Commitment Classification Manual — Bureau of Civic Responsibility

Areas of Responsibility

Before any commitment is created, it lives inside an Area of Responsibility — a domain of your life you are actively stewarding. Health, Finances, Career, Home, Relationships, Creative Work. When you name an Area, you are making a declaration: I am this person, and I intend to show up as one. The commitments inside that Area are the concrete proof of that declaration. Areas have no schedule, no urgency band, and no score impact — they are the vision that gives the daily view its meaning.

A good Area of Responsibility is broad enough to hold multiple goals, routines, and tasks, and stable enough that it doesn't need to be revisited often. If something doesn't fit any existing area, that's usually a signal to create a new one — not to cram it somewhere it doesn't belong.

When you create a new Area of Responsibility, CLEAR walks you through a short setup wizard. The central question it asks: "What would I have to be doing regularly to feel like I'm achieving greatness in this area?" That question is the point. It forces you to think about what success in this domain actually looks like in practice — not as an abstract aspiration, but as concrete, recurring behavior. The routines and tasks that come out of that answer are your starting commitments for the area.

"Physical Health," "Home Maintenance," "Professional Development," "Finances," "Family," "Side Projects"

The Commitment Hierarchy

Everything in CLEAR is organized in a simple three-level hierarchy: Area → Goal → Commitments. Each level serves a different purpose.

AREA — Physical Health

                    ↳ GOAL — "Complete a 5K race this fall" (aspirational target, no score impact)

                    ↳ ROUTINE — "Run 3×/week" (recurring habit, Tier 2)

                    ↳ TASK — "Register for Oak Park 5K" (one-time action, Tier 1)

                    ↳ IDEA — "Look into marathon training plans" (captured, no pressure)

The Area provides the identity ("I take care of my health"). The Goal provides the direction ("and I'm working toward this specific outcome"). The Routines and Tasks are the daily evidence of that identity. Ideas hold things you're not ready to commit to yet.

You don't need all four types in every Area. Many Areas have no Goal at all — just routines you maintain indefinitely. Some have Goals and nothing else. The structure is there when it's useful; you don't need to fill all the slots.

The Four Commitment Types

Inside each Area of Responsibility live four types of commitments, each with a different relationship to time, pressure, and follow-through.

Goals

Outcomes you're working toward

Goals describe a target state — the outcome that makes the linked tasks and routines worth doing. They have no urgency band and no score impact. They can carry an aspirational due date, not as a hard deadline but as a stake in the ground: a date you're aiming for.

"Be in the best shape of my life by 40," "Pay off credit card debt by end of year," "Ship side project to 100 users"

Ideas

Capture without commitment

Ideas hold aspirations, half-formed plans, and things worth remembering — without the pressure of a commitment. No schedule. No score impact. No consequences for leaving them untouched indefinitely. The place to park things before you decide whether to commit.

"Learn woodworking," "Take a Japanese cooking class," "Read more Orwell," "What if I restructured the morning routine?"

Routines

Habits and rituals — ongoing

Routines are habits and rituals you maintain as part of who you are. They recur because that's their nature — not because an area demands it. There's no finish line. You don't complete a routine; you maintain it.

"Exercise daily," "Pay rent on the 1st," "Weekly house clean," "Morning journaling"

Tasks

Things that need to get done

Tasks are discrete work — things that need to get done, possibly more than once, but not because they're a habit. A task can repeat daily for three weeks and still be a task. The repetition is structural, not identity-forming.

"Schedule dentist appointment," "File taxes," "PT exercises daily for 3 weeks," "Complete onboarding checklist"

"Goals point at destinations. Routines are who you're becoming. Tasks are what you're getting done. Ideas are what you haven't decided about yet. Each type asks for a different kind of attention." — CLEAR design notes

Routines vs. Tasks — When to Use Which

Both routines and tasks appear in the daily view and affect the score. The distinction is about nature, not longevity. A task can repeat every day for weeks. That doesn't make it a routine.

Routine A habit or ritual you maintain as an ongoing part of your life. You're not "finishing" it — you're sustaining it. The commitment comes from identity: I am someone who does this. Daily exercise, monthly budget review, weekly house cleaning, morning journaling.

Task Work that needs to get done. It may repeat — daily PT exercises for three weeks is a repeating task, not a habit — but the repetition is structural, driven by the work itself. When the work is done, the commitment is done. Schedule dentist appointment, file taxes, post-surgery PT exercises (daily, 3 weeks), complete a specific training course.

