What is P.A.R.A#
The author of the P.A.R.A knowledge management method is Tiago Forte, one of the world's most famous productivity experts.
P.A.R.A stands for:
- Project: A collection of tasks with deadlines and clear objectives, which is the smallest unit of execution.
- Area: A space for things that need to be maintained in the long term.
- Resource: Topics or issues of sustained interest, which are also external knowledge reserves that support the Area.
- Archive: Items that are no longer active in the other three categories but may be useful in the future.
The article The PARA Method provides a good explanation of P.A.R.A, so I won't go into detail here. This article mainly introduces the architecture I have implemented based on this system and its application in Notion.
Design#
Area#
Area is a collection of things that one is interested in, and it is also an important part of the knowledge base and the core of the management system.
You can refer to the Library Classification System and the Academic Field Outline for different disciplinary classifications, search for categories of interest and their subcategories, and then add levels as needed. I have divided them into three levels, such as Computer Science → Language → Node.
Area encompasses almost all resources, as well as some projects.
Project#
Originally, in the design, projects were managed from different dimensions than areas. Projects and areas should not be associated because the resources managed by projects will eventually be reflected in the areas, and projects are only temporary. Since Notion's database functionality is very powerful, adding a field is not troublesome. I still hope to associate some projects with areas, dividing projects into two categories: those belonging to areas and those not belonging to any areas. This way, projects belonging to areas can be further broken down for that specific area, gradually approaching the process of realizing one's passion. At the same time, projects that do not belong to areas, such as travel and weddings, can also maintain a certain degree of freedom.
Resource#
The concept of resources is simple, but the design is complex because there are many types of resources, such as links, flashes of inspiration, articles, notes, and media libraries. Therefore, there can be different implementation methods, such as using a card box method, but it is difficult to maintain in the later stage, and the design of different types of resource fields is also different, which becomes cumbersome when applying templates. Finally, I decided to design different templates and management methods for different types of resources, and currently divided them into four sub-modules: Task, Flash, Note, Art. Adjustments can be made based on usage habits in the future.
Archive#
I have made some changes to this concept as well. Archiving is divided into views based on years, quarters, months, or even iterations, which makes it easier to understand. In the future, Gantt charts or statistical tables can be added to views of different periods, making it very flexible.
Areas, as things that are maintained in the long term, are not displayed in the archive.
The association is as follows:
Implementation#
-
First, create a new page and add Archive and Resource as child pages, as well as Project and Area as
Full Page Databases.
Similarly, add Year View, Month View, etc. as full page databases on the Archive page, and add Task, Flash, etc. as full page databases on the Resource page.
Directory Structure#
| Main Module | Submodule | Description | Main Fields |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archive | Archive | ||
| Month | Month View | Progress, Belongs to Year, Belongs to Season | |
| Season | Quarter View | Progress, Belongs to Year, Contains Month | |
| Year | Year View | Progress, Contains Season, Contains Month | |
| Area | Area | Sub Area | |
| Project | Project | Status, Start Date, End Date, Creation Date, Contains Task | |
| Resource | Resource | ||
| Task | Task | Belongs to Area, Belongs to Project, Sub Task | |
| Flash | Flash | Belongs to Area, Belongs to Project | |
| Note | Note | Belongs to Area, Belongs to Project | |
| Art | Media Library | Belongs to Area, Author, Start Date, End Date, Review, etc. |
Page Display#
-
Archive - Month
Use inline databases and filter data created within the period.
-
Area
Use sub-projects to implement hierarchy.
-
Project
Use linked content fields to display contained tasks, etc.
- Resource - Task
Optimization for Faster Speed in China#
See the project Notion-faster (notionfaster.org), which has been tested on iOS and proven to be effective. I have also made a donation.
Other#
I haven't been using Notion for long, and there are still many areas for improvement in this solution. It will continue to be iterated in the future and does not represent the final result.