PARA
Updated 2026-08-08
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
PARA is an information organization system proposed by Tiago Forte. Projects are efforts with a defined goal and a deadline. Areas are ongoing responsibilities that require maintenance and have no end date. Resources are reference material that may be useful later. Archives hold items that are no longer active. The organizing principle is actionability rather than subject matter: an item belongs where it will be needed next, so the same topic can appear in several categories depending on whether it serves current work. Classification follows use.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Use actionability sort: file each item by where it will be needed rather than by what it is about. - Use deadline binding: keep active projects at the top and attach a deadline to each. - Use archive flow: move completed or inactive material out promptly so the active set stays small.
Anchor fast decisions
Subject-based filing produces large collections in which the material needed today sits alongside material needed in five years, so retrieval depends on remembering where it was filed. Sorting by actionability puts the items relevant to current work in a small, visible set, which raises the chance they are actually used. The archive category is what makes this work, because it lets material leave the active set without being deleted, so decluttering carries no risk of loss. Maintenance depends on moving items as their status changes.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more
Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraverified
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