PARA Method: 4 steps to organize all your digital information
Proven, minimalist and flexible
🏷️ Categories: Mental models, Minimalism, Software.
It's happened to you too.
Have you ever had the feeling that your digital life is in chaos?
A new project starts with you creating a simple folder on your computer. So far, so good, but that order falls apart very quickly. Files multiply, you make subfolders that seem like a good idea at first but then confuse more than help, and in the end, finding a document is a headache.
You spend more time searching than doing.
Sound familiar to you too?
This chaos doesn't just happen at work; it happens at all levels: personal projects, plans, day-to-day tasks... And what to do to stop it from happening? Well, there's a proven, minimalist and flexible method to organize your digital environment.
Use the PARA method.
Let me tell you...
What is the PARA Method?
It is based on the idea that all information can be divided into 4 categories:
Projects: Short-term efforts with a clear and definite end goal.
Areas: Ongoing aspects of your life or work that require constant attention.
Resources: Topics, interests that you explore and learn or information that you can use.
Archive: Information that is not active but that you want to keep for future reference.
PARA does not sort by topic like traditional methods, but by level of action. It guides you towards your tasks and goals; towards getting value out of the information. Best of all, it's flexible enough to adapt to any digital tool: your computer, Google Drive, Notion, Obsidian, Zettelkasten...
You can use PARA in any digital environment.
How to apply the PARA Method
With PARA, each file has a clear purpose, the subject or category is the least of it. You categorize it by what you are doing with it, not by where it “looks” like it fits according to the subject.
The question is not “What is it about?” but “What is it good for?”.
1. Projects: What you do now
Projects are tasks with a clear objective and completion date.
Complete the design of a web page.
Renovate your bathroom.
Plan for your summer trip.
Next Substack article.
If you notice, they can all have a clear end date and the goal is clear.
Create a folder called Projects and within it, subfolders for each active project. When you complete a project, move it to the Archive (below you will see what the archive is and what it is for).
2. Areas: Your daily maintenance
Areas are responsibilities in our lives that require continuous attention.
Work: Marketing, Human Resources.
Personal: Health, Personal Finance, Family, Sports, Writing.
Again, make a folder called Areas and organize each area into subfolders. This way you will clearly see your permanent responsibilities and your temporary projects.
3. Resources: Your personal library
Resources are topics that interest you or that you are working on in the long term. In this folder is everything that can be useful to you now or in the future.
Notes on language learning.
Notes on graphic design.
Books, articles, photos, addresses, contacts...
Again, create a folder called Resources and subfolders for everything you are studying or are interested in. Always think about the purpose, not the subject matter.
4. Archive: Save the inactive but valuable
The archive is where everything that is no longer active but could be useful goes.
Completed projects.
Resources you no longer study or need.
Areas of responsibility that have changed.
Frequently review and move inactive things to the archive to maintain order.
Let's look at the examples just shown within PARA.
📁 Projects: Objectives or plans with a clear completion date.
📁 Web design (With all the tasks and steps of the design project).
📁 Bathroom renovation (With renovation information and budget).
📁 Summer trip (With the destinations, itinerary and dates).
📁 Substack article (With the draft and notes you took)
📁 Areas: responsibilities that require your work. No clear deadline.
📁 Marketing (With performance metrics and weekly meetings).
📁 Human Resources (Staff performance evaluations).
📁 Health (With exercise schedules and diets you do on a daily basis).
📁 Finance (With monthly budgets and expense spreadsheets)
📁 Resources: useful information, but not directly used in projects or areas.
📁 Languages (With grammar guides, vocabulary lists, practice materials, and learning resources such as apps or podcasts).
📁 Graphic design (With templates, tutorials, downloaded graphic elements, and resources on tools such as Photoshop or Illustrator).
📁 Books (With a list of books to read, summaries of books read, and links to reviews or related resources).
📁 Archive
📁 Archived projects (With all completed projects and sorted by completion date).
📁 Archived areas (With areas that no longer require maintenance, but may be useful later).
📁 Archived resources (With old or less relevant reference materials, saved in case they are needed in the future).
Usually, your areas define your life, and from them your projects and resources are born.
Avoid this common mistake:
The key to getting organized is to prioritize according to its usefulness, not according to its subject. Even if something belongs to the same topic, its level of activity or usefulness may be different, and that defines where it should go.
For example:
If you work in marketing and read a marketing book, you keep it in Resources → Marketing Books, because it is reference material and will be useful.
If you read science fiction for pleasure, you keep it in Resources → Fiction Books to keep it separate. It's a book, but you won't have any practical use for it.
Don't make a generic “Travel” folder. If you're planning a trip for the summer, create an active project: Projects → Summer Trip. There you will include everything relevant to that trip. If you have general ideas or future travel dreams, create something like Resources → Future Trips to save ideas that are not a priority.
The important thing is what the information is for.
Something actionable now (an ongoing project) goes in Projects.
Something that requires ongoing maintenance (such as your marketing responsibility) goes in Areas.
Something that serves as reference material or for the future goes in Resources.
Something already inactive or completed goes in Archive.
For example, look what happens with the “Marketing” theme, you can have:
In Projects: An advertising campaign you are launching.
In Areas: Strategies and metrics you're working on on an ongoing basis.
In Resources: Books, tutorials, or tools you might need.
In Archive: Reports from previous campaigns already completed.
It doesn't matter so much what it's about, but what level of action it requires.
The PARA Method keeps you focused on the practical and what you can leverage from the information you consume. Traditional organizations by theme are not comfortable in life, because they don't fit practical life.
If you're tired of digital chaos, adopt PARA and you'll see the difference.
✍️ It's your turn: What do you think of the method and are you going to put it into practice? I, after using it for almost 3 months, have integrated it into my Zettelkasten to give that practical approach to all the information I collect and learn.
💭 Quote of the day: “Many people learned to take notes in school. Probably the first thing they would tell you was to write something down because it would show up on the test. This implied that as soon as the exam was over, you wouldn't refer back to those notes...”. — Tiago Forte.
See you soon, hugs! 👋
References 📚
Forte, T. (2022). Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential.