Understanding the PARA Method and How I Made It Mine

Hey Reader,

One of the 10 productivity frameworks that has changed my life is the PARA framework created by my friend Tiago Forte.

It’s not even just about work; you can have all these different applications for literally any part of your life, and it really has been huge for me in terms of keeping things calm and organized in my work and in my life.

Explaining the PARA Method

Tiago has created two helpful acronyms for personal knowledge management, PARA and CODE. Today I want to tell you about PARA and a few examples for implementing (or customizing) it in your own life.

✅ Projects: have a time or task related deadline
🌎 Areas: ongoing "areas" of responsibility
🔎 Research: non-committal topics you're learning about
🗄️ Archives: all of the above that is no longer current

My favorite part of PARA is the fluidity. A single idea or goal can move between each stage with little to no friction. Let me explain with the example of a house.

When you’re thinking about buying—even renting—a house in the future, you start doing Research. You research neighborhoods, schools (if you have kids), parks, restaurants, whatever is important to you. Not to mention the financial commitment and capability of your search.

When it’s time to buy or rent a house, now you have a Project. The end result of the project is signing the agreement to buy or rent the house. All of your research is relevant to the project too. You’re only looking at homes in parts of the city that stood out during research.

Once an agreement is reached, the home becomes an Area of responsibility. You’re committed to maintenance, paying the bills, etc. See how everything is shifting between stages of PARA?

When your rental agreement is up—or the house is sold—you can Archive the file and any collected notes. If anything needs to be added to a new research file or un-archived in the future, no problem! Just shift everything to the most relevant stage.

​Listen to me describe the PARA Method in detail 🎧

My Personal PARA Setup

I use Notion for PARA and the majority of my note-taking output with a bit of Roam to supplement. I recorded a video to show you everything in detail, click to watch below!

For another example, the way to think about an email newsletter in PARA terms is each email is a—small—Project. I have a deadline (Tuesdays) and once each email is complete I can move that project into the Archive. But each email project is a part of the larger newsletter Area and consists of gathered Research about BASB.

If you want to go further with PARA, Tiago has a new book all about the topic that releases next week (August 15th)! I was very impressed with his first book, Building a Second Brain and know PARA will be just as good!

Have a great day and I will see you on Saturday for the WRAP 👋

Matt