Areas and People

Use Areas for ongoing responsibilities and People for delegated or person-centered work. Both can be created where you assign them, and both can be managed later in Settings.

Areas

Areas group related projects and standalone tasks under a stable responsibility, such as Work, Home, Health, Research, or a client name.

Use an Area when you want to answer: "What work belongs to this part of my life or work?"

Create an Area While Assigning It

You do not have to leave the task flow to create an Area.

1. Open Quick Add, Quick Capture, or the task editor.
2. Open the Area field.
3. Type the Area name.
4. If it does not already exist, choose Create.
5. The new Area is selected for the task.

On desktop, the same create-as-you-type behavior appears in Area pickers. On mobile, the Area picker in Quick Capture and task edit lets you search first, then create the Area if there is no exact match.

Create or Edit Areas in Settings

Use Settings when you want to manage saved Areas directly.

1. Open Settings.
2. Open Manage.
3. Expand Areas.
4. Add a new Area, rename one, change its color, or delete an Area you no longer use.

Deleting an Area keeps its tasks and projects. Mindwtr moves them to unassigned instead of deleting the work.

Filter by Area

The area switcher narrows Mindwtr to the areas you want to look at. On desktop it sits at the bottom of the sidebar; on mobile it is the control at the top left of the screen header.

Clicking an area cycles it through three states:

1. Selected — its projects and tasks are shown.
2. Excluded — its projects and tasks are hidden.
3. Off — the area no longer affects the filter.

Select several areas to see them together, or exclude one to see everything except it. No area appears in the list too, so you can include or exclude work that has no Area. The choice applies across views: Focus, Next actions, Projects, Calendar, Search, Review, Board, and Contexts all follow it until you clear it.

Inbox stays unified on desktop and mobile. Its list, count, and Process Inbox queue include items from every area, including No area, regardless of the area filter. The Inbox count and processing step in Review follow the same rule. Inbox shows All areas; opening it keeps your filter selection for other views and preserves any areas already assigned to tasks.

People

People are reusable assignee names for delegated tasks, Waiting For items, and person-centered searches. They can also hold notes and reference links, such as an email address, contact page, or Obsidian link.

Use People when you want to answer: "Who owns this, who am I waiting on, or who should I discuss this with?"

Create a Person While Assigning One

1. Open a task.
2. Find Assigned to or Assignee / Person.
3. Type the person's name.
4. If the name is not already saved, choose New Person.
5. The person is saved and assigned to the task.

Typing a name without creating the saved Person still works as a task assignee. Choosing New Person makes the name reusable in future suggestions and Settings.

Assign a Person at Capture Time

Type % followed by the name in Quick Add: Ask %Jim for the budget /waiting. Known names match unquoted (including multi-word names); quote a new multi-word name as %"Jim Smith". On desktop, typing % opens the same person suggestions as the Assigned to field.

Create or Edit People in Settings

1. Open Settings.
2. Open Manage.
3. Expand People.
4. Add a person, rename one, add notes, add a reference link, or delete a person you no longer use.

Each person's row shows how many tasks belong to them, counting both tasks assigned to them and tasks carrying their @name context. Tap or click that count to open Global Search on person:"Name" with completed tasks included, so you can review everything for that person in one list.

Deleting a Person keeps the tasks. Mindwtr clears that saved person record instead of deleting the work.

Review All Tasks for a Person

In Settings → Manage → People, select a person's task count to open their combined task list. It includes tasks assigned to that person and tasks with a matching person context, such as %Alex and @Alex. A task that has both appears once.

You can also search for person:"Alex" or person:"Alex Smith" and save the search for regular reviews. Names must match exactly, ignoring case and extra spaces; Alex does not include Alexander or @Alex/work. Assignments and contexts keep their existing meanings. If you rename a person, rename their context too to keep the names matched.

The Settings shortcut includes Done and Archived tasks so the results match the count. Turn off Include Done and Archived tasks to review current work only.

Related Fields

Field	Use it for	Where to create
Area	Responsibility buckets for projects and tasks	Area picker, Settings -> Manage -> Areas
Person	The person a task involves: delegated to, waiting on, or to discuss with (agenda). Setting a person does not change the status	Type %person in Quick Add, Assigned to field, Settings -> Manage -> People
Context	Where, with what tool, or with whom you can do the task	Type @context in Quick Add or task edit
Tag	Topic, energy, mode, or grouping label	Type #tag in Quick Add or task edit

See Also

• Contexts and Tags
• GTD Workflow in Mindwtr
• Desktop guide
• Mobile guide