The clearest test: ask "Am I trying to become someone who does this, or do I just need to get it done?" If becoming, it's a routine. If getting done, it's a task — even if it repeats.

Deadline Type — How the Commitment Is Anchored in Time

Deadline type answers one question: "Am I committed to a specific day, or to completing this sometime within a period?" This is independent of how serious the commitment is (that's Tier) and independent of how completion is tracked (that's the Milestone toggle).

Rigid vs. Flexible — The Key Test Ask: "If I miss my preferred day, is the opportunity gone?" If yes — that's Rigid. The day is the commitment. If no — any day in the period works — that's Flexible.

Rigid does not require external enforcement. "I review ancestry hints the 3rd Sunday — that's my carved-out slot; miss it and I wait until next month" is Rigid even though no one else imposed it. The test is whether missing the specific day forfeits the period — not whether someone outside you enforces it.

The practical difference: after a Rigid task's day passes, the period is over and the task is mandatory then missed. After a Flexible task's suggested date passes, the task is still available — urgency rising, window still open.

Rigid Applies to: routines, tasks

The commitment is tied to a specific day. Missing that day means the opportunity is gone for this period — the slot has passed. Use Rigid when the day itself is the commitment, not just a preferred time within a window.

External deadline "Take the trash out every Tuesday morning." The truck comes Tuesday — not Wednesday. Also: weekly team meeting, monthly rent on the 1st, filing taxes by April 15th, RSVP deadline, car registration renewal.
Self-imposed slot "I review my finances the first Saturday of the month — if I miss that Saturday, I wait until next month." No one else enforces this, but the slot structure makes it Rigid. Also: Sunday-only Bible study, the 3rd Sunday ancestry research window.

Flexible Applies to: routines, tasks

The commitment has a window — you need to do it sometime within the period, but the specific day within it is up to you. The urgency band rises as the window closes, but a missed suggested date doesn't forfeit the period. Use Flexible when the period matters but any day in it works.

Anchored flexible Has a preferred day, but slipping a few days isn't a forfeit. "Replace the air filter on the 1st — but doing it on the 5th is fine." The suggested date creates a Suggested band target; missing it raises urgency without closing the window. Also: monthly budget review, quarterly investment check-in with a preferred calendar slot.
Open flexible Any day in the period is equally valid; proximity to the last completion doesn't matter. "Attend the temple once this month." "Read Come Follow Me this week — any day." Also: weekly journal entry, monthly dentist scheduling, a home repair that just needs to happen this quarter.

Milestone — Multi-Session Progress Tracking

Milestone is a toggle, independent of Deadline Type. Any commitment can be a milestone — a Rigid milestone has a fixed completion date; a Flexible milestone has a window or no deadline at all. The milestone toggle changes how completion is tracked, not when the commitment is due.

Milestone toggle off Default — completes in one session

The ✓ button marks the commitment done for the period. One tap, done. Use this for anything completable in a single sitting.

Milestone toggle on Progress across sessions until genuinely done

The ✓ button logs a work session and hides the item for the rest of that day. "All done" permanently completes it. Use Milestone when a commitment is too large to finish in one sitting and you want to track progress without the item nagging you every day.

Flexible milestone "Read a book for leisure." No deadline — stays in the backlog until done. Any progress session is valid regardless of when the last one was. Also: write a novel, learn guitar, build an emergency fund.
Rigid milestone "Finish this book before book club Thursday." Progress is tracked session by session, but the completion deadline is fixed — miss Thursday and the period forfeits. Also: finish a project before a presentation, complete a course before enrollment closes.
Progress cadence Milestones have two independent cadences. The outer cadence controls how often you want to complete the whole milestone (e.g. "read a book 6 times a year"). The progress cadence controls how often you want to make progress on the current instance (e.g. "work on the current book 3 times a week"). Once you've hit your weekly progress quota, the milestone hides until the next week begins. Without a custom progress cadence the default applies: the milestone hides for the rest of the day after any progress session and reappears the next morning.

Milestone vs. Goal: a goal is a long-horizon articulation of who you are working to become — no score impact, no urgency band, no daily accountability. A milestone is a commitment with teeth: it shows up in your day, tracks your sessions, and expects follow-through. If you're pointing at a destination and want the vision to stay visible, use a goal. If you're also tracking that you're actively moving toward it, use a milestone.

