Trying out the PARA Method

Posted on January 21, 2022

The problem with productivity tools (task managers, note taking apps, etc.) is that you never seem to stop changing things. As they say, you spend more time working on productivity than being productive. However, I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing – or maybe I’m trying to justify changing up my system… again.

The PARA Method was invented by Tiago Forte and he lays out the method in 2 blog posts:

• The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information
• PARA Part 2: Operations Manual

Some of the main ideas behind it are a) it’s simple, yet organized and b) it’s cross application.

The basic structure is a series of lists:

• Projects – relate to Area of Responsibility, but only contains actionable items and has an end date/goal
• Areas – Ongoing areas of responsibility – father, spouse, manager, finance, health
• Resources – Topics of interest, not responsibility – gardening, music, etc.
• Archive – Any of the above lists (Projects, Areas, Resource) that are no longer active

Being cross application might be the biggest advantage over any other methodology – you don’t need to stick to just one app, which is almost impossible anyways – but you set up the same structure across whatever apps you use – Evernote, Todoist, Google Drive, doesn’t matter.

Tiago shows this image on the blog post:

Like any method, I’m not sure it’s the holy grail – but as Tiago mentions, there probably isn’t one and something is better than nothing. So I’m planning to try this method out for awhile and see what I like and what I dislike.