gtd-weekly-review-checklist/). Projects tell you what is moving; areas tell you what has gone quiet.

## Sources

1. [Cultured Code — Getting Productive with Things: “An Area is for grouping all of your projects and to-dos”](https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/6378414/) checked 2026-09-01
2. [Getting Things Done — the Weekly Review checklist, where areas are reviewed](https://gettingthingsdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Weekly_Review_Checklist.pdf) checked 2026-09-01

## Related reading

- [Projects and areas — things that end, and things that do not](https://taskpocket.io/features/projects-and-areas/) — A project is something you finish. An area is something you keep doing. How the two work in TaskPocket, what the free plan allows, and how other apps model it.
- [Task vs project](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/task-vs-project/) — A task is one step. A project is any outcome that takes more than one. The test is whether you can start it without deciding anything first.
- [The GTD weekly review checklist](https://taskpocket.io/guides/gtd-weekly-review-checklist/) — All eleven steps of David Allen’s weekly review, in order, with what each one is actually for and where people give up. Works with any app, or none.