PARA

1.1.1.1. the perfect organizational system have to be:

1.1.1.2. P.A.R.A stands for Projects-Areas-Resources-Archives

1. Project
   

   A series of tasks linked to a concrete goal, with a deadline which can be either
   a specific date or a checking point
   

2. Area of responsibility
   

   A sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time (indefinitely)
   requiring a certain level of attention at all times
   

3. Resource
   

   A topic or theme of ongoing interest
   

4. Archives
   

   Inactive items from the other three categories
   

1.1.1.3. Break areas into small projects

1.1.1.4. Projects vs Areas

1.1.1.5. Hobby

1.1.1.6. Dream

1.1.1.7. Standarize your organizational scheme

1.1.1.8. Two primary sins of organizational overengineering

1.1.1.9. Principles of PARA

1.1.2.1. 1. Definitions and distinctions

1. Project vs areas
   
   1. Why not use Areas of Responsibility as the top level of your hierarchy, and then drill down into each one to find the projects within them?
      
      1. separating the very small amount of actionable information from the much larger amount of non-actionable information
         
      2. visual and mental clutter (only 4 categories at the beggining, not the number of areas which may be ~20,30)
         

      -—
      It’s not that important to associate projects very directly with areas.
      Because your projects are what you engage with on a daily basis, it’s unlikely you’ll forget what areas/categories they fall into.
      Whereas it is easy to lose sight of a project’s goal in the midst of daily activity.
      Thus it’s much more important, in my opinion, to associate projects with their respective goals, rather than areas.
      

2. Areas vs Resources
   
   1. Areas
      
   2. Resources
      
3. Resources vs Archives
   

   Ongoing interest separates archive vs resources
   

1.1.2.2. 2. Flows and upkeep

1. From Projects
   
   1. to Areas
      

      Sometimes what starts as a limited-time project becomes a long-term, ongoing responsibility.
      

   2. to Resources
      

      During the course of a project, it is common to generate all sorts of
      “intermediate work” (brainstorms, notes, background research, diagrams,
      interview notes, etc.) that has value, but may or may not make it into the final
      product. When you finish a project, before moving it to Archives, it’s a good
      idea to scan it quickly for any such material that might be useful for future
      projects. In my experience, this only applies to a small amount of the material
      for any given project, but the value it creates in the future is immense.
      

   3. to Archives
      

      After a project has been finished, one of the most common transitions
      

2. From Areas
   
   1. to Projects
      

      It is common to start a new project, and realize there is something you’ve been
      collecting for a long time that is potentially useful to the new project. Maybe
      you’ve been collecting ideas in a Travel (area) (more abstract) notebook for
      awhile – when the time comes to plan and schedule a specific trip (a project),
      this is a great place to start.
      

   2. to Resources
      

      Sometimes you realize a note you thought was only relevant to you can also provide value to others.
      

   3. to Archive
      

      Although it is rare, sometimes an area ceases to be active, and can be archived.
      

3. From Resources
   
   1. to Projects
      

      Often, what was previously just an interest catches fire and becomes a
      full-blown project. This is one of the primary use cases for resource notebooks
      actually.
      

   2. to Areas
      

      This flow would occur if you realized a piece of information in a resource
      notebook could apply to an area of responsibility in your life.
      

   3. to Archive
      

      It’s natural to expect some interests to go dormant over time. You don’t want to
      delete the information associated with it, because you never know when it could
      become active again.
      

4. From Archive
   
   1. to Projects
      

      This use case is one of the primary reasons to keep archived projects in the
      first place. It makes sense that there would be useful information from past
      projects you could use in current and future projects.
      

   2. to Areas
      

      Similarly, a piece of information you collected long ago can suddenly become
      relevant for a new responsibility you’re taking on.
      

   3. to Resources
      

      I find it quite common for a past project, now archived, to keep simmering in
      the back of my mind, and later become an interest.
      

1.1.2.3. Just-in-time organization

1.1.2.4. 3. FAQs

1. Is it necessary to create corresponding notebooks for every project, area, and resource, across every platform, even if I have nothing to put in them yet?
   
