Areas of focus/responsibility are groupings of projects into the various areas or roles of one's life. "Home" or "Work" are typical examples of Areas of Focus. Setting up your own Areas of Focus in Nirvana allows you to see only the Projects, Tasks, Next and Someday items of a given Area of Focus at a given time. This helps you be more productive as you change roles throughout the day.

How to Get Started

Quick Guide

• Create Areas of Responsibility by clicking on Areas in the top navi
• Select the Area you'd like to focus on via the drop-down menu in the left navi
• Inbox, Archive and Trash items are globally accessible, regardless of which Area you are currently focused on
• Assign tasks / projects to an Area via the drop-down menu to the right of each item
• When a Project is assigned to an Area, all tasks within inherit their Area from that project
• Dragging an item from the Inbox to Today, Next, Someday, Waiting For, Projects while an Area is in "focus", assigns the item to that Area
• Creating a new task or project while in an Area automatically assigns them to that area (exception: Inbox)
• Areas need to be set up via the desktop webapp In order to see areas via your mobile web account.

Working with Inbox and Areas of Focus. Video credit: Proximo

Extended Guide

How to Start

To set up Areas of Focus in your account, login and click on the Areas link located in the top navi.

An Areas dialogue box will appear. To create an Area, enter a name in the New Area Name text field, then click on the Create New Area button. Add more Areas by repeating those steps. Once you are finished, click "Done".

Back in your account view, you'll notice in the left navi a new menu option called Focus located above Today. From the Focus drop down you'll see all the Areas you created, and some default options; All Areas - to see all tasks and projects across all Areas - and Unassigned Items - to see all tasks and projects that are not assigned to an Area.

Assigning Projects and Tasks to Areas

Assign your projects via the gear options menu. Select Areas of Focus then select the an area you want to assign. Note that Tasks in Projects inherit the Project's Area of Focus. Tasks found in Projects do not have option to change its Area of Focus. It is assumed (rightfully so!) that if a Project belongs to a specific area, then all the tasks should too.

Assign tasks to areas via the tasks option menu. Select Areas of Focus and then the area you want to assign.

No changes are made to Projects and Tasks as you assign them, other than its area of focus designation. If a task was in Today before adding it to an area of focus, it will remain in Today (when you are viewing the area of focus) after it is assigned.

Feature Notes

• Inbox, Archive and Trash items are globally accessible, regardless of which Area you are currently focused on.
• Today, Next, Someday and Waiting For are views specific to the Area you are focused on.
• Dragging an item from the Inbox to Today, Next, Someday, Waiting For, Projects while an Area is in "focus", assigns the item to that Area.
• Deleting an Area will not delete associated Projects or Tasks. You will find those Projects and Tasks in the All Areas and Unassigned Items views.

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