PARA method

Tiago Forte's PARA method of organizing digital information consists of four primary categories of content, arranged from most to least actionable:

• Projects: Things I'm actively working on with a goal and deadline. The desired outcomes of projects take more than one working session to accomplish. Examples: Product launch, birthday party, sales presentation, marathon training.

• Areas: My roles & responsibilities with a standard to be maintained and no end date.
  • Personally relevant info goes here. Examples: Spouse, soccer coach, productivity, health, travel, finances.
• Resources: Things I'm interested in and curious about.
  • Generally relevant info goes here. Examples: Science fiction, recipes, gardening, slide templates, code snippets.
• Archives: Completed or inactive things. Examples: Completed event, inactive side project, last year's marathon, past client project.

PARA advises people to organize by project, not by topic (such as psychology or marketing) or kind of information (quotes, book notes, insights). This keeps the most relevant information in a smaller bucket, making it easier to find.

A workflow to help decide where to put a new piece of information:

1. Will this help me move a project or goal forward? If yes, log it under a project.
2. Will this help me uphold an area of responsibility? If yes, log it under an area.
3. Will it support one of my interests and curiosities? If yes, log it under a resource.
4. Is it really worth keeping? Probably not!

Rules for success:

1. Never create an empty folder before you have something to put in it. Create a new folder, tag, directory, or container only if and when you truly need it.
2. There's no ONE correct place for any piece of information. Any given file or document can go any number of places. Don't overthink this decision. Use your intuition, rather than trying to categorize everything perfectly.
3. Move quickly, touch lightly. PARA is a dynamic system. Use your intuition when organizing, rather than trying to categorize everything perfectly. Once you've added a note or document, it doesn't have to stay in that location forever. Move it to where you need it most.
4. Search is your friend. When you're looking for a piece of information within PARA, use the search function first. You'll often find it much quicker than going into individual folders.
5. When in doubt, start over. If at any time you start to feel overwhelmed by the information swirling around you, move everything into an archive with today's date, and start fresh.