   • No, create them opportunistically
     
   • When the friction involved in creating a new notebook or folder on the spot will make it less likely for you to capture information at all (e.g. mobile), then create them upfront
     
2. Why break out areas so specifically? (Big-few vs many-small areas)
   

   Many-small ⇒ makes it easier to determine whether you’re meeting your personal standard in a given area
   

1.1.4.1. Setup

1.1.4.2. FAQs

1. What kinds of things should I save?
   
   • Is this something that could inspire or help me if it surfaced at some point in the future?
     
   • Is this potentially a useful source, building block, or tool for future projects?
     
   • Is this unique, personal, or hard-won knowledge worth revisiting over time?
     
   • Is this something that I’m unlikely to find in the future when I need it?
     
   1. List of examples
      
      • Book notes
        
      • Excerpts from online articles
        
      • Quotes
        
      • Notes from audiobooks or podcasts
        
      • Screenshots and web bookmarks
        
      • Voice memos
        
      • Photos, graphics, and diagrams
        
      • PDFs
        
      • Outlines and summaries
        
      • Notes from conferences or events
        
      • Interviews or FAQs
        
      • Templates & checklists
        
      • Notes from webinars or online courses
        
      • Brainstorms & mindmaps
        
      • Slide presentations
        
      • Notebook sketches
        
      • Journal or diary entries
        
      • Marketing/business ideas
        
      • Email newsletters
        
      • Travel ideas and plans
        
      • Notes from classes or workshops
        
      • Reading list (or Already Read list)
        
      • Meeting notes and recordings
        
      • Project planning notes
        
      • Work samples and portfolio
        
      • Goals and dreams
        
      • Productivity/health tips
        
      • User manuals/guides
        
      • Writing ideas/prompts
        

1.1.5.1. 1. Do a brain dump of everything you think could be a project

1. Your mind
   
   • What’s worrying you that you haven’t taken the time to identify as a project?
     
   • What’s taking more mental bandwidth than it deserves?
     
   • What needs to happen that you’re not making consistent progress on, that could benefit from a project structure?
     
2. Calendar
   
   • Look a few weeks into the past: what do you need to follow up on?
     
   • What needs wrapping up?
     
   • What projects do you want to create out of events that already happened?
     
   • Look a few weeks into the future: what needs planning and preparation?
     
   • What requires some goal-setting?
     
   • Who do you need to catch up with?
     
3. To Do list
   
   • What actions are you already taking, that are actually part of a bigger project you’ve not yet identified?
     
4. Agendas
   
   • What communication or followup actions you’ve scheduled with people are actually part of a bigger project?
     
5. Briefcase/bag/wallet/purse
   
   • What objects or papers have you saved because they remind you to take an action?
     
   • What have you not gotten rid of because it’s needed for a project?
     
6. Physical environment
   

   Look around your office, home, car, or desk:
   

   • what physical objects represent projects you haven’t identified as projects?
     
7. Computer
   

   Look at your computer desktop, downloads folder, documents folder, bookmarks, emails, open browser tabs:
   

   • what are you keeping around because it is part of a project?
     
8. Processes or procedures
   
   • Which processes in your work or life could be more efficient, streamlined, or purposeful?
     
   • What do you do regularly that takes too long, is too difficult, or hasn’t been thought through?
     
9. Creative opportunities
   
   • What would you like to learn, develop, build, put on, pursue, start, explore, or play with as a project?
     
10. Competence building
    
    • Which skills would you like to learn?
      
    • Which hobbies would you like to start?
      
    • What kind of project could advance your career, or make your life more fun or interesting?
      

1.1.5.2. 2. Organize and refine your list

1. Delete anything that is obviously not a project
   

   Sometimes you just need to write something down to realize it’s not something you’re committed to.
   

2. Combine projects that are tied to the same outcome
   

   “Wipe old computer” and “Research new computers” could be part of the same project “Buy new computer.”
   

3. If a project can be substituted by a calendar entry, add it to your calendar instead
   

   For example, “Pick up sister from airport” doesn’t really need to be actively tracked over time. Seeing it on the appropriate day will trigger all the necessary actions.
   

4. Move “someday/maybe” projects to the bottom of the list
   

   Keep track of these future projects, but don’t let them clutter your current list.
   

