The PARA method: organize everything by Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives

The PARA method is a way to organize digital information into four groups: Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives. Tiago Forte created it, and its central idea is simple. You file each note or file by the project or goal it helps right now, not by the subject it is about. That keeps the things you need this week close and everything else out of the way.

This guide explains the four groups, how items move between them, the mistakes to avoid, and how to set up PARA in Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Where the PARA method comes from

Tiago Forte of Forte Labs published the earliest version we could find on February 8, 2017: "The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information", on Forte Labs' Praxis blog. His current article on Forte Labs calls it "The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds". In August 2023 he published a book on it, The PARA Method: Simplify, Organize, and Master Your Digital Life.

PARA is also the Organize step of Forte's larger method, Building a Second Brain. You do not need the rest of that method to use it.

Forte stresses that PARA is not tied to one app. He writes that you can use it in "your computer's file system, a cloud storage platform (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive), or a digital notetaking app." The same four groups can run your notes, your documents folder and your cloud drive, so you always know where to look.

The four groups of the PARA method

Projects

Forte defines projects as "short-term efforts (in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind". A project has an outcome and an end: publish the report, move apartments, hire a designer, finish the course.

Areas

Areas are "important parts of your work and life that require ongoing attention". Health, finances, your home, your team, a product you look after. An area has a standard to keep, not a finish line.

Resources

Resources are topics "you're interested in and learning about". Typography, cooking, negotiation, a programming language, a city you might move to. They are useful someday, but no current project depends on them.

Archives

Archives hold "anything from the previous three categories that is no longer active, but you might want to save". Finished projects, areas you stepped away from, interests that cooled.

How notes move through PARA

The core idea, in Forte's words, is to organize information "according to the projects and goals you are committed to right now". That makes PARA a living system. Items move as your life changes:

• A finished project goes to Archives with everything in it.
• A resource becomes useful to a project, and you move or link it there.
• An area you hand over, like a role you leave, goes to Archives.
• An archived project comes back when the work restarts.

When you file something new, ask one question: which project will this help next? If none, ask which area it supports. If none, it is a resource. That order, from most to least actionable, is what makes PARA quick to use. Most notes take seconds to place.

Common PARA method mistakes

• Treating areas as projects, or the other way around. This is the mistake Forte's article names. An area like Marketing never ends, so it never feels done. Without real projects inside it, you "can't track workload or celebrate progress". Break each area into specific projects with an end.
• Building the perfect structure before you start. Forte's Building a Second Brain guide warns against designing a hierarchy in advance. Four groups and a handful of projects are enough on day one.
• Sorting every old file at once. That guide also suggests starting fresh instead of reorganizing your whole past. Leave old material in one place and move pieces into PARA when a project needs them.
• Filing by topic out of habit. A folder called Design inside Projects is a resource in disguise. Name projects after their outcome.
• Never archiving. If finished projects stay in Projects, the list stops telling you what you are working on. Archive as soon as a project ends.

How to set up the PARA method in Barside

Barside keeps notes in workspaces. Each workspace has its own color and its own notes, there is no limit on how many you create, and each note lives in exactly one workspace. Links made with [[ work across all of them. That maps neatly onto PARA.

Create the four groups

1. In the sidebar, under Workspaces, press + (New workspace).
2. Name it Projects and pick a color. Repeat for Areas, Resources and Archives.
3. Give Projects the brightest color, since its notes are the ones you will want to spot on your desktop and in docked tabs.

See workspaces for projects for everything a workspace holds.

Give each project a hub note

1. In Projects, choose From template and pick Project brief. It has Goal, Why it matters, Scope, a Milestones checklist, Risks and Links.
2. Title it with the outcome, like Website relaunch.
3. Open Note options and choose Pin to the top, so active briefs lead the workspace.
4. In every other note for that project, type [[ and the brief's title. The brief's Linked from list then gathers every note of the project, with the sentence around each link. See linked notes and backlinks.

Fill in Areas and Resources

• Areas. Write one note per area, with the standard you want to keep and a checklist of what recurs. For routines, a repeating note from your own template, like a monthly admin checklist on the 1st, arrives by itself. See note templates and repeating notes.
• Resources. In Settings → Reading, set Save new items in to Resources, so every article and newsletter you save lands there. Research notes, saved webpages and reference bookmarks go here too.

Archive a finished project

1. Tick the last milestone in the brief.
2. Open each note of the project and choose Archives in the Move note to workspace selector above it. The brief's Linked from list shows you every note to move.
3. Unpin the brief. Links to the moved notes keep working, because a link points to the note, not to its workspace.

Archived notes stay searchable. The search bar (Alt+Shift+Space in any app, Ctrl+K in Barside) finds them by title and text.

Variation: a workspace per big project

If one project has dozens of notes, give it its own workspace, like P · Book draft, and keep Areas, Resources and Archives as they are. When the project ends, move its notes to Archives first, then delete the empty workspace. Deleting a workspace deletes the notes inside it, so always move them out before.

See tasks by group

Every checklist item in every note shows on the task board. Its workspace menu shows All workspaces or just one, so choosing Projects shows only project work, while Areas shows the recurring upkeep.

Bring old notes without sorting them

Moving from another app? Settings & backups → Import notes brings in a Notion, Obsidian or Evernote export into A new workspace. Leave it there as a holding area, and move notes into PARA only when a project calls for them. See how to import your notes.

Who the PARA method suits

PARA works for most people with a mix of projects and responsibilities:

• Freelancers and consultants with several clients, each with projects that start and end.
• Students, whose courses and assignments are projects with clear deadlines.
• Managers, who juggle team areas and short projects.
• Anyone with a messy drive, because the same four groups work for files, not just notes.

It fits less well if almost everything you keep is reference material with no projects attached, such as a research archive or a personal wiki. A topic structure, or a numbered system like Johnny.Decimal, may suit that better.

Related methods

• Building a Second Brain, Forte's full cycle of Capture, Organize, Distill and Express, with PARA as its second step.
• Progressive Summarization, how to distill the notes you organized.
• Johnny.Decimal, a numbered alternative where every item gets its own ID.
• Getting Things Done, David Allen's system for the next actions inside your projects.
• Maps of content, hub notes that gather a topic across groups.