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The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

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Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#21

Post by CGamesPlay »

joekrill wrote: post #17
jonathanstrange wrote: post #12

Maybe this system works in a business environment where everything can be measured in terms of effectiveness such as achievements over time, but it doesn't work for me. It insists that projects need to have a fixed deadline. This is not true for creative professionals like me. If I'm writing a book, article, or a long-term software project setting a fixed deadline would be highly counter-productive. Some things are o…

I don't see anywhere that the author is suggesting that deadline must be explicitly defined up-front, or even be fixed. If you're writing something, it _will_ be done at some point (or is expected to be).

His other writings on the topic are very explicit about setting deadlines on every project and goal. Though, I don’t fully agree with the GP. Thiago also advocates freely changing deadlines as desired, so the deadlines become more a scheduling and prioritization helper than a typical deadlines.

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#22

Post by smk_ »

This is unlikely to work. Why? Whenever you impose a stringent system of categorization on top of information that eludes easy categorization, you will likely fail. “I’ll handle the edge cases” — that’s not an easy task. The edge cases add up, until all you are left with is edge handling. This reminds me of someone who lives in a theoretical, platonic plane without consideration for real world problems.

A system that has a higher success of working is developed organically, from the bottom up. I’d say Zettelkasten is one such example, though its primary beneficiaries are researchers in text-heavy fields (e.g. sociology).

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#23

Post by adamgordonbell »

0wis wrote: post #9

What is interesting with this method is that it seems to work effortlessly even on the personal side. I always found easy to maintain an organization when it is shared ; it is the only way to keep the communication easy. Much harder for personal files and projects, which always end up in a big mess… I may give it a try, but I wonder if it is not just another method that will add to the existing mess.

I can't say I use the PARA system totally, but I do use the naming structure. I have a projects and archives folder in my personal google drive, and in Roam, and in my work google drive and I make sure follow a naming convention for all of them, so that I generally know where to find things.

The Reference vs Areas I've never really understood though. So that part works less well for me.

I've found it to be pretty helpful, though I don't use it for code. That simplification is worth the price of admission for me.

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#24

Post by CGamesPlay »

So, PARA or no, the thing that has worked really well for me (14 months so far) is Thiago’s idea for weekly/monthly/annual reviews. This has really been the important gem for me, and while PARA helps define a framework for that, it would work with any organization method.

Basically, weekly reviews are tactical, where you can mostly mechanically prioritize the upcoming week and clear out your inboxes. Monthly are more strategic, where you take a wider look at the status of all projects, consider modifying, canceling, or reprioritizing them. And annual reviews are the same thing but addressed at the highest level of your life; you might think of it as a formalization of New Years Resolutions.

Since adopting a schedule of these reviews I have felt much more in control of my projects and work, and the time investment is about 1 hour a month to do.

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#25

Post by perelin »

The main PIM challenge for me, besides naming things, is discoverability. If I have a system where I put stuff in, how do I find it again? After a few years I certainly have forgotten that I had a link to this one article a friend showed me about obscureTopicX in there?

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#26

Post by justusthane »

account-5 wrote: post #16
koonsolo wrote: post #6

I find it strange that projects have their own directory, and are not a subcategory of 'areas of responsibility'.

I was thinking this too. What's the point in areas if the projects aren't in them. Maybe I need to reread or read on.

“Areas” is for material that outlives specific projects and might be useful again later. The idea is that when you finish a project, you go through the project folder and move relevant materials into Areas or Resources for later reference.

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#27

Post by justusthane »

I’ve been very loosely using PARA for a while, and the two (small) factors that have had the biggest benefit for me are:

- Every “project”, no matter how small, gets its own folder. This means I’m no longer hunting for files (“Did I save that to my desktop? Is it in my email?”)

- Replicate and manually “sync” the folder structure between programs (in my case, OneNote for notes, OneDrive for files, and Microsoft Tasks for…tasks). This gives the freedom to use the best tool for the job, rather than trying to find one tool that does everything, but means you still have a consistent organization structure.

These both seem somewhat obvious in retrospect, but they’ve been very helpful for me.

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#28

Post by Takizawamura »

pantulis wrote: post #18

This is the mandatory linky to Johnny Decimal, which is another method with a little more detail on how to name your content taxonomy: https://johnnydecimal.com

We use a modified version of this system for my six-person team. For the first two folder levels, we use numeric folder notation with a max of 10 folders for each level. We do allow for deeper levels as needed. For example, we often need a bunch of folders for data.

Re: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

#29

Post by [deleted] »

algorias wrote: post #7
ungamedplayer wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did try "PARA" but found it a little bulky.. I've been working with Johnny decimal, have you read about it ? what are your thoughts on decimal ( https://johnnydecimal.com/ )? Do you think its worth switching and enduring the change for an information worker ?

I hadn't heard of it, but it's straightforward enough. Johnny decimal seems to work best for communication between multiple people, it's like a lightweight way of having human-implementable URLs. The thing with PARA is that information falls into different buckets according to their use , not their topic . You're in a completely different mindset when you're looking up old stuff for reference (archives), remembering…

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