P.A.R.A. stands for Projects — Areas — Resources — Archives, the four top-level categories that encompass every type of information you might encounter in your work and life.

A project is “a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.”

An area of responsibility is “a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.”

A resource is “a topic or theme of ongoing interest.”

Archives include “inactive items from the other three categories.”

Projects always fall into Areas.

Knowledge work requires not only our time and effort, but also our engagement and creativity. For that reason, personal motivation is the prime problem that supersedes all other problems.

your Project List will change nearly every week. This creates a rhythm and a momentum of project completion to maintain your motivation. It generates the constant novelty that the latest research suggests is essential for satisfaction.

Projects require you to be laser-focused, to ruthlessly drive toward an outcome, to smash through or circumvent obstacles, to ignore distractions (i.e. people). Areas, on the other hand, require mindfulness, balance, flow, and human connection.

a project without a corresponding goal is known as a “hobby.” If you’re not committed to or haven’t fully articulated the outcome you want, you must be doing it just for fun.

if you have a goal without a corresponding project, that’s called a “dream.” You may desire it with all your heart and soul, but without an active project, you are not in fact currently making any progress.

define your projects, or they will define you

P.A.R.A. gives you the best of both worlds: the consistency of centralization, with the adaptability of decentralization.

The entire hierarchy is four categories wide (projects, areas, resources, archives), and no more than four levels deep

The number four has been called “magic” due to research indicating it seems to be the natural limit of all sorts of cognitive processes, from working memory to object-tracking to rapid enumeration.