Use the PARA Method to Organize Your Digital World
You need to keep all your digital information well organized on your devices, but this is easier said than done. Productivity guru Thiago Forte realized this and came up with the PARA system , a simple method for keeping everything related to your work and interests digitally organized.
What is PAIR?
PARA is an acronym that stands for Project, Area, Resource and Archive. The purpose of using it to categorize your digital information is similar to using the organization triangle to organize your physical materials: you need to know where each document, file, presentation, note, image, and diagram is when you need it so you can find it more easily.
Projects refer to anything short-term you’re working on right now (like finishing a report or buying a new sofa), while areas are broader, longer-term tasks that you need to work on over time (like your general health or health). your career growth). Resources are any pieces of information that may be useful in the future, while archive is for inactive files from the other three categories.
How to use PAIR
You can implement this system in files on your computer or in a cloud service such as Google Docs or Dropbox. Each of the four categories should be a top-level folder. Anything related to the current project goes into projects, anything related to your broader responsibilities goes into areas, anything that might be useful to someone in the future goes into resources, and anything you’ve completed or what has stopped being worked on is moved to the archives. .
From there, create subfolders within the original four. For example, in the Projects section, you might have a folder for a report you’re working on, as well as your desire to learn some French before a trip to Paris, an ongoing home renovation project, or a deal you’re completing at work. . The areas could be your overall job responsibilities, your health, or your finances – those things that you are always working on and adding to. In the Resources section, you can save anything that might be useful for those projects or even just related to your interests, such as productivity guides, templates, or information about a hobby that sounds interesting but that you don’t have time for right now.
Using four separate categories prevents you from creating too much – when this happens, any file can also easily be stored in different folders, making it difficult to find something specific.
Set a reminder in your phone or calendar to go through your folders on the first day of each month, moving completed projects into the archive or pulling out resources to match the current activities to which they finally apply.