It’s important to organize this environment for actionability and focus on active projects. The best way to do this is to organize notes into four categories: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives (PARA).
- Projects refer to short-term efforts that have a clear beginning and end and require a specific outcome.
- Areas are long-term responsibilities that require a standard to be upheld.
- Resources are topics or interests that may become actionable in the future.
- Archives are inactive items from the other categories that are stored for safekeeping.
By using PARA, we can streamline the vast amount of information out there and have a clear filter for ignoring everything else, leading to a sense of clarity and purpose.
