my best non-ai productivity tip: the four-folder rule

here’s my best non-AI productivity tip: have four top level folders that hold all your files: 1-Projects, 2-Areas, 3-Resources, and 4-Archive.

this is Tiago Forte’s PARA system. I’ve been using it for a couple of months now & it is a vast improvement over what I had before — a folder for each subject.

over 90% of what I work in day in and out lives in Projects or Areas. Areas are for the areas of your life and work that you know you’ll need to work on for the foreseeable future. I’ve got a folder for my House, my Cats, and my Family in Areas, along with the areas of my work.

Projects are for things that don’t easily fit in an Area, but are a current project. I just added a ‘New Car’ project b/c we’re in the market for a new car. When I’m done with the project I’ll just chuck the whole folder to the Archive.

Resources are things that you are interested in & want to keep notes on, but don’t currently do work in. Travel and Productivity are two of my Resource folders — I’m interested in both, but not actively working on anything in either. If I read something in one of those areas & want to keep a note, it goes here.

this system, for me, makes it much easier to find what I’m looking for & keeps the stuff I’m working on the most at the top of the system & let’s stuff I’m not so interested in live in the bottom (the Archive). The numbering of the folders is important so that they stay in order.

it did not take me long to get used to the PARA system — it started working better for me right away. It’s not going to make everything in your life easier (Tiago says that having all your Projects at the top of your system makes you default to working on them, which, no it doesn’t), but it has smoothed out one bit of friction (“where the heck did I put that PDF!”).