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Personal Knowledge Management 101

Dec 23, 20242 min read

  • PARA is a personal organization system developed by Tiago Forte. It stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives.

  1. Projects: These are specific, time-bound objectives that require action and planning. They are typically short-term and have defined outcomes.

  2. Areas: Areas represent broader areas of responsibility or focus in your life. They encompass ongoing, long-term aspects like health, career, hobbies, mom, dad, friends, etc.

  3. Resources: Resources are references, tools, or information that support your projects and areas. This category includes documents, books, websites, or anything you need for your work or personal life.

    1. or anything you are interested in and want to document and keep track of.

  4. Archives: Archives are where you store completed projects and reference materials that you might need in the future. They keep your current workspace clutter-free.

    1. donā€™t neglect your Archive, before you start or end new projects, reference your archive.

PARA is designed to help individuals manage their tasks, responsibilities, and information efficiently by categorizing everything into these four distinct categories, enabling better organization and productivity.

Brief Summary of PARA by the Creator (Tiago Forte)

  • the tool you use does not matter
    • everything beyond the tool is really a convenience, or a speed perk.
    • but never necessary to ā€œuse one tool over anotherā€
      • huge rabbit hole for beginners

Why I (Diego) use PARA to organize my ā€œSecond Brainā€

being able to have the piece of mind that a thought you had, video, idea, or reminder can be written done and tucked away so that you can focus on the moment and come back to it later.

having structure and rigidity to a structure allows you to save the time of critique and being able to lean into the work instead of constantly changing aspects.

if you want the full process or methodology; read this book:

Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

  1. Apple Notes / Android Notes
    1. just need a file and folder structure, along with a text editor
  2. Notion
  3. Obsidian
  4. OneNote
  5. Roam

Mindset Videos

Action > optimization The Cult of Done

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