Articles
One simple way to organise your entire digital life
You've probably heard of PARA before. You might even be one of the many people who use it. Today I’m going to talk about why I don't think it works — and what I do instead.
This is for anyone who has a desktop full of random files, can never find the document they’re looking for or has tried other organisational systems without success. If you implement what I am about to teach you, your life will never be the same again (genuinely).
The PARA Method and why it doesn’t work
PARA is an organisational structure created by Tiago Forte for managing your digital life. It’s broken down as follows:
P — Projects
A — Areas
R — Resources
A — Archive
According to Tiago, projects are short-term efforts in your work or life that you're working on now, areas are long-term responsibilities you want to manage over time, resources are topics or interests that may be useful in the future and archives are inactive items from the other three categories.
In the PARA method it can be hard to know whether something should go into a project or an area.
Now, I don’t know about you, but naturally I think of everything in my life in terms of areas — work, personal, money etc. These are all dedicated, defined and distinct areas of my life.
So, in my system, projects don’t come before areas — projects are inside areas.
I also don’t think a folder for ‘resources’ makes sense either. In the PARA method, resources can easily become a dumping ground for anything and everything causing it to quickly become a confusing mess — the exact thing we’re trying to eliminate.
My system is built on 5 principles:
Principle 1: Everything starts with an area
As I just touched on, the top level in my system is Areas. I have 6 areas:
Work — career, businesses, side hustles etc.
Leisure — personal interests, hobbies, travel, entertainment etc.
Money — income, expenses, taxes, savings, loans etc.
Life — personal documents, home, transport, mind, body, digital life etc.
People — relationships, friends, family etc.
Media — photos, movies, music, books etc.
Principle 2: Archives live inside areas
In the PARA method, archives exist on their own, just like projects. Whilst I can understand the logic of wanting to keep all archived things out of the way, it actually becomes unhelpful when everything is dumped together. You lose the context of where things came from and what area they belong to.
In my system, archives sit in each area like so:
Work ├── Archive └── [sub folder] Leisure ├── Archive └── [sub folder] etc.
Principle 3: Projects live inside areas
If you’re working on a project, that project belongs to an area, so why not have it exist in the area?
One thing to note is that not every area will have projects. In my experience, it’s just the areas of work, leisure (for example, your latest DIY project) that have projects.
Work ├── Archive ├── [Project] └── [sub folder] Leisure ├── Archive ├── [Project] └── [sub folder] etc.
Principle 4: Numbers create priority order
Without adding numbers into your system, you’re forced to view your areas alphabetically or by recently modified which doesn’t provide any order to your system. That’s why I recommend ordering your areas by priority.
Default alphabetical order: Leisure Life Media Money People Work
Number priority order: 1 — Work 2 — Leisure 3 — Money 4 — Life 5 — People 6 — Media
Note: Your priority order may look different to mine.
Principle 5: Colours create instant recognition
Colour coding isn't just for highlighters. When all your folders are the same default blue, your brain has to read every label to find what it's looking for. When each area has its own colour, you navigate by recognition rather than reading — the same way you'd spot a red book on a shelf without reading every title.
I colour code each of my six areas so that at a glance, without reading a single word, I know exactly where I am and what I'm looking at.
The real-life system I’ve been using for over 6 years
Here is what my folder system looks like (feel free to use it as a starting point for your own system):
1 — Work ├── Archive ├── For the Do-Gooders <- project ├── More Mindful Life <- project ├── Better than reels <- project ├── Clients ├── Portfolio └── Work admin 2 – Leisure ├── Archive ├── Personal projects <- projects ├── Personal interests ├── Travel └── Events and entertainment 3 – Money ├── Archive ├── Income ├── Savings ├── Expenses └── Tax 4 – Life ├── Archive ├── Personal Documents ├── Mind ├── Body ├── Home and transport └── Digital life 5 – People ├── Archive ├── [My partner] ├── [My brother] ├── [My parents] └── Friends 6 – Media ├── Archive ├── Photos and videos ├── Movies ├── Music ├── Docs └── Books
Why this system works so well
When you create order, things become simpler. You can find things quicker. You eliminate what I call ‘micro-frustrations’.
Everything has a place and everything is in its place. And, if something doesn’t have a place yet (such as a new family member), it’s easy to know where it belongs (People → Family) because you’ve simplified your digital life into easy to understand areas of your life.
Where to use this system
The main place we’ve discussed today is your folder system on your computer. But I’ve also been using this system in my calendar since I first created it. This is extremely helpful to see at a glance what time I’m giving to the different areas of my life.
Recently a friend of mine colour coded their calendar for the first time ever and expressed how much benefit they had gained from it. I remember being surprised and realising that this is actually something not everyone does!
