The PARA Method

I haven't enjoyed Forte's work thus far, but it was this book that made me realize why. I've been reading them as books about knowledg, but that's not what Forte is writing about. He's dealing with a new type of productivity system that is meant to deal with all the knowledge coming at a worker and how they should organize it.

If you've felt GTD to be lacking and need a productivity system to handle your notes, files, everything...this is a decent method. If you're looking for a way to really build knowledge and learn how to think...I think Forte misses the mark.

Purchase The PARA Method on Amazon

- claims it only takes 60 seconds to get started after section 1 Pg 3

**5 Promises** / Purpose of the book

1. No more searching for documents. You'll know where documents are
2. Greater focus on what matters
3. You will make things happen (so it's productivity)
4. Creativity will soar
5. Beat information overload and [[FOMO]]

### 1 - Fundamentals of [[PARA]]

- instead of nebulous categories like "psychology" that you sort through for some article, save the article under the Project you're using it for. Pg 28
- breaking things down into projects like "Hire software developer" instead of "hiring" is just what [[gtd]] already told us to do years ago. Pg 37, 38
- not every project can be front and centre. Some are on hold maybe indefinitely and you just need to archive it and be okay with that. Pg 48
- start by archiving everything to clear the slate and only bring back what you can actually do.

- CH 4 is just basic productivity advice like have an inbox

- as with all systems the crux is not starting it's maintaining the system in the midst of life happening. I don't feel there is any amazing insight here I haven't seen before.

### 2 - PARA Playbook

- [[Getting Things Done]], [[Getting Things Done 160920200653]]
- projects are a goal with a deadline. Areas are a standard to maintain over time. Pg 80, 81
- Area - like a relationship where there is no "done" you keep working on it
- when collecting resources ask yourself "is this useful" not "is this interesting". If you stick with interesting you'll grab everything and do little. Pg 92 ^ab3559
- it's easy and fun to throw yourself into side things. But if you neglect the stuff you must do, like work, everything will come crashing down. Pg 95
- like Ronald and me just not getting to his project for a year. The results of my pushing on that so hard almost put us out of a house.
- organize all parts of life by PARA Pg 100
- what he means is use the same system for all things like tasks, folders, cloud storage
- since most staff aren't paid or evaluated based on how well they make sure to share their knowledge they don't do it. Pg 126
- this is why devs are bad at writing docs

### 3 - Deep Dives

- he says he gets hired as a productivity coach. Pg 139
- not as a PKM or Zettelkasten coach??
- [x] I should do the steps on Pg 142
- you don't need new techniques you need to stop doing things that don't matter. Pg 147
- ![[the value in information is in outputs not inputs]]
- when in doubt and overwhelmed archive everything and start over. Pg 173
- may stop the switch to a new tool because most of the benefit of the switch is the archiving of things you were never going to do anyway.
- don't set up your system for the life you wish you had with aspirational projects. Set it up for the life you do have now. Pg 186