# PARA Part 2: Operations Manual ## Metadata - Author: [[Tiago Forte]] - Full Title: PARA Part 2: Operations Manual - Category: #source/articles - URL: https://fortelabs.com/blog/p-a-r-a-ii-operations-manual/ ## Highlights - What I’ve noticed is that, somewhat oddly, it’s not that important to associate projects very directly with areas. Because your projects are what you engage with on a daily basis, it’s unlikely you’ll forget what areas/categories they fall into. Whereas it is easy to lose sight of a project’s goal in the midst of daily activity. Thus it’s much more important, in my opinion, to associate projects with their respective goals, rather than areas. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16jsen8ygvmv2y4dp0pt9f)) - Note: This is interesting and challenging to me personally... My mind wants to link things back to areas immediately. However, this is a strong tailwind of tangibly mapping projects to goals, which is more forward-thinking, than tying them back to areas. Maybe I need to be cognizant of them both: linking to areas and goals. Missing goals altogether... agreed... that's a monumental miss! - Areas of Responsibility are the **roles you take on in life** and the **hats you wear** (Spouse, Mother/Father, Team Leader, Soccer Coach), the **ongoing standards where the buck stops with you** (Product Development, Company Newsletter, Legal), and **things that take a certain amount of constant attention** (Exercise, Finances, Apartment, Pets). Resources are **interests** (web design, crowdfunding, woodworking, frisbee golf, bio-hacking), **themes** (psychology, politics, leadership, integrity), and **assets** (stock photos, typography links, marketing swipe file, product testimonials, code snippets). I even use lower-case titles with resource notebooks, to remind myself that they are just interests, and capital letters for areas of responsibility. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16r5hbb6h66xswwenwfwzg)) - Note: This is a significant clarification. I wondered where I would drop "philosophy" or "stoicism." This seems quite a bit more clear now. These are resources. - There is another useful guideline here: put ***personally relevant*** information in Areas, and ***generally useful*** information in Resources ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16tbm8ws1xw26z6fgrr06y)) - During the course of a project, it is common to generate all sorts of “intermediate work” (brainstorms, notes, background research, diagrams, interview notes, etc.) that has value, but may or may not make it into the final product. When you finish a project, before moving it to Archives, it’s a good idea to scan it quickly for any such material that might be useful for future projects. In my experience, this only applies to a small amount of the material for any given project, but the value it creates in the future is immense. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16xgws6xs5ytrsby41kpmh)) - Note: Context: from projects to resources - It is common to start a new project, and realize there is something you’ve been collecting for a long time that is potentially useful to the new project. Maybe you’ve been collecting ideas in a Travel (area) notebook for awhile — when the time comes to plan and schedule a specific trip (a project), this is a great place to start. If you find one travel destination you want to take action on, you can move it to a brand spanking new “Bali” (project) notebook as the seed to get your planning started. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16z7a1s76c8rx6n7x1kmf5)) - Note: Context: from areas to projects. Again, hitting on the fluidity here: be comfortable with shifting resources around to support areas and projects where it is relevant. To combat any single pane of glass issues, explore using resource dashboards. I'm testing this out with books. Usually, I'd keep all of my books in a "Books folder." Still, every book has its intent and relevancy to different areas and potentially even projects, so I should be okay with distributing them. - Often, what was previously just an interest catches fire and becomes a full-blown project. This is one of the primary use cases for resource notebooks actually. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp1747nz1dm6yxyybfx40tqh)) - Note: Context: From Resources to Projects - I would suggest performing organizational work *opportunistically*, as opportunities arise, instead of *pedantically*, or “just because.” I call this approach Just-In-Time Organization. What this looks like is making changes to your organizational structure in small batches, as you go along and happen to notice incremental improvements, not in big batches as part of a dedicated effort. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp177shrmpynneh4yj75mn5w)) - Note: I generally struggle with this pedantic organization. Honestly, this leans me a little into the "Architect" archetype. However, I think this is far. I need to focus on getting my PARA setup as a base and allowing things to evolve and flow naturally. - For all the flows I describe above, don’t worry about flowing notes from one category into another with perfect precision. There is no “done,” thus you don’t have to worry about what “done” looks like! You always have search as a backup tool to find whatever you’ve missed or misplaced. Once you start using this system with regularity, you will be interacting with the 4 categories with such frequency, that you will start to notice all sorts of small optimizations and changes to make information more discoverable for your future self. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp17bs36r2mz5q8kgszcezs8)) - Note: A good "organizational stress" reducer - Why break out areas so specifically? Some people ask why I break out my Areas of Responsibility into such small buckets. In my case, 22 of them:  This is really a personal decision, but for me it holds a valuable benefit: it makes it easier for me to determine whether or not I’m meeting my personal standard in a given area. If I had only “Work” and “Personal,” it would be difficult for me to identify where I was falling short and what changes I should make. But having my life broken out into 22 areas allows me to evaluate them more objectively. If I decide I’d like to raise the standard in a given area, it’s then easy to create a new project targeting it very directly. