In the workplace, there are no classes, no tests, no grades, and no diplomas. This makes zero sense in your post-academic career.
We continued to categorize our documents and files according to incredibly broad subjects like “Marketing,” “Psychology,” “Business,” or “Ideas.” We were taught to categorize our class notes, handouts, and study material by academic subject, such as Math, History, or Chemistry.īut then without realizing it, we took that same approach into adulthood.
#Outlinely shortcuts how to
Most of us first learned how to organize information in school. The Key Principle – Organizing Information By Your Projects And Goals Your system has to give you time, not take time. The system you use to organize information has to be so simple that it frees up your attention, instead of taking more of it. It may feel like you have far more to deal with than can fit into such a simple system.īut that is exactly the point: if your organizational system is as complex as your life, then the demands of maintaining it will end up robbing you of the time and energy you need to live that life. It may be difficult to believe that a complex, modern human life like yours can be reduced to just four categories.
#Outlinely shortcuts archive
Resources that you’re no longer interested inĪnd that’s it! Four top-level folders – Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives – each containing a small number of subfolders dedicated to each active project, area of responsibility, resource, and archive in your life.Areas that are no longer active or relevant.Projects you’ve completed or put on hold.Then you have resources on a range of topics you’re interested in and learning about, such as:įinally, you have archives, which include anything from the previous three categories that is no longer active, but you might want to save for future reference: Personal responsibilities such as Health, Finances, Kids, Writing, Car, or Home.Work responsibilities such as Marketing, Human Resources, Product Management, Research and Development, Direct Reports, or Engineering.You have areas of responsibility – important parts of your work and life that require ongoing attention. You have projects you’re actively working on – short-term efforts (in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind. PARA is based on a simple observation: that there are only four categories that encompass all the information in your life. 4 Categories to Encompass Your Entire Life I promise you that it will not only bring order to your life, but equip you with a set of tools for skillfully mastering the flow of information to achieve anything you set your mind to. It’s called PARA – a simple, comprehensive, yet extremely flexible system for organizing any type of digital information across any platform. Instead of putting more obstacles in your way, postponing the actions that will make a difference, it would pull those actions closer and make them easier to start and finish.Īfter more than a decade of personal experimentation, teaching thousands of students, and coaching world-class professionals, I’ve developed such a system.
In other words, the ultimate system for organizing your life is one that is actionable. It would dramatically accelerate you toward completing the projects and achieving the goals that are most important to you. īut most of all, the ideal organizational system would be one that leads directly to tangible benefits in your career and life. It would need to be both flexible, adapting to your needs in different seasons of your life, but also comprehensive, so you can use it in every one of the many places where you store information, such as your computer’s file system, a cloud storage platform (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive), or a digital notetaking app. After all, only the simplest, most effortless habits endure long term. Such a system would need to be incredibly easy to set up, and even easier to maintain. Imagine for a moment the perfect organizational system.Ī system that told you exactly where to put every piece of information in your life – every document, file, note, agenda, outline, and bit of research – and exactly where to find it when you needed it.
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