Consequence Tier — What Happens if You Miss It

The tier shapes how heavily a miss, skip, or snooze affects your score — and how urgently the app escalates a pattern of avoidance. Be honest about this. Overtiereing creates chronic anxiety. Undertiereing means real consequences get no signal.

TIER I

Hard consequence. Something genuinely bad happens if this slips. External accountability or irreversible outcomes. Cat food — she will starve. Medications. Bill payments with late fees or service cutoffs. Commitments with legal or health consequences.

TIER II

Soft consequence. Things degrade over time if neglected. No single miss is catastrophic, but the pattern accumulates. Water softener salt — the system degrades. Strength training — fitness erodes. Financial reviews — small problems compound.

TIER III

Quality consequence. Nothing breaks, but the quality of your life or output drops. Other people may notice or be affected. Lawn mowing — the neighbors notice. Weekly house cleaning. Regular check-ins with friends.

TIER IV

Aspirational. Zero score consequences for missing, skipping, or snoozing. This is the "I want to be the kind of person who does this" tier. Bookbinding hobby. Daily meditation. Morning stretching. Learning a new language. The commitment tracks your aspiration — without guilt if life intervenes.

Urgency Bands — Where Your Commitment Shows Up Today

Every day, CLEAR places each active commitment into one of four urgency bands. The daily view has two categories: today's work (Mandatory + Suggested) and upcoming work (Radar + Backlog). A successful day means clearing Mandatory. Band placement is computed automatically from the commitment's tier, deadline type, cadence, and how close it is to its deadline.

Keep Mandatory honest. Mandatory should stay short — a handful of items, not a list of twenty. If everything is mandatory, nothing is. The band works because it's reserved for things that genuinely cannot wait. When in doubt, a commitment belongs in Suggested until its actual deadline arrives.

Mandatory Act today — the commitment is due

The commitment is due today and cannot wait. Items land here when:

T1 daily Tier I daily routines are always Mandatory — they carry genuine consequences and reset every day.
Rigid date due Any tier's rigid-date task on or past its due date (except T4 — see below).
Flexible deadline A flexible window task whose deadline has arrived — today is the last day.
T2 daily escalated A Tier II daily routine that has been skipped five or more consecutive times escalates to Mandatory. The threshold is adjustable per commitment.
Single weekly day A weekly commitment anchored to a specific single day (e.g., every Wednesday) — that day is the commitment, so today being that day makes it Mandatory. Multi-day weekly routines follow the daily rules above.

T4 exception: Aspirational (Tier IV) items are never Mandatory, regardless of timing. They appear at most in Suggested — the system tracks your aspiration without coercing it.

Suggested Recommended for today — your call

The commitment fits today well but isn't strictly due. Items land here when:

T2–T4 daily Daily routines at Tier II, III, or IV start in Suggested. They appear every day but don't loom as mandatory unless a skip streak triggers escalation (T2 only).
Flexible past preferred A flexible window task past its suggested date — the preferred day has passed but the deadline hasn't. The system nudges; the choice is still yours.
Snooze escalation Any item with enough snooze accumulation can be lifted toward Suggested by the snooze escalation rules.

Radar Coming up — worth being aware of

The commitment is approaching but not yet due. It's visible so you can plan ahead, not because action is needed today. Rigid-date tasks within their lead time window and flexible tasks entering the last quarter of their window appear here. Completing a Radar item earns a 1.5× bonus — acting early is recognized. Skipping without completing carries no miss penalty while a task stays in Radar.

Backlog On the horizon — no action needed yet

The commitment is active but has plenty of time remaining. It's in view so nothing falls off your map, but the system isn't asking anything of you today. Like Radar items, completing from the Backlog earns a 1.5× bonus, and skipping carries no miss penalty. You can dismiss a Backlog or Radar card for the day with "Not Today" — no score impact, just declutter.

Cadence — How Often It Recurs

Cadence determines the recurring period for routines and tasks with recurrence. Choose the period that matches the natural rhythm of the commitment — not how often you want to do it, but how often the expectation genuinely resets.