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp17ekp8djvbmw9mqbzkz9hc)) # PARA Part 2: Operations Manual ## Metadata - Author: [[Tiago Forte]] - Full Title: PARA Part 2: Operations Manual - Category: #source/articles - URL: https://fortelabs.com/blog/p-a-r-a-ii-operations-manual/ ## Highlights - What I’ve noticed is that, somewhat oddly, it’s not that important to associate projects very directly with areas. Because your projects are what you engage with on a daily basis, it’s unlikely you’ll forget what areas/categories they fall into. Whereas it is easy to lose sight of a project’s goal in the midst of daily activity. Thus it’s much more important, in my opinion, to associate projects with their respective goals, rather than areas. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16jsen8ygvmv2y4dp0pt9f)) - Note: This is interesting and challenging to me personally... My mind wants to link things back to areas immediately. However, this is a strong tailwind of tangibly mapping projects to goals, which is more forward-thinking, than tying them back to areas. Maybe I need to be cognizant of them both: linking to areas and goals. Missing goals altogether... agreed... that's a monumental miss! - Areas of Responsibility are the **roles you take on in life** and the **hats you wear** (Spouse, Mother/Father, Team Leader, Soccer Coach), the **ongoing standards where the buck stops with you** (Product Development, Company Newsletter, Legal), and **things that take a certain amount of constant attention** (Exercise, Finances, Apartment, Pets). Resources are **interests** (web design, crowdfunding, woodworking, frisbee golf, bio-hacking), **themes** (psychology, politics, leadership, integrity), and **assets** (stock photos, typography links, marketing swipe file, product testimonials, code snippets). I even use lower-case titles with resource notebooks, to remind myself that they are just interests, and capital letters for areas of responsibility. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16r5hbb6h66xswwenwfwzg)) - Note: This is a significant clarification. I wondered where I would drop "philosophy" or "stoicism." This seems quite a bit more clear now. These are resources. - There is another useful guideline here: put ***personally relevant*** information in Areas, and ***generally useful*** information in Resources ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16tbm8ws1xw26z6fgrr06y)) - During the course of a project, it is common to generate all sorts of “intermediate work” (brainstorms, notes, background research, diagrams, interview notes, etc.) that has value, but may or may not make it into the final product. When you finish a project, before moving it to Archives, it’s a good idea to scan it quickly for any such material that might be useful for future projects. In my experience, this only applies to a small amount of the material for any given project, but the value it creates in the future is immense. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16xgws6xs5ytrsby41kpmh)) - Note: Context: from projects to resources - It is common to start a new project, and realize there is something you’ve been collecting for a long time that is potentially useful to the new project. Maybe you’ve been collecting ideas in a Travel (area) notebook for awhile — when the time comes to plan and schedule a specific trip (a project), this is a great place to start. If you find one travel destination you want to take action on, you can move it to a brand spanking new “Bali” (project) notebook as the seed to get your planning started. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp16z7a1s76c8rx6n7x1kmf5)) - Note: Context: from areas to projects. Again, hitting on the fluidity here: be comfortable with shifting resources around to support areas and projects where it is relevant. To combat any single pane of glass issues, explore using resource dashboards. I'm testing this out with books. Usually, I'd keep all of my books in a "Books folder." Still, every book has its intent and relevancy to different areas and potentially even projects, so I should be okay with distributing them. - Often, what was previously just an interest catches fire and becomes a full-blown project. This is one of the primary use cases for resource notebooks actually. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp1747nz1dm6yxyybfx40tqh)) - Note: Context: From Resources to Projects - I would suggest performing organizational work *opportunistically*, as opportunities arise, instead of *pedantically*, or “just because.” I call this approach Just-In-Time Organization. What this looks like is making changes to your organizational structure in small batches, as you go along and happen to notice incremental improvements, not in big batches as part of a dedicated effort. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp177shrmpynneh4yj75mn5w)) - Note: I generally struggle with this pedantic organization. Honestly, this leans me a little into the "Architect" archetype. However, I think this is far. I need to focus on getting my PARA setup as a base and allowing things to evolve and flow naturally. - For all the flows I describe above, don’t worry about flowing notes from one category into another with perfect precision. There is no “done,” thus you don’t have to worry about what “done” looks like! You always have search as a backup tool to find whatever you’ve missed or misplaced. Once you start using this system with regularity, you will be interacting with the 4 categories with such frequency, that you will start to notice all sorts of small optimizations and changes to make information more discoverable for your future self. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp17bs36r2mz5q8kgszcezs8)) - Note: A good "organizational stress" reducer - Why break out areas so specifically? Some people ask why I break out my Areas of Responsibility into such small buckets. In my case, 22 of them:  This is really a personal decision, but for me it holds a valuable benefit: it makes it easier for me to determine whether or not I’m meeting my personal standard in a given area. If I had only “Work” and “Personal,” it would be difficult for me to identify where I was falling short and what changes I should make. But having my life broken out into 22 areas allows me to evaluate them more objectively. If I decide I’d like to raise the standard in a given area, it’s then easy to create a new project targeting it very directly. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gp17ekp8djvbmw9mqbzkz9hc))