Organize your Workflow with OneNote and the PARA Method (FREE OneNote Planner)

Nov 29, 2024

4 min read

You may be wondering: what is the PARA Method? How would it help me stay organized? Why should I be interested? Let's get straight to it.

What is the PARA Method?

To put simply, the PARA Method is a resource management system created by Tiago Forte that helps you file and keep track of any piece of information you come across into four basic categories: projects, areas, resources, and archive.

This type of management system ensures that you are organizing your information and files based on what you're working on right now, whether that is a project, goal, or an ongoing responsibility. You can apply this framework to both your personal and work life. I personally like to tweak it a bit to better suit my needs for work. Here's an example:

CATEGORY	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLES
Projects	Short-term things you're actively working on with a definitive goal and deadline	Writing a report, launching a product, planning an event
Areas	Long-term things that involve ongoing or recurring responsibilities with no definitive deadline	Professional development, weekly team meetings, performance reviews
Resources	Any information or files that you would be referencing in the future	Notes, articles, guides, templates
Archive	Any projects, areas, and resources that are no longer active	Completed projects, outdated resources

How Do I Incorporate the PARA Method with my OneNote Notebook for Work?

You can use the PARA Method on how you store your files, but you can also take it one step further and apply it to your favourite digital planning or notetaking app. I'll use OneNote as an example.

OneNote has four levels of hierarchy built into the app:

Notebooks
Section Groups
Sections
Pages

Each notebook comprises of section groups, each section group contains sections, and each section contains pages. Pages are where you can write notes, draw diagrams, embed digital files and URLS, etc.

You can use OneNote's existing structure to implement the PARA Method:

Notebook - This can be your work notebook (while you have another notebook for your personal life)
Section Groups - Each PARA category can be a section group
Section - Each Project, Area, or Resource can be a section
Pages - This is where you would keep your information and content (like meeting minutes, brainstorming notes, project outline, template for a report, etc.)

For all you visual learners, here's an example of how that would look like in OneNote:

Let's run through some examples of how you would use each PARA category in OneNote:

Project

I'm working on a report for a client, so I have a section titled "Client Report" under the "Projects" section group. I look in my "Resources" section group for the corresponding report template and save a copy under this project. Any files and notes related to this report will also be saved in the "Client Report" section.

Area

My team has recurring internal meetings once a week, so I have a section called "Weekly Team Meetings" under the "Areas" section group where I save all our past meeting minutes. I look in my "Resources" section group for a blank meeting minutes template and I save it under my "Weekly Team Meetings" section.

Resources

A new intern has joined my team, and my company has a standard onboarding process. I look in my "Resources" section group, where I have a section called "New Hires". I have various resources saved in this section that I would need for the onboarding process, such as a checklist of items I may need to request from HR for my new team member, important required paperwork for the intern to sign, etc.