A small vocabulary,
used precisely.
PathNav organizes your life along two axes. What you’re doing (the ladder: Vision → Pillar → Endeavor → Goal → Milestone → Task) and what supports it (your Chronicle of past wins, Incoming signals, and parked ideas).
We use familiar planning words — Goal, Milestone, Task — the same as Asana, Todoist, and Things. Where we add a term, it earns its place.
The ladder 8 levels
Everything in PathNav sits somewhere on this ladder. Moving up means longer horizon and less concrete; moving down means shorter horizon and more actionable.
We use familiar words — Goal, Milestone, Task — the same as Asana / Todoist / Things. We add three: Vision (the why), Life Pillar (the where), and Endeavor (the what, when one thing serves many pillars at once).
Core objects the 11 nouns
Every object in PathNav is one of these ten. Read top-to-bottom on your first pass.
Vision
singular · long-termA single sentence in your own voice describing who you're becoming — with a specific date attached.
The Vision is the root of PathNav. It never moves automatically; nothing else in the app changes its wording. You write it. The Guide can help you refine it.
Life Pillar
ongoing · categoricalA lifelong domain of your life — Physical Health, Finance, Relationships, Career, and so on. Pillars never finish. They hold your life up.
Each Pillar has its own color and emoji that threads through every Goal, Milestone, and Task beneath it. You use Pillars to answer "is my life actually balanced?"
Goal
outcome · has a deadlineA concrete thing you intend to accomplish by a specific date. A Goal has a clear yes / no completion state — you either did it or you didn't.
Every Goal belongs to exactly one Life Pillar, inherits its color, and contains a list of Milestones that when completed achieve the Goal.
Endeavor
multi-pillar container · long-livedA named undertaking that usually serves more than one Life Pillar — a hobby, side business, creative pursuit, or lifelong practice. Endeavors can sleep, revive, and outlive any single delivery.
An Endeavor is tagged with one or more Pillars rather than owned by one — a YouTube channel can be Career + Finance + Hobby at once. It holds Endeavor Phases (bounded deliveries), plus loose Goals, Habits, and Recurring Tasks.
Endeavor Phase
bounded delivery inside an EndeavorA time-bounded stretch of work inside an Endeavor. An Endeavor Phase has a start, an end, and a shipped outcome — a season of episodes, a launch, a training block.
Milestone
meaningful chunk · worth celebratingA meaningful chunk of work on the way to a Goal. Milestones are the main units PathNav tracks day-to-day — they show up in every view.
Every Milestone has a due date and a state pip: done ✓, in progress ◐, pending ○, overdue ⚠. Tasks roll up into Milestones; Milestones roll up into Goals.
Task
atom of actionThe smallest unit of work in PathNav — something you can actually do in one sitting, usually 5 minutes to an hour.
Tasks have a checkbox and, optionally, a due date. A Task can live under a Milestone, a Project, a Pillar directly, or stand alone in the Inbox until you decide where it belongs.
Subtask
checklist item inside a taskA step inside a single Task. Subtasks are checkboxes on a checklist — they inherit the parent Task's due date and project.
Use Subtasks when a Task is really one sitting of work but has clear internal steps you want to check off. If your "subtasks" have their own due dates or owners, they're probably Tasks — or you want a Task Sequence.
Recurring Task
repeats on a schedule · streak-bearingA Task that repeats on a cadence — daily, weekly, every weekday, monthly. Each occurrence is a distinct check-off, and PathNav tracks a streak of consecutive hits.
Use Recurring Tasks when the same action needs to happen on a rhythm — meditate daily, write 20 min weekdays, call Mom Sundays. Missing an occurrence breaks the streak but doesn't delete the task.
Task Sequence
ordered one-time chainA list of Tasks that must be completed in order — each step unlocks the next. The Sequence finishes when the last step is done; it does not repeat.
Use a Sequence when order matters: onboarding a new client, setting up a home gym, filing taxes. The active step is highlighted; future steps show a lock.
Habit
pillar-level rhythm · open-endedA recurring behavior tied to a Life Pillar, not to a specific Goal. Habits don't finish — they compound.
A Habit is a standing promise to a part of your life. It tracks streaks, shows on the Dashboard, and persists even when Goals come and go.
Daily surfaces what you see each morning
These aren't objects you create — they're curated views of the objects above, refreshed daily.
Today
daily listEvery Task, Recurring Task, and Habit scheduled for today, plus anything overdue. The flat, honest list of what's on the hook right now.
Daily Quest
curated bundle · playfulA hand-picked bundle of 3–5 items from Today, chosen by you (or suggested by the Guide) as the things that would make today count.
Today is everything due; a Quest is what would make today a win. Finishing the whole Quest awards bonus XP and counts toward your streak.
Inbox
capture zoneA holding pen for anything you capture without deciding where it belongs. Tasks in the Inbox have no Pillar, no Goal, no date — just a line of text.
The Inbox is where friction goes to die. Dump the thought now, sort it later. The Guide can batch-suggest Pillars and Goals during a weekly review.
Pillar vocabulary domain-specific terms
Each Life Pillar has its own specialized objects — things that only make sense within that area. Goals, Milestones, and Tasks apply everywhere; the terms below are pillar-native.
Physical Health
Body, movement, sleep, nutrition.
Mental Health
Mood, stress, reflection, therapy, mindfulness.
Finance
Money flowing in, out, and accumulating.
Relationships
People you care about and how you tend to them.
Career
Work, craft, and professional trajectory.
Learning
Skills, knowledge, curiosity, deliberate practice.
Hobbies
Play, creativity, joy. Not everything needs a goal.
State what lifecycle an object is in
Most objects in PathNav — Endeavors, Endeavor Phases, Goals, Habits — carry a state. State determines where it shows up and how much attention it demands.
Chronicle what you've already done
Everywhere else in PathNav points forward. The Chronicle is the one place that points back — a durable record of completed work, earned credentials, and lived experiences. It's what makes a lifelong tool feel lifelong.
When a Goal is completed, an Endeavor Phase ships, or an Endeavor closes, it flows here automatically. You can also add Chronicle entries directly for things that happened before PathNav.
Incoming what comes at you
Objects you didn't author. The app (or someone else) put them in front of you, and you decide what to do with them. Keeping these distinct from your own plans is the whole point of the Inbox.
Parked & someday not now, but not gone
Not everything is ready to become a Goal. These are the holding places for ideas, wants, and diversions — kept out of your active plans but not lost.