PARA

PARA stands for Project, Area, Resource, and Archive.

The goal of PARA method is to organize your notes based on where it flows into.

Aera

• Role oriented: what is your responsibility assuming this role?
  • You have a standard to maintain even without some expected end goals;
• Work areas;
• Personal areas;

Project

Based on your areas, you can have some ongoing projects that are:

• Outcome oriented: something is happening or will happen at some point in time;
  • Measurable: What is your objective?
  • Trackable: How can you track the progress?
  • Completable: Can you cross this off from your list?
  • Actionable: What are the tasks needed?
    • You cannot do a project but only actions/tasks.
• They are not a project if:
  • No deadline in sight
  • No outcome defined
  • No metric specified
  • No timeline scheduled

Q: Why do we go from areas to projects?

A: Figure out the projects based on your areas so that you have clear relation between your short-term efforts and your long-term goals.

Having a project mindset is like treating yourself as a one man vendor. Not only you have the tasks to finish, but also the resources and big picture that you need to consider.

When a Project is Done

Key actions at key moments:

• idea gathering when the project starts;
• recycle the knowledge when the project ends;

Reflections upon completion:

• Clean up tasks and goals
• Savage useful notes into proper folders
• Archive the rest of the project notes

Project VS Hobby VS Dream

Hobbies do not contribute to your areas (unimportant) Dreams do not have on-going projects (unachievable)

Resource

Information that contributes to [[]]❌ or [[]]❌

• Miscellaneous: interests or useful references;
• If something that is not a project and does not fall into one of your areas, then it should be a resource;

Archive

• Inactive, obsolete projects, areas, or resources

Information Flow Based on Actionability

| Archive | NA | read-only |