The Para Method: The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds

[apricot13]

I found PARA to be a good solution for note taking its quite flexible and I still use it but with some modifications.

The hardest part for me was adapting it to programming and my ADHD brain and I still have some things I need to solve!

it stands for projects, areas, resources and archive.

areas can be further divided or thought of as "areas of responsibility" and "areas of interest"

Resources can include references eg frequently used bits of code, I have mine setup similar to zellelkasten ie they're all shoved in one folder and searchable and wikilink'd up. I tried using areas and project notes but it didn't work so instead I reference the project in the zettle. (I use obsidian)

The idea is to keep the structure everywhere so you use the right tool for the document you're working on.

Your meant to migrate content from top to bottom - if you make a project note for SQL query to get all the users favourites for a project while it's happening you can leave it there. When the project ends you're meant to review the notes and move them to archive resources or areas of they'd work there. I can't be relied on to do this!

There's an alternative version called GAPRA by carl pullein which I feel works better. You have values which align to goals which align to areas, projects all relate to areas and resources relate to all of the above and then you archive again!

Two videos on GAPRA

https://youtu.be/EmB15Uzzbjw?si=hB2qzutTRCJUpN-U

https://youtu.be/D4b5zHGw2nU?si=VanwWOrzC2sAeZ6E

[LanternLight83]

I see how this could work for notes, but as a software developer, a lot of my Projects would just be symlinks to my areas.

#> ln -s projects/'write monthly invoice' areas/$regular_gig/tex

#> ln -s projects/'write article on $foo' areas/$website/posts/foo

It just doesn't quite fit, because my short term tasks share repos (and note files) with long-term projects that I'm responsible for-- even regular invoices are long term repos. I suppose I could move it to Archive/Projects when complete, and have a script that moves it back every month.

[TrevorFSmith]

TL;DR Keep your documents in a hierarchy with three top level labels: Projects, Areas, and Resources.

Put your short ongoing projects in Projects

Put your responsibilities in Areas (of Responsibility)

Put your long term information storage in Resources

Also, create an archive with the same top levels (Projects, Areas, Resource) for docs that you don't need right now but may in the future

My suggestion: Don't use an app. Use a file system and SyncThing.

[pupppet]

I wish I knew the best way to digitize my thoughts and notes. I don’t want to invest in someone else’s app they may lose interest in and the text files approach doesn’t work well on mobile.

[shynrou]

I'd recommend obsidian, works well on mobile and desktop, and documents are plain .md files in directories.

[pluijzer]

If you are on Android I can recommend Orgzly. It ties in with Emacs' org-mode but is fully usable on its own with a sensible very convinient UI. It is open source and everything is saved in plain text that can optionally be kept in sync with Dropbox or WebDAV.

[wenc]

I just dump stuff in Google Docs.

For backups from Google Docs (or cloud in general) to local, I use rclone. [1]

But otherwise Google Docs works fine.

[1] https://rclone.org/

[Condition1952]

I have been using Standard Notes since the lockdown. Multi-platform, Self-hostable FOSS or freemium, E2EE. Subscription prices have skyrocketed.

It emails you a back up from time to time.

I use it less and less because the interface is not comfortable after a given point and of notes. I wish I had heard of obsidian before.

[ilkke]

I use and recommend workflowy. It's an outliner (nested text) they syncs across all my devices and saves regular backup dumps to my Dropbox. You can use it on mobile via app or web.

[eternityforest]

I do something similar, but slightly different.

I don't separate short and long term projects, at least not for folders(Most short term projects wind up just having a Keep note and not much else anyway).

I also have a "Clients" folder. If I do something for you (Even if I'm just doing a favor for a friend or something), you probably get a folder, all projects I do for you go there.

Maybe I should try real Areas.

I wonder if this approach would apply well in physical space. I'm always trying to find new ways to manage objects.

[kingkongjaffa]

While it’s very tempting to dive into the “productivity and note taking space” it’s all largely rehashing the same ideas.

PARA is a rehash of GTD getting things done imo with a few obfuscating steps.

Virtually everything in this space falls into stuff ripped off from GTD, or Thinking Fast and Slow concepts and romanticising mental models, or Bullet Journal, or Zettlekasten.

[dimal]

Eh, it’s more than GTD. I actually paid for his course. Crazy, but it was worth it. GTD is about getting things done. PARA is about how to manage to torrent of informational content we’re bombarded with and make it useful… to get things done. I don’t use PARA anymore, but his process did help me get my personal information under control until I figured out a (similar) system that fits my brain better. With plain GTD, I was always swamped with information.

[adolph]

I think Forte does a reasonable job of acknowledging Allen. Is GTD the gold standard for all times? Or do people of different times need different explanations of something that addresses similar problems?