How to implement this for yourself
So, if you haven’t already gone ahead and copied my folder structure, here’s how you can set it up for yourself:
Decide on the areas of your life
Add an archive folder into each area
Add your sub-folders and projects into each area
Assign each area a colour (for mac users you can right click on a folder and assign a coloured tag. For PC users, ask Google!)
Assign each area a number
Start organising all your documents into their relevant folders
If this feels like an overwhelming task, don’t worry. You don’t have to do all of this at once. Start with the main areas and start to move things across gradually. If you’re not sure about what sub-folders to include, start organising your folders into their areas and your sub-folders will emerge naturally.
It’s also important to note this isn’t a fixed structure. I used to have an area for study when I studied — now it’s archived. Just as life changes, your folders will also change.
Taking it further
In a future post I will talk about how I implement this structure in my favourite note-taking app (Obsidian) and how you can too. My note-taking system features two extra folders so keep an eye out for that if you’re someone that works with knowledge or wants to set up your own ‘second brain’.
The bigger picture
Whilst this entire post has been focused around digital organisation, there’s actually a deeper reason for why it’s worth doing this:
You're creating mental clarity and freeing up mental bandwidth. That bandwidth can go towards more important things — getting to know yourself more deeply, understanding what you want out of life, and actually living it. Less time managing digital chaos means more time enjoying your life.
My 30-min journalling routine that connects my future vision to my daily actions
A peek into my favourite notebook (my brown regular Traveler’s Notebook)
I’ve always struggled to connect my future visions with my present day actions. My ADHD brain loves to live in the now, but the driven and ambitious part of myself always has her eyes set on the future.
It’s an uncomfortable tension at times but this new journalling routine (and a little bit of flexibility) has truly helped me connect the two.
The routine is a blend of two different journalling practices from Zach Highley [1] and David Fragomeni [2] — with some of my own customisations.
The best part about this is it can all be done in less than 30 mins.
Why this works
As a high level overview the routine is as follows:
Do a brain dump
Write 2 gratitudes
Read your vision
Read your reminders
Review your ladders
Pick 1-3 tasks for the day
Journal
The reason this particular order works really well is because you’re first clearing your mind with a brain dump, then creating a feeling of openness and acceptance before connecting to your vision for the future. You then read your list of reminders to give yourself a little personal pep-talk and remind yourself why you in fact *can* achieve your vision (those voices of self doubt can be saved for step 7).
Once you’re feeling motivated and inspired to go after your dreams, you can then shift into planning mode. Reviewing the direction you’re going in and picking 1-3 tasks for the day brings your future vision and your daily actions into alignment.
Finally, as a way of getting to know yourself on a deeper level and clearing anything that might be holding you back, you can pick a prompt and journal.
Sound good? I thought so.
Here it is:
Step 1: Do a brain dump
If ever I’m overwhelmed with to-do’s, I will _always_ turn to a brain dump. The usual reason for feeling overwhelmed is that I have too many things buzzing around my head and I’m worried I’m either going to forget something or not be able to do it all.
Doing a brain dump allows me to quickly capture everything that’s on my mind. It’s like a deep exhale for the mind. The instantaneous relief I feel after getting all my thoughts out in front of me is why I will always encourage people to utilise it’s simple power.
As a quick side note: brain dumps work wonders for busy minds trying to sleep. Keep a notepad and pen next to your bed (or make sure your phone is set up for sleeping) to quickly jot down any thoughts and I can guarantee you’ll sleep better.
As part of this journalling routine, my brain dumps usually look like a few things I have on my mind or want to get done. They don’t have to be 20 items long to help.
Step 2: Write 2 gratitudes
This particular step is part of Zach’s routine where he follows a 1-2-3 process (1 brain dump, 2 gratitudes and 3 small goals). So, two gratitudes is simply because it’s step 2 in his process.
I personally decided to stick with two (even though 3 is my favourite number) because one felt too little and two is 100% more than one. Also, it’s generally pretty easy to think of one thing to be grateful for. Two makes you think a little harder!
Step 3: Read your vision
This step is from David’s routine and I knew instantly that I wanted to start doing it myself because I’ve been considering a practice like this for a while and hadn’t quite figured out the right format for it. When I heard David explain it, I knew the simplicity was exactly what I was looking for.
I have my vision written in the same notebook that I journal in so that I can quickly and easily turn to the page and read it as part of my routine.
Now, of course, to be able to read your vision, you first have to write your vision so I recommend taking some time to write out exactly what your vision is.
For mine, I wrote “5 years from now…” and then wrote out my vision making a point to include things that created feelings and strong visuals in my mind.
For example, “I have a creative sanctuary that I get to work from every day. It is filled with natural light — morning and afternoon — with plants, books and wooden furnishings. It feels warm, intentional and inviting. I hear the birds outside.”
