Today we want to share with you the PARA method, created by Tiago Forte, which we cover in depth in our Vernetze dein Gedächtnis course. This system will help you organise your digital information and we also apply it within the eduARC team!
What criteria do you use to sort the files on your computer? Do you sort them by date or by subject? Where do you keep what you no longer need? Do you usually find what you are looking for or at times you don't even know where to start looking?
PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives. These are the four categories that will contain all the information you manage, either for work or in your personal life (e.g. your interests). The most important characteristics of the PARA method are the following: it is universal, flexible, simple, practical, applicable to all your platforms, result-oriented, flexible and opportunistic.
Let's go category by category.
Projects
Definition: a series of tasks with an objective within a given time frame.
Examples: write a blog post; develop plan for XY project; translate article; finish your CV; finalise product specs; go to a conference.
Your projects will contain different smaller tasks associated with them and your projects will also fit into your areas. It is important that your projects have a deadline for completion and that you can break them down into more manageable tasks that keep you moving forward and not getting stuck.
Areas
Definition: a sphere of activity with standards that are maintained over time.
Examples: Hobbies; Finances; Professional Development; Home; Car; Productivity; Writing; Health; Pets.
To make the concept of areas clear, here are some examples:
- Running 5 kilometres is a project; Health is an area.
- Writing a blog post is a project; Writing is an area;
- Traveling to Mexico is a project; Traveling is an area.
Resources
Definition: a resource is a topic of regular interest.
Examples: habit formation; classical guitar; urban gardening; coffee; baking; online marketing; interior design; etymology; etc.
The difference between Areas and Resources is that areas are personal and resources could be shared with anyone. You can have a Finance area with information that corresponds to your personal economy and a resource that is also titled Finance in which you keep articles on investment, finance, stock market... that you could share with other people and that do not contain personal information.
Archive
Definition: inactive items from the previous categories
Examples: completed or inactive projects; areas for which you are no longer responsible; resources that no longer interest you.
Having an Archive is the best thing! The Archive is not the recycle bin. You don't have to throw anything away forever. You will find everything that is inactive or on hold (e.g., postponed travel plans, projects that you got bored of...). When you want to resurrect something for another project or just look at all the things you've accomplished to make your annual review shine, there they are, in your archive. This has been a very subtle but very key move for us, it provides a lot of space and peace of mind.
The problem with not defining your projects and confusing them with areas
According to Tiago there are three things you can't do if you don't divide your areas into projects:
First, you can't know if you are covering too much or too little. Without knowing what projects you are going to do with your areas you can't know if they are going to take up a week or fifteen minutes. With a goal like "health" you can't plan anything in the short term. If you create projects like "complete a 5K run" and "eat vegetables and salad six times a week" you are making concrete and much more achievable plans than keeping the "health" area.
Second, you can't connect your daily steps to your long-term goals. The idea is to break down your areas into projects that are very achievable. It is very demotivating if your to-do list never changes. If you are closing small projects every week, you will build momentum and motivation.
And third, you can't know if you are making progress towards your goals. A very enlightening exercise is to make a list of your projects and try to connect it to your goals.
A project that doesn't belong to any goal is a hobby (one without clear ambitions!)
And a goal without a project is a dream.
The key is to define your projects - or they will define you. If you don't have a list of your own projects there will be other people who have plans for you to help them with their projects. If someone offers you help you won't know where to direct them because you won't have concrete plans.
How to get started with PARA
We encourage you to take a big leap and put all of your files into a folder called "Archive" within another folder with today's date. It would look something like this:
Putting all of your files inside an Archive helps with the initial overwhelm of having to spend mental and time resources in thinking what goes where. Do this oportunistically and do not allocate time to organize your files! Pull them out to the other categories only if needed.
Finally, write down your list of projects on paper first before creating. Normally you will use more than one application to carry out your projects, so writing them down outside the digital environment will help you focus.
The PARA system gives you the consistency of having everything centralised and the advantage that decentralisation is very flexible. It's about working opportunistically and creating what you need at any given moment.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this approach to organising your digital life! Let us know in the comments.