Mind Like Water

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Areas of Focus ​

Areas are scope containers, not projects. Roles or commitments you have in life: Work, Personal, Investing, Side Project, Volunteering.

Areas don't "do" anything — they hold projects and tasks. You tell MLW which area you're in right now, and the whole app filters.

Setting your active area ​

Top of the sidebar, there's an area switcher. Default is All Areas (no filter). Click to pick a specific area, and every view narrows to that scope except Inbox.

This is how you "go deep" without distraction. Setting area = Work hides your personal stuff. Switching to Personal hides the work stuff.

Creating areas ​

Settings → Areas of Focus. Add as many as you need. The first two are free; more need Pro.

Each area has:

  • Name
  • Color — picked from a palette, used everywhere the area is shown

What makes a good area ​

Good areas are roles or zones of life — "Parent," "Work," "Health," "Trading Account." They persist for years.

Bad areas are projects pretending to be areas — "Launch the book," "Fix the garage." Those are projects. Projects end. Areas don't.

Rule of thumb: if you could finish it, it's a project. If you could never finish it, it's an area.

Area on every task and project ​

Every task and project can be assigned to one area (or none). In Project Detail and Task Detail, the Area chip lets you set or change it.

Filter vs focus ​

Two distinct things:

  • Filter by area (via the top sidebar switcher) — narrows views to that area's content
  • Filter by area in Project list (separate chip in ProjectsView header) — narrows just that one view

The top switcher is global for the session; the project view's area chip is local to that view.

Next: Notes & references →

  • Projects — every project belongs to an area
  • Tags — every tag belongs to an area too
  • Weekly Review — areas are the natural review-rotation lens