I received a question on LinkedIn in response to my post on Just A Secular Homeschooler, “What We’re Doing for 5th Grade for the 2024-2025 School Year,” asking how I keep track of everything. While I answered that question in the context of homeschooling, I thought I’d answer that question in general in a series of posts. I’ll talk about big-picture organizing in this post, how I break things down and organize information and projects in the next post, and the tools I use in the final post.
Creating a “Second Brain”
Two years ago, I was searching for a better way to organize the different things I do, and I stumbled across Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain. I quickly consumed everything on the blog and read the book, and it clicked with me like David Allen’s Getting Things Done did. The biggest takeaways from the book were organizing things into the PARA system and standardizing the names of everything across every platform.
What Is PARA?
PARA is an acronym for Projects-Areas-Resources-Archives. Every piece of my digital life falls into one category. It’s either a project or part of a project, part of an area of responsibility, a resource ready to be used, or an archive I don’t need. Perhaps this requires a little more clarification.
Projects
Projects have deadlines and goals. A project accomplishes something within a particular timeframe. It also involves more than one step. Some examples of projects are:
- Plan a birthday party for my 10-year-old
- Write a blog post for my client
- Research a topic and write a pitch for that topic
Areas
Areas are more general areas of life where you have responsibilities or tasks. I have areas covering my consulting business, blogs, finances, family obligations, homeschooling, Girl Scouts, etc.
Resources
Resources are precisely what they sound like – things that might be useful at some point. This is where I store my sheet music for pieces I’m not learning to play on the ukulele, cross stitch patterns I might want to use, curricula for future years, information and activities about Girl Scouts badges we’re not currently working on but that we might work on, etc.
Archives
Archives are also exactly what they sound like. They’re files I created or once needed (or notes /project outlines/etc.) that I no longer need. I only save things here that have value – previous notes, previous files, etc.
Naming Standards
I use the same naming standards across every platform. This should have been an obvious trick, but I didn’t think of it until I read it on Tiago Forte’s site. To help with this, I created a numbering system that I’ll go into more detail about in the next post, but everything for one project, area, or resource bucket is named the same way.
A Living System
The final thing I want to point out here is that my system is a living system. It needs to adapt to new responsibility areas, projects, and resources, as well as shifting priorities. Part of the reason I like the PARA system so much is that it allows for that in a way my previous organizing system did not. Having only current things in my active folders makes finding what I’m working on much easier.
I plan on sharing part two next week. In it, I will discuss how I organize projects and areas, specifically the numbering system I’ve found that helps me keep everything together. Have you heard of PARA? Do you have a big-picture system you use to organize all of your digital life? Share in the comments.