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A whirlwind tour of the PARA Method

· 5 min read

I have been using a version of the PARA method for a few years now. It is what has worked better for my brain than other methods. This post is aimed generally at anyone interested in note taking methods, and specifically at a co-worker who asked about the note taking method I use like a month ago. (Sorry for the delay, $COWORKER. Hopefully this is still useful.) There are plenty of articles and videos that go over the method, so I could just share one of those. Unfortunately, many of them cover only the main folders, and skip the information that explains how it actually works in practice. I will try to fill in some of those gaps.

note

PARA was originally designed for Evernote and Google Drive. As such, it's described in terms of folders. That's what I use in Obsidian, and what I will use in this post. However, if links or tags make more sense to you, feel to use them instead/also.

Typical introduction to PARA​

PARA uses 4 main folders, which make up the acronym.

  • Projects are short term things with clear goals for completion. They are often related to an Area. At work, my projects are mostly JIRA tickets.
  • Areas (short for Areas of Responsibility) are long term things where you have to maintain a standard over time. At work, I have areas like "IC on $TEAM", and recurring meetings.
  • Resources are miscellaneous things you know which are not part of a project or area. Like a personal knowledge base. At work, my resources are things like important concepts in our app, our code, our environments, our clients, or jargon for the industry we serve.
  • Archives are where you put things from the other 3 folders when your done with them.

Sometimes folks prefix the folder name with a number to maintain the order in the filesystem. So e.g. 1. Projects, 2. Areas, 3. Resources and 4. Areas

What other introductions miss​

Customization​

I'm putting this first because it's so important, and so often ignored. The method is simple on purpose and intended to be customized. If you prefer different folders, change them.

The books gives the examples of using "Hot" and "Cold" instead of the typical folders, or using "Wiki" instead of "Resources".

For what it's worth, I think this is something that gets missed in descriptions of most personal knowledge management methods, not just PARA. The Personal in Personal Knowledge Management describes not just the knowledge you manage, but also how you the manage that knowledge. The methods that other people use can be a starting point. Certainly, do your best to understand them, if only to plumb them for ideas. But if they aren't aligned to how your brain works, they probably won't work for you, and you should modify or ignore them.

The Inbox and Someday folders​

There are two auxiliary folders

  • Inbox is where everything starts. Go through this periodically to file things in the correct folders
  • Someday is where you put stuff you'd like to eventually get to but don't have time for right now.

Organize for actionablility​

Put notes where where they are most useful right now. What counts as "most useful" will change over time, so moving files around is expected. This is also why you archive things you don't need anymore: some of it might be useful later on.

For example, if you are working on a ticket that requires learning a new technology, or learning more about a particular section of your code base, then put them in the project folder for the ticket. Afterwards, you might move to the area folder for your team, or perhaps to resources.

Don't stress this too much, trying to find the "perfect" location. Search helps here, and if you use something like Obsidian, you can always link it also.

Archives are not immutable​

The term "Archives" might be a misnomer. For me, it conjured images of old newspapers on microfilm. This is not the case. It is by design that you will go back to your archives and pull things out when they become relevant again. Archives are your life story, not a static snapshot.

Consistent structure across platforms.​

You should maintain the same structure in all platforms, but only create the folders you need. For example, if you use Obsidian for the bulk of your notes but you also keep some files for one of your project folders on Google Drive, then Google Drive should have that one project folder, but not the others.

Maintenance​

You need to do periodically review your system and do maintenance. The books recommend a Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Reviews. I do my daily reviews in the morning and they are pretty light. Mostly going through meetings from the day before and processing them, and migrating incomplete tasks to the next daily journal (journals are not part of PARA as described, but I recommend them).

Further reading​

PARA was invented by Tiago Forte, originally to help him manage a chronic illness. If you want to learn more, I recommend reading his work. He has a lot of free resources on his website, Forte Labs. He also sells a course for $500 because of course he does. You can skip it.

Instead, I recommend his books. If memory serves, they are about $10 each.

  • Building a Second Brain goes over why you might want such a system, covers a bit of history, and introduces the method.
  • The PARA Method skips the history and philosophy and focuses squarely on the method itself. It's sort of a manual for the method.