In his book, The PARA Method: Simplify, Organise, and Master Your Digital Life, Tiago Forte posits that all information in our lives can be distilled into four categories:
- Projects: These are short-term tasks aimed at achieving specific goals, such as completing a webpage design or renovating a bathroom.
- Areas of Responsibility: These entail broader, ongoing aspects of work and personal life, like job roles in Marketing or Product Management, and personal areas like Health or Finances.
- Resources: These cover topics of interest, ranging from graphic design to organic gardening, serving as reference and learning points.
- Archives: This category houses inactive items from the previous three categories, such as completed projects or resources no longer of interest.
Forte emphasizes that while it may seem oversimplified to categorize a multifaceted life into four sections, the brilliance lies in its simplicity.
An overly intricate system can be burdensome, writes Forte, and can detract from the energy needed to live life productively and to stay organized.
To ensure that we not only get organized but stay organized, we need to adopt what Forte calls the three core habits of organization.
Let’s look at each in turn.
The Three Core Habits of Organization
1. Organize According to Outcome
Forte underscores the importance of seeing organization not as a mere aesthetic endeavor but as a tool to achieve meaningful outcomes. While tidying up can be gratifying, the real objective is to advance towards our goals.
PARA simplifies this by encouraging decisions that propel us forward, eliminating unnecessary labeling, and focusing solely on completing projects without distractions. It’s crucial to protect the “Projects” category from irrelevant information.
Forte advises readers to always have a clear end goal in mind, discerning only the essential information needed to achieve it and setting aside the rest. Organization should be a means to an end, not the end itself.
2. Organize Just In Time
Forte presents an unconventional viewpoint on organization: organize minimally and only when truly necessary. According to Forte, organizing doesn’t have intrinsic value unless it fosters effective action. For that reason, the PARA approach is minimalistic, favoring small adjustments as circumstances evolve.
This “bottom-up” method grows organically with life’s changes. Instead of preemptively organizing digital content for potential future use, Forte advises waiting until a clear need arises, then organizing “just in time” for the immediate project. Moreover, organizing just in time avoids unnecessary preliminary work and conserves energy for when our objective is definite.
3. Keep Things Informal
Forte emphasizes that the only aspect demanding precision is defining projects and that the rest of our notetaking should embrace a certain level of messiness. Over-organizing can diminish the value of information, says Forte, potentially hindering the formation of innovative ideas that arise from random connections.
Forte doesn’t advocate for intricate folder structures, either. Nor does he recommend standardizing note templates, having deep subfolder hierarchies, or using databases for personal data. Instead, he believes that these practices, while appearing efficient, consume time that could be better spent interacting with the ideas directly.
Moreover, over-complicating organizational systems not only wastes time but can stifle creativity. Instead, favor simplicity over complexity to ensure the system remains flexible and user-friendly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the PARA Method emphasizes simplicity and outcome-based organization by categorizing all information into four sections. Adopt the three core habits of organization — organizing by outcome, organizing just in time, and keeping things informal — to maximize your productivity and creativity while minimizing unnecessary work.
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