The Para Method: The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds
fortelabs.com
fortelabs.com
The hardest part for me was adapting it to programming and my ADHD brain and I still have some things I need to solve!
it stands for projects, areas, resources and archive.
areas can be further divided or thought of as "areas of responsibility" and "areas of interest"
Resources can include references eg frequently used bits of code, I have mine setup similar to zellelkasten ie they're all shoved in one folder and searchable and wikilink'd up. I tried using areas and project notes but it didn't work so instead I reference the project in the zettle. (I use obsidian)
The idea is to keep the structure everywhere so you use the right tool for the document you're working on.
Your meant to migrate content from top to bottom - if you make a project note for SQL query to get all the users favourites for a project while it's happening you can leave it there. When the project ends you're meant to review the notes and move them to archive resources or areas of they'd work there. I can't be relied on to do this!
There's an alternative version called GAPRA by carl pullein which I feel works better. You have values which align to goals which align to areas, projects all relate to areas and resources relate to all of the above and then you archive again!
Two videos on GAPRA
#> ln -s projects/'write monthly invoice' areas/$regular_gig/tex
#> ln -s projects/'write article on $foo' areas/$website/posts/foo
It just doesn't quite fit, because my short term tasks share repos (and note files) with long-term projects that I'm responsible for-- even regular invoices are long term repos. I suppose I could move it to Archive/Projects when complete, and have a script that moves it back every month.
Put your short ongoing projects in Projects
Put your responsibilities in Areas (of Responsibility)
Put your long term information storage in Resources
Also, create an archive with the same top levels (Projects, Areas, Resource) for docs that you don't need right now but may in the future
My suggestion: Don't use an app. Use a file system and SyncThing.
It's the first and only note taking app I liked.
For backups from Google Docs (or cloud in general) to local, I use rclone. [1]
But otherwise Google Docs works fine.
I used to just keep a folder full of plain text files but recently (as in the last 2 weeks) moved to obsidian and the ability to add some simple markup (headings, code snippets) as well as search the content of the files easily has been a game changer.
Also it's just a thoughtfully designed, nice to use app (if you aren't an electron hater.. I daily drive VSCode, postman and Slack so am certainly not).
For syncing, you can either pay for Obsidian Sync ($10 per month, which is a bit pricy)
If you have a mac/iPhone combo, then iCloud sync is natively supported.
Other than that, Syncthing works well on Android/Windows/Mac, but I heard Syncthing on iOS is not that great.
Obsidian Git works well, and for getting stuff back and forth from a Git repo to iOS, Working Copy does the job.
It emails you a back up from time to time.
I use it less and less because the interface is not comfortable after a given point and of notes. I wish I had heard of obsidian before.
I don't separate short and long term projects, at least not for folders(Most short term projects wind up just having a Keep note and not much else anyway).
I also have a "Clients" folder. If I do something for you (Even if I'm just doing a favor for a friend or something), you probably get a folder, all projects I do for you go there.
Maybe I should try real Areas.
I wonder if this approach would apply well in physical space. I'm always trying to find new ways to manage objects.
PARA is a rehash of GTD getting things done imo with a few obfuscating steps.
Virtually everything in this space falls into stuff ripped off from GTD, or Thinking Fast and Slow concepts and romanticising mental models, or Bullet Journal, or Zettlekasten.