Cadence	Best for	Example
Multiple per day	Commitments with specific time-of-day occurrences	Morning and evening medication; reading glucose levels; end-of-shift notes
Daily	Habits and maintenance that reset every morning	Morning run; journaling; making the bed; daily vitamin; review tomorrow's schedule
Multiple per week	Commitments you do N times within any given week	Gym 3x/week; piano practice 4x/week; calling parents twice a week
Weekly	Recurring responsibilities with a natural seven-day rhythm	Grocery shopping; clean the bathroom; review finances; date night
Multiple per month	Commitments with several distinct occurrences in a month	Biweekly meal planning; paying different bills on different dates
Monthly	Commitments tied to the calendar month	Pay rent; review budget; backup computer; check smoke detectors
Multiple per quarter	Maintenance tasks that need attention several times a quarter	Change HVAC filter every 6 weeks; review investment allocations
Quarterly	Reviews and maintenance tied to fiscal or seasonal quarters	Rotate tires; quarterly life retrospective; review insurance policies
Multiple per year	Recurring events that happen a few times annually	Dentist appointments (2x/year); car oil changes (3x/year); clean gutters (2x/year)
Annually	Annual obligations or milestones	File taxes; annual physical; renew vehicle registration; winterize the home

Schedule Mode — Fixed vs. Rolling

Fixed

The next occurrence is always anchored to the calendar position — regardless of when you completed the last one. Use this for commitments with external anchors that don't shift with your behavior.

Trash day — always Tuesday, regardless of when you last took it out. Rent — always the 1st. Team meeting — every Wednesday at 9am. Monthly budget review — always the last Friday of the month.

Rolling

The next occurrence is calculated from the completion date — "N days/weeks/months from when I last did it." Use this for maintenance and habits where the interval is what matters, not the calendar position.

Oil change — every 3 months from the last service date. Deep clean the kitchen — every 6 weeks from the last time. Call an old friend — every 2 weeks rolling, so missing a week doesn't mean two calls are suddenly due.

Visibility Settings

Time of Day Organizational only — does not change urgency band

Tags the item to a part of the day. Items sort within each urgency band by time-of-day slot. This is organizational, not binding — missing the morning slot does not cause any automatic consequence.

Morning Items best done first. Exercise, journaling, vitamins, "eat the frog" tasks.
Afternoon Mid-day work. Administrative tasks, phone calls, focused creative work.
Evening End-of-day routines. Meal prep, review tomorrow's schedule, family time.
Bedtime Wind-down commitments. Gratitude journal, skincare routine, put the phone away.
Anytime No preferred slot. Default for most one-time tasks and flexible routines.

Lead Time Applies to: all item types

Controls how far in advance an item surfaces in the daily view before it is due. The right setting depends on how much runway you need to actually complete it.

Default Rigid-date tasks surface 3 days before due. Flexible tasks use window-percentage logic (appears earlier the closer you are to the deadline). Most items work well with the default.
None Hidden from the daily view until the item is mandatory — the due date arrives and it appears. Useful for low-anxiety items where seeing them early creates noise: a bill you auto-pay, a personal gift you're already handling, a surprise you don't want surfacing prematurely.
Custom Surfaces exactly N days before the due or suggested date. Annual tax filing: 30-day lead time to gather documents. Vehicle registration renewal: 14 days — enough to mail it in. Annual physical: 7 days — enough to schedule the appointment.

Start Date Applies to: recurring routines and tasks

The item is invisible and does not advance its period until this date arrives. Use this to add a future commitment now without having it show up in today's view.

Add Christmas traditions in October with a start date of December 1st. Set up a summer reading routine in May that starts June 1st. Add a new year resolution in late December that activates January 1st. Plan a post-vacation fitness restart now, starting two weeks from today.

End Conditions

For recurring routines and tasks, end conditions determine when the recurrence stops entirely — the commitment is retired. Without an end condition, a routine runs forever.

Never Default for routines

The commitment recurs indefinitely — it is a permanent part of your life for as long as you maintain it. The right choice for genuine habits and ongoing responsibilities. Daily exercise, weekly house cleaning, monthly budget review.

After Count Campaigns and challenges

The commitment ends after a specific total number of completions. Best for campaigns with a defined quantity goal.

"30-day meditation challenge" — daily, ends after 30 completions. "Read 12 books this year" — monthly, ends after 12 completions. "Complete 100 push-up challenge" — daily, ends after 100 completions.

After Date Temporary routines

The commitment ends on a specific calendar date. Best for routines that are genuinely temporary — tied to a season, a recovery period, or an event.

