Folder Structure P.A.R.A.

Last updated Jan 6, 2025

There is now also a book: Amazon.com: The PARA Method: Simplify, Organize, and Master Your Digital Life eBook : Forte, Tiago: Kindle Store

The only folders you need are four:

• A project is “a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.”

Examples include: Complete app mockup; Develop project plan; Execute business development campaign; Write blog post; Finalize product specifications; Attend conference

• An area of responsibility is “a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.”

Examples include: Health; Finances, Professional Development; Travel; Hobbies; Friends; Apartment; Car; Productivity; Direct reports; Product Development; Writing

• A resource is “a topic or theme of ongoing interest.”

Examples include: habit formation; project management; transhumanism; coffee; music; gardening; online marketing; SEO; interior design; architecture; note-taking

• Archives* include “inactive items from the other three categories.”

Examples include: projects that have been completed or become inactive; areas that you are no longer committed to maintaining; resources that you are no longer interested in

Each Project must have a clear goal and an end time. This helps me to organise it correctly

Hobbies and dreams must not be in projects and goals! They are good to have, but not here.

• define your projects apart from any particular program or tool. You** will always need to use multiple programs to complete projects. You may use a centralized platform like Basecamp, Asana, Jira, or Zoho**, but technology is advancing too quickly on too many fronts for any one company to do every single function best.
• formulate your Project List and then replicate that list across every single tool you use, now and in the future. I recommend doing so down to the exact same spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, so that your transitions between programs are as seamless as possible.

• use only four levels deep (using Evernote as an example, the levels would be: application > stacks > notebooks > notes).
  • The number four has been called “magic” due to research indicating it seems to be the natural limit of all sorts of cognitive processes magical number 4 in short-term memory

between actionable and non-actionable information

Source: https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/ or the book The PARA Method.

Below you see PARA in the context of Building a Second Brain - Tiago Forte:

See more on Building a Second Brain Visual.

See My Zettelkasten Workflow.

PARA is not “invention” of Forte. It is quite old, common-sense and logical concept, reiterating again and again and just marketed by new gurus. E.g. Allen (GTD) recommended very similar distinction to Projects-Areas etc. Many old books about PKM advice on organising based on your projects/area of interest. (“Resources” are IMO the same like Areas and thus not necessary. Archive for old stuff is logical, you do not have to read guru for that.) Just a Markdown editor : r/ObsidianMD

Origin: Tiago Forte
References:
Created 2022-08-27