The P.A.R.A. Method is Tiago Forte's system for organizing notes and files, from "Building a Second Brain". It sorts every item into exactly one of four categories by how actionable it is, not by topic: Projects with a goal and deadline, Areas of ongoing responsibility, Resources of future interest, and an Archive for inactive items. It works with any note-taking or file management tool.

P.A.R.A. Method

Details
Full Name

P.A.R.A. Method (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive)

Also known as

PARA Framework

Part of

Building a Second Brain (BASB): PARA is the Organize step of Forte’s CODE cycle. Name BASB when you also want capture, distillation and output; name PARA for the folder structure alone

Core Concepts:

Projects

Short-term efforts with a specific goal and deadline (e.g., "Launch website", "Write article")

Areas

Long-term responsibilities with a standard to maintain over time (e.g., "Health", "Finances", "Team Management")

Resources

Topics of ongoing interest or future relevance without a current action (e.g., "Machine Learning", "Design Patterns")

Archive

Inactive items from the other three categories — completed projects, dropped areas, or obsolete resources

Actionability principle

Items are organized by how actionable they are, not by topic or type

Tool-agnostic

Applicable to any note-taking or file management system (Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research, plain folders)

Single source of truth

Each piece of information belongs in exactly one of the four categories

Key Proponent

Tiago Forte ("Building a Second Brain")

When to Use:

  • Organizing notes, documents, or files across tools

  • Managing knowledge work with multiple concurrent projects

  • Setting up the folder structure of a personal knowledge management system (for the whole method, see Building a Second Brain)

  • Reducing time spent searching for information

  • Separating actionable work from reference material

  • Onboarding teams to a shared information architecture

  • Structuring documentation repositories or wikis