1.1.5.3. 3. Define the desired outcome of each project

1.1.5.4. 4. Prioritize your list by project

1.1.5.5. 5. Evaluate your Project List

1.1.6.1. Small-batch projects

1. 1) A tightly scoped, short-term commitment
   

   Inputs and outputs (projects) have to be small, discrete notes, otherwise the
   system gets clogged up and stagnant
   

   1. Change in the concept of project
      

      «Maybe this is not very applicable to my current job»
      

      1. Hollywood Model
         
      2. With project-based work, remote teams of contractors wait until the last possible moment to jump onto a project
         

         («flossing»), and once they do, they optimize for speed and intensity.
         This requires shedding as much of the decision-making, consensus-seeking, approval-seeking, and status-updating as possible.
         It requires reducing the project down to the minimum essential core of productive activity.
         

      3. Partial adoption doesn’t work
         

         Doing the same old projects with outsourced contractors instead of full-time employees.
         Chopping up our typical projects into tiny pieces.
         Doing so without a corresponding change in mindset and methods just creates massive amounts of extra overhead work.
         «Same as How to Take Smart Notes with sailors not accepting the container, not fully committing to it, there will be weird elements standarize»
         

      4. The modern concept of a “project” was born in large, traditional companies
         

         everything is designed for efficiency and scale. The primary threats are internal: bureaucracy, politics, cost-cutting, deprioritization, and competition for resources.
         To survive this environment, projects became large, bloated, meticulously planned, long-running, with vague objectives.
         All the things we hate about modern mega-projects are actually features they adapted to survive the endless path through the bureaucracy.
         

      5. But put this fattened cow in the jungle of the digital economy, and it’ll get slaughtered.
         

         A “project” in the new economy has evolved to become a lean, agile tiger: small, adaptable, omnivorous, willing to hunt but preferring to watch for opportunities.
         

      6. Thus making our projects smaller is not a question of marginal improvement. It determines whether our projects survive
         

         Whether they become good ideas that never quite see the light of day, or impactful results delivered in a steady rhythm.
         

2. 2) Clear desired outcomes that describe end states
   
   • This is to avoid the biggest risk one faces as a contract – a half-dead zombie project that staggers on for months with no clear resolution is a far
     

   bigger risk than the project outright failing, which
   robs them of both the opportunity cost of pursuing other projects, and the learnings that would have come from clear success or failure.
   There’s a good reason most people are tremendously resistant to writing out clear success criteria, even for their personal projects:
   

   • ↓ You become much more accountable for their progress.
     Instead of reporting that you’re “still pluggin’ away at Mega-Project X” for the 20th week in a row, you have to explain why “write outline” is still on your list after a whole week.
     What you’re doing, in Toyota terms, is “lowering the water level” on your work commitments. This exposes the excuses, the procrastination, the vagueness, the miscommunication, the lack of responsibility.
     
   • ↑ You will only consider doing this if you value learning at the expense of comfort.
     
     • This takes courage, humility, and openness to hearing feedback.
       If you really want accountability, make a Project List exactly as I’ve recommended, and then show it to everyone who will listen.
       Show it to your boss, to your clients, to your direct reports, to your spouse.
       You’ll either gain trust as people learn they can take you at your word, or you’ll hear very quickly what isn’t working.
       «»
       
3. 3) A deadline or delivery date (which becomes a review date when passed)   process
   

   Defining a desired outcome is only meaningful if you also decide “by when.”
   It’s too easy to declare ambitious goals with a forecast of “someday.”
   In a large company, putting yourself on the hook for a delivery date for a project you don’t completely control is crazy. Much better to keep everything hazy, so blame for delays can be passed around and diffused.
   !Survival in a large company depends far more on avoiding blame than producing results.!
   But as we move to an economy of more-or-less free agents, accountability is devolving to the individual. No longer do you have a boss, manager, or colleagues to look over your shoulder and make sure you’re on track.
   No one cares if you had a productive day.
   As implicit accountability fades away, you now have to replace it with explicit accountability.
   You have to put yourself on the hook for something. This starts with being honest with yourself about what you’ve committed to, and by when.
   

