The PARA method: put every note where you'll look for it

The PARA method is a way to organize the notes and files in your life using four top-level folders. PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives.

Tiago Forte of Forte Labs developed it as a simple approach to note-taking and personal organization. He describes it as a system for organizing any type of digital information across any platform, and the idea at its centre is what he calls organizing by actionability.

That idea is the whole difference. School taught most of us to file by subject: a folder for "Health", a folder for "Money", a folder for "Recipes". PARA files by how soon you'll use something. The quote you need for Thursday's bathroom decision goes with the bathroom project, even though it's also about money.

The four folders run from most to least actionable:

1. Projects: short-term efforts with a goal and an end.
2. Areas: parts of your life you look after with no end date.
3. Resources: topics you're interested in or learning about.
4. Archives: anything from the other three that's no longer active.

You'll put each note in exactly one place. Everything you keep fits one of these four.

Projects are the hottest folder. Each one has a specific outcome you can tick off, like "redecorate the spare room" or "apply to three master's programmes". In Forte's examples you'll find things like a research report or a language course. When the project is done, its folder moves to Archives.

Areas are ongoing responsibilities like health, money, your car, the kids or your home. Nobody ever finishes "health": you keep it at a standard, and the area collects the notes you'll need again, like the GP's details and the car's service history.

Resources are interests. Coffee, web design, photography, a language you'd like to pick up. There's no responsibility attached. You save content here because it's useful or fun, and they'll be there when a project needs them.

Archives are cold storage. Finished projects, areas you've dropped and resources you've lost interest in go here. Nothing gets deleted, and nothing clutters the folders you open every day.

Most people get stuck on one question: is this a project or an area? Ask whether it ends.

• "Run the Edinburgh half marathon in May" ends. It's a project.
• "Fitness" never ends. It's an area.
• "Plan Mum's 70th birthday party" ends on the day of the party. Project.
• "Family" is an area, and it's where the gift ideas and allergies list live between birthdays.

A project often grows out of an area. Your car is an area. "Sell the car before the move" is a project, and when it's done, the project folder goes to Archives while the car area carries on or gets archived too.

If something has no end and no responsibility attached, it's a resource. If it has no use right now, archive it.

Don't reorganise ten years of files in one sitting. Set up the structure, move what's live, and let the rest sort itself over time.

1. Write down every project you're working on right now. Most people have between five and fifteen once they count the personal ones.
2. Create the four folders. Make one subfolder in Projects for each project on your list.
3. Move the notes you need this week into those project folders first. That's the part that pays off straight away.
4. Create subfolders in Areas for the responsibilities you keep coming back to: home, health, money, work, family.
5. Add Resources subfolders only when you have something to put in them. Empty folders are clutter.
6. Move everything else, the old unsorted pile, into Archives in one go. You can search it later if you need something.
7. Use the same four folders everywhere you keep things: your notes app, your computer's files and your cloud drive.

Step 6 is the one that makes PARA doable. You don't sort the past. You only file new things properly, and the old pile stays searchable in Archives.

Leila didn't build a perfect system. She built one where today's work is one tap away, and that's what PARA is for.

PARA stays useful if you give it a few minutes a week. Do it during a weekly review:

• Move finished projects to Archives, because a Projects folder full of done work stops showing you what's live.
• Check each project has a goal you can finish. "Japanese" is a resource, while "pass the first Japanese exam in June" is a project.
• Fix notes saved in the wrong place when you come across them, instead of hunting for them all at once.
• Glance at Areas once a month, and turn anything that needs action into a new project.

File new notes the moment you save them. One question decides where: which project will need this first? If none, which area? If neither, it's a resource or it's archive.

PARA works because it matches how you look for things. You rarely think "I need my notes about plumbing". You think "I need the stuff for the bathroom". Filing by project puts that stuff in one place.

It's also small. Four folders are easy to remember, and the same four work in every tool you use, so you're not learning a different filing system for each one.

It has limits worth knowing before you start:

• The lines blur. A note about budgeting can sit in a project, an area or a resource. Pick one and move on. Searching covers the rest.
• Resources pile up. It's easy to save every interesting article and never read any of them. If a resource folder hasn't been opened in a year, archive it.
• Sorting becomes the hobby. Rearranging folders feels like productivity, but it moves no project forward.
• It doesn't plan your day. PARA tells you where information lives. You still need a way to choose what to do today, such as the 1-3-5 rule.

PARA overlaps with getting things done, and they work well together. GTD organizes actions: what to do next, where, and what you're waiting on. PARA organizes the information those actions need. Both use projects as the thing everything hangs off.

Filing by subject is what most people do by default, and it works until you have hundreds of notes. Then "Money" holds your tax return, a savings article and the deposit for the flat, and you can't tell what needs attention.

Tags-only systems skip folders and label everything. They're flexible, but you need the discipline to tag every note the same way. PARA's four folders ask for far fewer decisions.

PARA was built for notes and files, and it works well when your tasks sit next to them. In Palby Planner, notes and tasks live in the same account, so a project's to-dos and its reference notes are a tap apart.

1. In notes, create four folders: Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives. Start each project note's title with the project's name, like "Bathroom: tile quotes".
2. Make a task project for each PARA project too, with the same name. "Bathroom" in your notes and "Bathroom" in your tasks.
3. Add tasks with quick add, and file each one with #project in the same line, as in "book the tiler #bathroom fri". Give the project's last task a deadline so the project has a real end.
4. Use @labels for areas you act on often, like @home or @money, and filters to see everything in one area at once.
5. Out and about? Record a voice note. Sort it into the right folder when you're back.
6. When a project finishes, move its notes into the Archives folder and tick off the last task.

If a project is a bigger goal, like "run a 10k by June", add it to your goals as well. Ongoing area work, like the weekly budget check, fits better as a routine that repeats on the days you pick.