Implementing the PARA Method in Org-mode

2022-12-31 #emacs #org-mode

This post first talks about the PARA method and then my Org-mode implementation for organizing tasks and notes.

The PARA Method

The PARA Method is a modern system for organizing digital information. It stands for Projects-Areas-Resources-Archives, the four categories of all digital information.

• Project: a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.
• Area: a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.
• Resource: a topic or theme of ongoing interest.
• Archive: inactive items from the other 3 categories.

Project vs Area vs Resource

“Projects” and “Areas” are inherited from GTD. “Distinguish Project and Area” is a common challenge for GTD and PARA adopters, including me. I once had many unimportant projects without deadlines that cluttered my agenda. There are many discussions and articles on it¹ and the model answer is to check (1) the nature of the task and (2) if there is a deadline.

• A project has (1) a specific outcome/goal and (2) a deadline.
• An area has (1) a standard to be maintained that (2) is continuous over time.

In addition to the model answer, I have my interpretation,

• Projects contain the tasks I should focus on (because of the importance, urgency and desirability). They have higher priority over the other categories. I work on them first, especially when there is a chunk of uninterrupted time or my energy level is high. If a “project” does not come with a deadline, I set one for it.
• Areas contain the tasks I have to do. I reserve some time for these tasks every day to keep areas maintained. I can also skip them for a while when the current projects are too demanding.
• Resources contain the tasks I am interested to do. When there is no pressure from projects or areas, I can choose to work on these tasks or simply take a rest.

These three questions help decide which PARA categories a task should go to:

1. Does it require my focus within a timeframe? If yes, make it a project.
2. Is it something I have to do? If yes, move it to an area
3. Is it something I want to do? If yes, move it to a resource.

PARA is Pragmatic

On one hand, I organize my tasks. On the other hand, I know it is not necessary to get it perfect.

Firstly, it takes a lot of effort. I move forward and do the actual work when the tasks are by-and-large in the right places that help to prioritize. The end goal should be the actual outcomes instead of organizing.

Secondly, it is impossible. PARA is a system of single classification. Everything is either a project, an area, or a resource. In practice, a task or note can fall into multiple projects, areas, or interests. For example, “planning a trip for the 10-th anniversary” could arguably belong to either area “spouse” or area “travel”.

Organizing should be forgiving. It is okay to organize wrongly as long as it works. PARA is not a system for perfectionism but for pragmatism.

Let’s talk about my implementation!

Org-mode Implementation

I organize my tasks with PARA using a single todo.org file.

Tags and Categories

I use tags for the actual areas and resources. I assign each of them a specific tag to the corresponding subheadings. This gives me a set of controlled vocabularies for tagging projects and notes. For example, I know I should use writing instead of write or blogging for area “writing”. I don’t create tags for projects (which are short-term and grow over time) to keep my tag set small and useful².

I use categories for the PARA top categories, Project-Area-Resource. When looking at my org agenda view, I immediately know which tasks are my top focuses (Project), which are things I need to do (Area) or interested to do (Resource). I also know which exact area or resource they belong to with the tags on the right.

Tip: I can filter tasks by category and tag by pressing / (M-x org-agenda-filter) and clear filters with | (M-x org-agenda-filter-remove-all).

Organizing my Notes

For project notes, I add or link them directly under the corresponding org subtree in todo.org as I avoid adding project tags. When a project is completed or canceled, I convert the reusable part into the area or resource notes, and archive the project subtree to todo.org_archive.

I place the areas and resources notes under ~/note. I tag them with the tags defined in todo.org and reserve the directory hierarchy³ for the note types. This gives me the flexibility to have multiple tags for a note.

Here is a simplified version of my org directory:

org
├─ todo.org
└─ note
   ├─ 20221125T211904--org-attach__emacs.org
   ├─ ...
   ├─ meta
   │  ├─ ...
   │  └─ 20200202T222222--using-org-mode__emacs.org
   └─ reference
      ├─ article
      │  ├─ ...
      │  └─ 20221226T150449--creating-family-rules__parenting.org
      └─ book
         ├─ ...
         └─ 20220907T134123--building-a-second-brain-tiago-forte__pkm.org

• note/20221125T211904--org-attach__emacs.org is a regular note.
• note/meta/20200202T222222--using-org-mode__emacs.org is a meta note that connects other notes, like the org-attach__eamcs.org above.
• note/reference/article/20221226T150449--creating-family-rules__parenting.org is a reference note for the article “Creating Family Rules”, tagged with my resource “parenting”.
• note/reference/book/20220907T134123--building-a-second-brain-tiago-forte__pkm.org is a new book note for the book “Building a Second Brain” by Tiago Forte.

So far, I don’t archive notes under ~/note. If I need to, I might use the tag ARCHIVED and write some elisp to filter them.

Conclusion

Defining how I am going to organize my digital information reduces the cognitive load when working with tasks and notes. I can add or retrieve the information without thinking too much.

I love to learn how other people works and I hope this post could be interesting and helpful to you, too. If you like it, you probably also check out these:

• Tassin’s implementation which combines Org-mode and Evernote for tasks and notes respectively.
• Emacs CODE implementation which focuses on its note taking workflow with lots of details.