Pursuit vs. Parent Task: When to Use Which

A common temptation is to create a parent task in your main task table and nest sub-tasks under it. That works for small, bounded things. Use a Pursuit instead when:

• The effort will span weeks or months
• You want a goal statement — not just a task name
• You want a dedicated page with its own notes, databases, and resources
• You want to archive it cleanly when it’s done, with all its history intact

A parent task is still just a task. It can have sub-tasks but it can’t carry project-level metadata or serve as a navigation hub. If you find yourself writing a novel in a task’s notes field, it’s a Pursuit.

Pursuit vs. Cataloguing Experiences

Some databases look like Pursuits but aren't, they're collections or logs of experiences rather than active efforts toward a goal. The distinction:

• A Pursuit is purposeful and directional. You're working toward something. It has a goal, even if loosely stated. Example: Game Development — analyzing games to extract lessons that inform your own designs.
• A catalogue is a record of experiences. You're logging, not progressing. Example: Media Reviews — tracking what you've watched, read, or played and what you thought of it.

The same activity can be both depending on intent. Analyzing a game as a player is a review. Analyzing the same game as a developer studying mechanics, visuals, and story for your own design work; that's a Pursuit. When in doubt, ask: am I working toward something, or recording something?

Journals, review databases, and logs belong outside Pursuits. Link to them from inside a Pursuit's page if they feed into the work.

Pursuit vs Area

An Area is the ongoing domain underneath a Pursuit. Self-Improvement never ends; a specific certification Pursuit does. Use Areas to categorize, Pursuits to focus.

How to Archive a Pursuit

1. Set Status to a Completed status (like Done, or yes even Cancelled)
2. Fill in the Actual End Date, if applicable
3. Rename a closed or cancelled Pursuit with an [Archive] prefix — e.g. Job Search 2026 becomes [Archive] Job Search 2026

The [Archive] prefix makes it visually distinct in any view. Your task relations stay intact. The record stays searchable and linkable forever.