4. Clean edges   process
   
   1. enable focus
      

      Organize by horizons of actionability, not by topic ⇒ allow yourself to focus
      your aone horizon at a time. Having very clean edges between the
      stacksnot using precious attention to figure out that boundary on
      the flally, the smaller your projects and the cleaner the edges
      betweelarger the amount of information you can manage on all
      horizoonly focus on something that is distinct from its
      surrouverything is potentially actionable at any given time, of
      courserience information overload.
      

   2. enable creativity
      

      There y of networks that is essential for new ideas to take root and
      thrivehe “small worlds” property. Instead of a perfectly even,
      denselcted global network (as in the leftmost image below), it is
      much hhave small “neighborhoods” that are distinct and separate from
      the wi(as in the rightmost image below):
      
      *The cf your organizational system can increase the likelihood that
      your rt original, and most subtle ideas are protected and incubated
      to mat
      

   3. enable perspective
      

      When you start scoping your projects smaller ⇒ you have many more of them, and
      they come and go much more quickly. At first this might seem like a step
      backward in your productivity. You’ll be spending more time creating, titling,
      prioritizing, scheduling, and archiving projects. !⇒! I’ve come to understand
      that this is exactly the point. Increasing project turnover is an explicit goal
      of adopting small batches. Think about the practice of performing a Weekly
      Review. We all know we should do it. We all know we would benefit from it. But
      most people don’t do it regularly. The truth is, unless you have small-batch
      projects, there’s no need. The answer to “What will I be working on this week?”
      is the same answer as last week. Rapid project turnover creates the need to
      review these projects on a more regular basis. This trains you in a higher level
      skill: project portfolio management. You become less attached to the success of
      any particular project because you have plenty Gregory Berns - Satisfaction: The
      Science of Finding True Fulfillment → I have come to understand
      as the one thing that we all want
      Lying at the nexus of commitment, motivation, fulfillment, curiosity, pain, and
      pleasure, novelty seems to be what our brains are wired for. But seeking novelty
      can sometimes feel at odds with productivity. We are encouraged by habit
      formation experts to lock down our environment and remove all uncertainty, to
      avoid taxing our willpower. Small-batch projects promote a different set of
      habits that benefit from novelty, instead of being threatened by it. These are
      habits more expansive and powerful than your daily routine: constantly moving
      into zones of greater leverage; transferring momentum from one project to
      another; designing projects so they are more than the sum of their parts; timing
      projects to take advantage of external events. These are the dark arts of
      productivity. “Dark” only because so few have access to the project throughput
      required to practice them. «In How to Take Smart Notes, not to be threatened by novelty» The
      ability to accelerate project turnover simply by reducing the size of projects
      gives you the ability to produce novelty on demand, for even the most boring
      administrative tasks. If I encounter a project I’m resistant to, I simply keep
      making it smaller until the reward feels more tangible than the pain. This gives
      me control of the drumbeat of fulfilled deadlines, which I tune to maximize my
      sense of self-efficacy.
      

1.1.7.1. The Values-First Era told us that character was the most important thing.

1.1.7.2. The Goals-First Era came next, proclaiming that we should have clear goals to help focus our efforts.

1.1.7.3. Process-First Era. promise results if you’ll only follow the process, obsession with habits

1.1.7.4. From prescribing means to describing ends

1.1.7.5. Desired outcomes as hypotheses

1.1.7.6. Your projects form a network, with interfaces defined by outcomes

1.1.8.1. Organize by actionability

1.1.8.2. Organize opportunistically

1.1.8.3. Move quickly, touch lightly

1.1.8.4. Controlled randomness

1.1.8.5. Complex systems have to be grown, not made

1.1.8.6. Focus on outcomes

1.1.8.7. Fail gracefully

1.1.8.8. Shallow hierarchies

1.9.7.1. Hobby

1.9.7.2. Dream

1.9.8.1. Projects

1. 1) A tightly scoped, short-term commitment
   

   Inputs and outputs (projects) have to be small, discrete notes, otherwise the
   system gets clogged up and stagnant
   

   1. Projects have to be standarized
      

1.9.8.2. Areas