"Post-surgery physical therapy" — daily, ends December 31st. "NaNoWriMo writing session" — daily, ends November 30th. "Temporary morning routine while adjusting to new job" — starts day one, ends after the probationary period.

Behavioral Settings

Pause Temporary suspension — no score or streak impact

Suspends the item entirely — it disappears from the daily view and the period does not advance. No misses are counted. No score penalty. Designed for when life changes temporarily and a commitment genuinely doesn't apply right now, without removing it from your system or resetting its history.

Exercise routine — paused during recovery from surgery. Weekly meal prep — paused during vacation. Work routines — paused during parental leave. Anything temporarily derailed by circumstance, not by avoidance.

The distinction from snooze: a snooze is 24 hours and tracked. A pause is deliberate, indefinite (or date-bounded), and carries no penalty. Use pause for life circumstances. Use snooze when you're deferring but still committed.

Design Notes — Settings and Their Natural Habitats

Not every setting is equally meaningful in every context. Some settings exist primarily for one type of commitment and were carried over to others by the generality of the data model. If a setting doesn't seem to have an obvious use case for a particular item, that's worth noting — it may be a feature that has no home there.

Milestone + Recurring A milestone is a long-horizon project you work toward until it's genuinely finished. Adding recurrence means "this project comes back every period." In practice this is usually better modeled as two separate items: a routine (the recurring check-in or work session) and a milestone task (the project itself). Combining them creates ambiguity about what "completion" means each period.

Lead Time on Daily Routines Daily routines skip the lead time calculation entirely — the urgency engine places them directly by tier and skip streak. Tier I lands in Mandatory; Tier II–IV land in Suggested (Tier II escalates to Mandatory after five consecutive skips). Setting a lead time on a daily routine is inert. The setting is harmless, but has no effect.

Rigid vs. Flexible — Choosing Honestly Rigid means the day is the commitment — missing it forfeits the period. Flexible means the period is the commitment — any day in the window works. Neither choice says anything about how important the commitment is; that's what Tier is for. If you mark a Flexible commitment as Rigid, you'll get urgency signals that don't match reality, which trains you to ignore them. If you mark a Rigid commitment as Flexible, a real deadline gets treated as a suggestion.

End Condition on a One-Time Task A one-time task already has a natural end — when you complete it. The "After Date" end condition is meaningful for recurring commitments (stop the recurrence after this date). On a non-recurring task, it's redundant with the due date.

Multiple-Per-Period + Milestone These two features don't interact as designed. "Multiple per period" tracks how many times you've completed something in a window (e.g., 2 of 3 this week). "Milestone" tracks cumulative progress on a single long-horizon project. Combining them creates behavior that isn't well-defined. If you need to track N work sessions per week on a project, the routine is the session commitment — the milestone is the project endpoint. Keep them separate.

"A well-configured commitment is one where every setting is there for a reason you can name. If you can't explain why a setting is set the way it is, it's probably wrong — or the commitment type is wrong." — CLEAR design notes

Quick Reference: What Goes Where

Setting	Goals	Ideas	Routines	Tasks
Consequence Tier	—	—	✓	✓
Deadline Type	—	—	✓ Rigid / Flexible (not shown for daily cadence)	✓ Rigid / Flexible (not shown for daily cadence)
Milestone	—	—	✓ toggle; works with either deadline type	✓ toggle; works with either deadline type
Cadence / Recurrence	—	—	✓ Typically indefinite	✓ May repeat; always has an end
Schedule Mode	—	—	✓ Fixed or rolling	✓ Fixed or rolling
Target / Due Date	✓ Aspirational stake in the ground	—	✓ Anchors urgency band	✓ Anchors urgency band
Time of Day	—	—	✓ Sorting only	✓ Sorting only
Lead Time	—	—	✓ Rigid & flexible; no effect on daily	✓ Rigid & flexible; no effect on daily
Start Date	—	—	✓ Recurring only	✓ Recurring only
End Condition	—	—	✓ Rarely — routines usually run forever	✓ Common — tasks end
Pause	—	—	✓ Temporary suspension	✓ Temporary suspension
Linked Tasks	✓ Shows what advances this goal	—	—	—
Linked Goal	—	✓ Optional context	—	—
Area of Responsibility	✓	✓	✓	✓