P.A.R.A. method
Developed by Tiago Forte, PARA is a system of organization or a methodology for tending one's second brain, zettelkasten, or digital garden.
Projects | Areas | Resources | Archives
- projects - now [Intend]
- a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline
- areas - now [Attend]
- a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time
- resources - now [Remember]
- a topic or theme of ongoing interest
- archives - now [Forget]
- inactive items from the other three categories.
Speculation
Whether this is an example of an associative ontology that emerged to Tiago, or a hierarchical taxonomy that will restrict me unwarrantedly remains to be seen.
As I have attempted to sort my notes and writings into the PARA structure, I have found the distinction between Areas and Resources unclear, and that often notes belong in more than one bucket, e.g., a note about expanding consciousness that surely falls into Areas but also applies to a project. This may be true in the [FAIR Method] as well. I will give priority to Projects, and to Intention, but also will not fret about where a note is stored, because the [wiki-links] enable sufficient freedom from file hierarchy.
Evaluation
- quite business, work, and productivity oriented
- I'm giving it the old college try at least through today [Kerrbear Journal 2021-03-19]
- so far I'm displeased with the system, but want to stabilize the app before I throw it back into upheaval
Evolution
- want to adjust PARA toward more creativity and less productivity
- [Journal of Kerrbear 2021-04-03] is when I made the switch, pretty exciting!
Projects become Intend
- Projects need a goal but not a deadline, the goal has a desired span
- we'll just call them by the core action: Intend
- intentions have a context and an impact
Areas and Resources become Attend and Remember
Areas are close to okay but needn't be maintained, just enjoyed
- we'll call them by the core action: Attend
- attention covers a field
- the context of an intention is also a field
Resources are effectively identical to Areas, only separate in Tiago's system according to the obedient boundary between have-to and want-to.
- could forgo a separate categories for fields we enjoy and fields we don't, since we won't be attending any fields we don't enjoy
Archives become Forget
- Projects, Areas, and Resources that aren't serving me to pursue can be cordoned off
- this might be rare. I don't know if this is useful yet.