The PARA Method: Simplify, Organize, and Master Your Digital Life

by Tiago Forte

The only reward from reading a book like this one comes from putting what you learn into practice, and you can do that after you’ve read just the first five chapters.

You will make things happen: You will consistently finish what you start, beating procrastination and tapping into your past learning to make progress fast.

Your creativity and productivity will soar: You will have access to a playground of your own ideas to finally do the creative work that’s been locked up inside you.

the ultimate system for organizing your life is one that is actionable.

You have projects you’re actively working on—short-term efforts (whether in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind.

You have areas of responsibility—important parts of your work and life that require ongoing attention more broadly.

Then you have resources5 on a range of topics you’re interested in and learning about,

Finally, you have archives, which include anything from the previous three categories that is no longer active but you might want to save for future reference:

Your system must give you time, not take time.

What you do have, both at work and in life, are outcomes you are trying to achieve.

we are seeking any little thing we can polish or tidy to avoid having to face the task we are dreading.

Reusing these knowledge assets not only saves me tremendous amounts of time—it makes me feel like I’m starting a marathon at the halfway point, instead of at the starting line like everyone else.

that has: A goal that will enable you to mark it “complete” A deadline or timeframe by which you’d like it done

An area of responsibility has: A standard to be maintained An indefinite end date

projects end, while areas continue indefinitely.

Think of projects as sprints—you are sprinting to reach the finish line as fast as possible. Areas are like marathons—you have to sustain a consistent level of performance over a long distance.

“Area people” excel at marathons. Send them on a long journey and they will doggedly keep at it for as long as it takes.

realize that there is a big difference between things you are directly responsible for and things you are merely interested in. I

Areas of responsibility are inherently private. It’s no one else’s business what material you save

which digital storage medium is best for any given piece of information: If it’s an appointment or meeting happening at a specific time, it goes on my calendar If it’s a task that I can complete anytime, it goes in my to-do list app If it’s text, it goes in my notetaking app (since that offers the best search function by which to find it again) If it’s content that I’ll be collaborating on with others, it goes in my cloud storage drive10 If it can’t go in any of the above locations (because it’s too large or a specialized file type, for example), then it goes in my computer’s file system (the Documents folder) Note that four of the platforms mentioned above are organized using PARA: To-do list app (projects and areas only, since these are the two categories that have tasks associated with them)11 Notetaking app Cloud storage drive Computer file system

How would your work change if every tool at your disposal was propelling you forward and easing the path toward the future you want to create?

you have to keep the information moving

At that point, we don’t have time to “do more research”—we need to already have done that research through our reading and notetaking.

Here are my top four recommendations for how to do that using PARA within teams: Get clear on your organization’s flavor of PARA Train people in how to use PARA Keep only shared projects on shared platforms Encourage a culture of writing

List Your Current Projects Set a timer for five minutes (which is enough for a “first pass”) and write down anything that comes to mind when you read the following questions, whether they are work-related or personal: What’s currently worrying you? What problem is taking more mental bandwidth than it deserves? What needs to happen that you’re not making consistent progress on? What actions are you already taking that are part of a bigger project you’ve not yet identified? What would you like to learn, develop, build, express, pursue, start, explore, or play with? Which skills would you like to learn and which hobbies would you like to start? What kind of project could advance your career or make your life more fun or interesting?

Add a Goal for Each Project Remember that a project is any endeavor that has: A goal A deadline (or other timeframe) Take a minute and add a goal for each project on your list in parentheses. For example: Project: Visit the doctor about back pain (Goal: Back pain is resolved and I can sleep through the night without discomfort) Project: Plan off-site agenda for staff retreat (Goal: Team is clear about what needs to be accomplished and next steps are assigned) Project: Develop sales campaign with Linda (Goal: Sales campaign is approved by exec team and budget is allocated)

Add Deadlines or Timeframes Next, go through the list one more time and add completion dates. Don’t get hung up on whether this is a strict “deadline” or simply the date by which you prefer to have it done. You can add dates to each item on your list by adding “by…” at the end. For example: Project: Visit the doctor about back pain by Friday, Feb. 24 (Goal: Back pain is resolved and I can sleep through the night without discomfort) Project: Plan off-site agenda for staff retreat by end of Q3 (Goal: Team is clear about what needs to be accomplished and next steps are assigned) Project: Develop sales campaign with Linda by next executive meeting (Goal: Sales campaign is approved by exec team and budget is allocated)

Prioritize Your List You aren’t very likely to make progress on every single project on your list in a given week, or even most of them. The key here is to prioritize only for the upcoming week. For just next week, which projects should be taking up most of your mental bandwidth? Put those at the top. Which ones should be taking up little or none of your bandwidth next week? Put those at the bottom. Your only goal in a given week is to make progress on a handful of projects near the top of that list.

Reevaluate Your Project List Now that you have a full inventory of everything you’re committed to this week, you have the chance to ask some difficult but incredibly illuminating questions of yourself: Which goals or priorities you say are important to you don’t have any projects associated with them? (These are called “dreams,” since they aren’t likely to happen in the near term.) Which projects you’re spending a lot of time on don’t have any goals associated with them? (These are called “hobbies,” because without a goal in mind, they are likely “just for fun.”) Which projects can you cancel, postpone, reduce in scope, delegate, outsource, or clarify? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with dreams and hobbies, by the way. They are just as important and necessary parts of our lives, but don’t confuse them with your projects and areas. All we’re doing is aligning where your time and energy are going with what is truly important to you. In the bustle of daily life it’s too easy to let them drift out of alignment. Before we know it, we’re neglecting everything we claim matters most to us, while pouring our precious time into things we know aren’t important at all. The five steps I’ve just taken you through can become part of a “weekly review.” You can walk through them once a week, or anytime you feel overwhelmed or stretched too thin, and I guarantee you’ll emerge in minutes with a newfound sense of clarity and purpose.

When a new idea is first forming, it is highly vulnerable. Like an infant, it has a lot of potential but needs to be protected from all kinds of risks and threats—the threat of self-doubt, the risk of being criticized by others, and your own fear that it isn’t good enough. The idea can’t survive on its own yet, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. It just needs time and space to develop to its ultimate potential,

PARA can be used to cultivate three of the most desirable states of mind for knowledge workers: focus, creativity, and a sense of perspective.

In order to focus, we need to step away from the incessant notifications of the Internet and withdraw to a private, secluded place.

When you have a collection of interesting ideas, thoughtfully curated, all related to a single project or goal and collected in one central place, magical things begin to happen.