PARA method
Sort every note and file into projects, areas, resources or archives
Four folders, repeated in every place you keep information. Projects hold short efforts with a finish line, Areas the responsibilities that never end, Resources the topics you might want one day, Archives everything now dormant. Placement follows what a note is useful for right now, not which subject it belongs under. That is why the same note moves between folders as your work moves. Tiago Forte built and named the system, and it has spread well past his own students, mostly because setting it up takes under a minute. The reported difficulty is not filing but resisting the urge to grow deeper trees underneath.
Who backs it
Sorted by strength of stance
- Tiago ForteDoes it
Productivity writer · Building a Second Brain
Developed the four-folder system over more than a decade of his own experimentation, teaching thousands of students and coaching professionals, he says. Filing goes by what a piece of information is useful for right now, which project or area or resource, rather than by the subject it sits under.
Source: fortelabs.com: The PARA Method
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