TL;DR: PARA sorts everything into four groups: Projects (have an end), Areas (ongoing responsibilities), Resources (things you're interested in) and Archive (anything inactive). On a task tree, make each area a top-level task, put projects inside their area, and complete or archive projects when they're done. Keep resources in your notes app, not your to-do list.
PARA is an organising system created by Tiago Forte, best known from his book Building a Second Brain. It was designed for notes and files, but it works well for tasks too, and its core distinction, between projects and areas, clears up a lot of to-do list confusion.
The four categories
Projects are short-term efforts with a goal and an end. "Launch the new website by June." "Plan Dad's 70th." "Finish the dissertation." When they're done, they're done.
Areas are ongoing responsibilities with a standard to maintain, but no finish line. Health, finances, home, your job, your relationships. You never complete "finances"; you keep it in good shape.
Resources are topics you're interested in or might need later: recipes, design inspiration, notes on gardening.
Archive is anything inactive from the other three: finished projects, areas you're no longer responsible for, resources you've lost interest in.
Forte's main point is that projects are the most actionable category and should be organised first. Everything else supports them.
Projects vs areas: the useful bit
Many to-do lists mix the two. "Health" and "Run a half marathon" sit side by side as if they were the same kind of thing. They aren't:
- "Health" is a responsibility. It will never be finished.
- "Run a half marathon in May" is a project. It will be finished, on a particular day.
When areas are treated as projects, they never get ticked off and they make you feel behind. When projects are treated as areas, they drift, because nothing marks them as finished. Separating them makes both easier to manage.
A good check: if you can't describe what done looks like, it's probably an area.
PARA on a task tree
A nested to-do list maps onto PARA naturally, because areas contain projects and projects contain steps.
Top level: areas
Make each area a top-level task:
- Work
- Home
- Health
- Money
- Side project
Keep this list short. Five to eight areas covers most lives.
Inside each area: projects
Put each active project inside the area it belongs to.
- Health
- Run a half marathon in May
- Book a dentist check-up
- Home
- Garden ready for a party in July
- Sort out the loft
Inside each project: steps
Then break each project down until the next step is obvious, as in how to break down a big project.
- Health
- Run a half marathon in May
- Pick a training plan
- Buy proper running shoes
- Week 1 runs
- Easy 3k on Tuesday
- Easy 3k on Thursday
- 5k on Sunday
- Run a half marathon in May
Ongoing tasks inside areas
Areas also hold recurring responsibilities that aren't projects: "Pay credit card" monthly inside Money, "Water the plants" weekly inside Home. Make them repeating tasks and they'll come back on their own.
Resources: keep them elsewhere
Resources are information, not tasks. A to-do list full of recipes and articles to read gets cluttered fast. Keep resources in your notes app, bookmarks or a read-later service, and only put a task on your list when there's something to do with it ("Try the lentil recipe on Sunday").
Archive: complete and move on
When a project is finished, complete it. In most apps, completed tasks move out of the way, and in Tatask they go to the Archive view, which is PARA's fourth category built in. When an area stops being your responsibility (you sell the car, leave the job), complete or delete the whole branch.
Using tags alongside PARA
PARA gives every task one home. Sometimes you want to see tasks across areas: every phone call, every errand, everything you're waiting on. That's what tags are for. A few cross-cutting tags (#calls, #errands, #waiting) sit happily alongside PARA's structure. I explain the split in tags vs folders.
A complete example
Here's what a full PARA tree might look like for someone with a job, a home and a running hobby. Only the active projects are broken down; everything else stays rough.
- Work
- Q3 report for the board
- Pull revenue numbers from finance
- Draft the summary
- Review with Alex on Thursday
- Hire a junior designer
- Write the job description
- Post the role
- Send weekly update to the team (repeats every Friday)
- Q3 report for the board
- Home
- Garden ready for a party in July
- Order tile samples
- Measure the patio
- Water the plants (repeats every Sunday)
- Garden ready for a party in July
- Health
- Run a half marathon in May
- Week 3 runs
- Book a dentist check-up
- Run a half marathon in May
- Money
- Pay credit card in full (repeats on the 1st)
- Switch energy supplier
- Someday
- Learn to make sourdough
- Plan a trip to Japan
Five areas, seven active projects, a handful of repeats and a short Someday list. Resources, such as running plans, the job description template and sourdough recipes, live in the notes app, with links from tasks where needed.
Notice what isn't here: no "Health" project with no end, and no area cluttered with articles to read. Everything in the tree is either something to do or a container for things to do.
Daily use
PARA organises the list, but it doesn't tell you what to do today. Each evening or morning, pick a few next steps from your active projects and put them on a daily list. In Tatask, starring a task adds it to Today without moving it out of its project. See how to plan your day for the routine.
Weekly upkeep
During your weekly review, add three PARA checks:
- Are any projects finished? Complete them.
- Are any projects really areas? If something has no end, move its tasks into the area and delete the "project".
- Is any area missing a project it needs? If an area feels neglected, maybe it needs a small project to get it back in shape.
Does PARA suit you?
PARA suits people with several areas of life that each have ongoing projects, and people who already organise their notes and files this way and want their tasks to match. If you mostly struggle with daily focus rather than organisation, a lighter method like the Ivy Lee method may help more. PARA also pairs well with Getting Things Done: GTD handles the flow of tasks, PARA handles where they live.
Set it up in fifteen minutes
- Write down your five to eight areas.
- Under each, list the projects that are active right now. Move the rest to a "Someday" task.
- For each active project, add the next step.
- Put resources in your notes app.
That's enough to start. The structure will settle as you use it.
Frequently asked questions
What does PARA stand for?
Projects, Areas, Resources and Archive. Projects have an end; areas are ongoing responsibilities; resources are topics of interest; the archive holds anything inactive.
What's the difference between a project and an area?
A project has a goal and a finish line, like "run a half marathon in May". An area is an ongoing standard with no end, like "health".
Is PARA for notes or tasks?
It was designed mainly for notes and files, but the projects and areas parts map neatly onto a to-do list. Resources usually belong in your notes app instead.
How often should I reorganise PARA?
Light upkeep weekly, as part of a weekly review, and a bigger tidy every few months. Moving finished projects to the archive is the main habit.