I’ve personally always struggled with the idea of 5-year, 10-year, even 3-year visions. Given how rapidly the world changes these days it feels strange to plan ahead that far because honestly who knows what things are going to look like.
So, whilst I wrote “5 years from now…” this figure is completely arbitrary to me and what I’m really saying is “How I would like my life to look in the future is…”.
The point is, this isn’t prescriptive and you should do it however feels natural to you.
Step 4: Read your reminders
Again, this step is from David’s routine, and just like David I am not a fan of the term ‘affirmations’. In my experience, they always feel more like wishing than believing and I find that when you can truly believe, you can truly make change.
If affirmations work for you, then you can consider this section to be affirmations instead.
My list of reminders serve as a mix of intentions, values, principles and practices that I want to remind myself of.
For example:
I trust my creative instincts and give ideas room to develop
Intentional steps forward matter more than speed
Everything I publish is a practice and helps me to grow and refine my thinking
Where I am now is exactly where I need to be to get where I’m going
To create your own list of reminders, spend some time reflecting on what really matters to you in terms of how you want to embody your:
intentions
values
principles
practices
If you can’t think of many to begin with, don’t stress. Now that you’ve said to your mind that this is something of importance, you’ll find it starts springing up suggestions at all kinds of random times (mostly in the shower). Write them down as they come to you.
Step 5: Review your ladders
You can replace this step with whatever works best for you in terms of planning your goals but if you’re anything like me, you need specific steps to get from A → B.
What I call my ‘ladders’ are essentially a list of small steps that get me from where I am now, to where I want to be (bringing my future vision and my daily actions into alignment). Each step I consider to be a rung on the ladder and the top of the ladder is, you guessed it, the goal.
Sometimes it’s hard to know the steps required to achieve your goal so there’s a couple of ways to approach this:
Work backwards from your goal asking ‘what do I need to do to get to this step?’. Eventually you’ll have steps all the way to where you are now.
Get AI to help. Now, whilst I don’t encourage AI for creative work (I truly believe creativity should come from human effort), I do encourage it for administrative or technical work. Simply tell your [[favourite AI]] what your goal is and that you need clear steps to get there, broken down in bitesize chunks. It probably won’t be perfect first time around, so do a little back and forth to get the list exactly as feels right to you. Trust your intuition here.
Reviewing your ladders is all about reminding yourself of the journey you’re taking so that when distractions come up (inevitably) throughout your day, you know what your priorities are and can make decisions accordingly.
As you take steps on your ladder, you may find yourself updating your ladders as you learn new information or your plans change. This is why we approach our ladders with a flexible mindset.
Step 6: Pick 1-3 tasks for the day
Cal Newport says in his book Slow Productivity:
“Strive to reduce your obligations to the point where you can easily imagine accomplishing them with time to spare. Leverage this reduced load to more fully embrace and advance the small number of projects that matter most.”
The reason for only picking 1-3 tasks for the day is because that feels manageable.
Marcus Aurelius, in Meditations, says “When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly.”
Now, that might sound a little pessimistic, but I take this as a reminder that we are going to come into contact with other people and distractions throughout our day that will ask of our time and attention — some of which we may need to provide.
Having 1-3 tasks allows us spaciousness for the inevitability of other people’s plans coming into contact with our own without it causing us to feel like we’re behind on our own plans.
If you get through your 1-3 tasks, well, you’ve probably got a long list of other tasks so you can pick another one and keep going. Or, alternatively, give yourself a pat on the back and enjoy some rest.
Step 7: Journal
If you’re someone who already journals, you may have your own journalling practice in which case feel free to use that here. Otherwise, if you’re looking for some inspiration you can try these two methods:
1. Free-write
This is also known as ‘stream of consciousness’ writing where you literally write anything and everything in your mind. “I didn’t sleep so well last night… I really must remember to buy my mum a birthday present… What is the meaning of life?…” It goes on and on! This can be particularly useful if you have a lot on your mind that you want to clear.
2. Pick a prompt and answer it
I have a list of journal prompts that specifically encourage deeper and reflective thinking to put me in a strong mindset and help uncover anything that could be holding me back or getting in my way.
Here’s 10 that you can use:
What would make today feel successful?
What am I avoiding and why?
What am I believing about myself that might not be true?
What am I afraid will happen if I fail?
What am I afraid will happen if I succeed?
If I looked back on today in 5 years, what would I be proud of?
What rule am I following that I never agreed to?
What am I making more complicated than it needs to be?
What feels unsafe about moving toward my vision?
What gave me energy recently? What drained it?
The process is simple:
Pick a prompt and journal until either your hand hurts or you feel complete.
Next steps
More steps after the 7 steps? But Natalia, I thought you said it was only 7 steps in this process?
Well, the next step is to go and start your day! Get comfy and get started with your first task!