After 2 years of using Notion for pretty much everything in my life, and experimenting tens of setups, I have finally found the perfect basis for me. But it isn’t only another Notion setup. It is a complete organisational system that can be used on and with any support. In this post, I will explain its main specs so that YOU can use it in your life.
But first, let me cite the person whose work helped me create 80% of the system.
Tiago Forte. Everyone here knows him: he is an American YouTuber, blogger, and author, famous for his work concerning the Second Brain, and the PARA method. These ideas are central in my setup, as I “improved” his famous work! (To be honest, I have mainly made it fit my needs 😉.)
PARA method reminder
PARA is “A Universal System for Organising Digital Information”. It is an acronym that stands for the 4 main categories, listed from most to least actionable: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives.
He defines them this way :
- Project: “A series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.”
- Area: “A sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.”
- Resource: “A topic or theme of ongoing interest.”
- Archives: “Inactive items from the other three categories.”
Source for the above paragraph: Forte Labs.
The goal is to link everything and to have a simple and minimalist system with only 4 categories, that can be linked together and replicated across all platforms and softwares.
PARA method “problems”
This is a clickbait heading: “problems” is a big word for what are just some minor improvements that can be made for my personal use.
PARA lacked a couple of things to me, and in the way I understood it, I think there are a couple of things that can be improved.
Here is the (small) list of things I wanted to improve :
- Goals and projects management system
- Effective task management system
- Resources management
- Categories hierarchy
My solution: “AGRA”
Here is what the acronym stands for:
My solution looks very similar, as it is completely based on the PARA method. But things are a little different when you dive deeper. For this post, I will only show you the outer part of the iceberg, and in next posts, we will dive deeper in the tasks management system, the goals one as well as how I organise resources.
The AGRA System is thought as a funnel from biggest to most minor importance.
The AGRA System's categories are all linked together, allowing you to go from a task to the corresponding area in one click, and organize everything clearly.
Areas
This didn’t change from the PARA method. My only recommendation is not to have too many categories. Minimalism is key. Remove the Areas that you rarely open or use. By “use”, I mean having goals/resources relating directly and only to them, or storing things in them.
Goals
My main addition to the PARA method! A complete goal management system.
Basically, I used to have two different databases, that both related to Areas. One for Projects, and the other one for Goals. But I always felt that it wasn’t optimized. I needed a way to integrate everything better.
And I came up with a simple thought: goals and projects are the same things. They have a deadline and a set of tasks necessary to reach them or finish them.
So instead of separate lists, I figured out I would merge them and just add a nuance: "Is the goal a Life Goal, or a Spontaneous Project ?”. The difference is that the life goal is something you plan to reach, and the spontaneous project is something you have to do (I will talk more about this in the next posts). For example, “Living in New York before my 30s”, “Loose 12kg by August 1st, 2023”, “Replace our old car”, and “Find a new school for kid” all have a deadline and a series of tasks, but the first two ones are (what I call) life goals and the last two are spontaneous projects.
Then, I thought about a system for managing and reaching life goals / spontaneous ones that go through 3 steps :
- First, define your goals. They can have any horizon.
- Then, define milestones. A milestone is a big necessary step towards a goal, needing a series of smaller tasks.
- Finally, set the tasks for it. Directly for the obvious tasks, when creating the milestones, but also all along the progress for more spontaneous ones.
I will talk more about this system in a coming post.
Resources
This one is a bit different than the one in the PARA method. For me, a resource isn’t a topic or theme of ongoing interest, but every piece of learning that can help :
- Me or someone else
- In the present or the future
- For a current project, an area, or none
This includes notes from articles, videos, my own thoughts, life lessons, conversations with interesting people, youtube videos, podcasts, books, documentaries, etc. Really everything.
And I don’t capture them based on their topic, but I have another system for that. I will elaborate in a dedicated future post.
Archives
No change from the PARA method. Just a place to store what I don’t want or need to see all the time on the pages but still want or need to keep.
AGRA system is an evolution of the famous PARA method created by Forte Labs. It is an organizational system that can be used for all types of support. It has only a few changes from Tiago Forte’s, but they made a huge difference in my everyday life. Still, it isn’t perfect as it won’t fit everyone’s needs. This is why you should take notes or even try it, and adapt it to your needs.
- Please let me know what you think about this system, and about this post.
- I will post templates and detailed indications later.
- Ask me all the questions you have!