How To Implement The PARA Method Organising System

Summary

The video outlines the 'power method' system for knowledge management created by Thiago Forte. It involves archiving existing files, then creating 'project' folders for current tasks with deadlines, and additional 'area,' 'resource,' and 'archive' folders. Tips are provided, like creating an inbox, numbering files by priority, naming folders consistently, working offline, and backing up data. The system aims to store valuable information in the optimal folder for ease of access and actionability at any time.

Takeaways

• 😀 The power system uses 4 folders to store valuable information: projects, areas, resources, and archives
• 📋 Step 1 to implement the power system is to archive existing files to reduce clutter
• 🗂 Step 2 is to create a projects folder and subfolders for current projects
• ➕ Step 3 is to create more folders like areas and resources when needed
• 📅 Numbering files helps prioritize and order the folders
• 🏷 Naming files consistently makes them easier to identify
• ⚙️ Activate offline mode so the system works without internet
• 💾 Back up files in case of data loss
• 📚 The book provides detailed guidance on implementing the system
• 🎥 There are other helpful videos explaining the power method

Q & A

What are the four folders used in the power system to store valuable information?

The four folders in the power system are: Projects - for things you're actively working on with a defined end date and outcome, Areas - for things that require ongoing management over a long period of time, Resources - for things you have an active interest in or want to learn more about, Archives - for things you are not using right now but want to store for later.

What should you do as the first step to implement the power system?

The first step is to archive all your existing files by moving them into a new folder called 'Archives' with that day's date. This puts all your current information into cold storage without losing anything.

Why is it important to archive existing files first when setting up the power system?

Archiving existing files first is important because it clears out your current storage space to work with a clean slate. It also stores all that information so it doesn't distract you but is still available if you need it later.

What should you create in the projects folder and how should you name them?

In the projects folder, you should create a separate folder for each current project you are actively working on that has a defined end date and outcome. Name each folder after the project name and include the deadline date so you can see at a glance when it is due.

When should you create new folders in the power system?

You should only create new folders when you actually have something to put in them. Don't create folders in advance before you need them.

What are some tips to make organizing the power system easier?

Tips include: creating an inbox to temporarily hold new information, numbering your power folders alphabetically so they stay at the top, using consistent naming systems for your folders, activating offline mode so you can access files without internet, and backing up your files regularly.

What naming system does the video recommend for power folders?

The video gives two examples of naming systems: 1) Include deadline dates in project folder names to see when they are due, 2) Use emojis for projects, capital letters for areas, and lowercase for resources (Thiago Forte's system).

Why is it important to back up your power system files?

It's important to back up your power system files in case something happens to your device and you lose access. Backups ensure you don't lose all the work you put into organizing and capturing valuable information.

Can you use the power system offline? Why?

Yes, you can use the power system offline because the most important folder you need access to is your Projects folder. Since that contains your active work, you can advance projects without internet access.

Where can you get more information about the power method and knowledge management?

The video creator provides links to: the book 'Building a Second Brain' which details the power method, a playlist explaining the knowledge management system, and Thiago Forte's website which has details on the overall productivity system and approach.

Outlines

00:00

📚 How to implement the Power System knowledge management method

The first step is to archive all existing files to declutter your workspace. Then create a Projects folder to store current items you're working on with deadlines. Finally, only create more Areas and Resources folders as needed when you have content to file there.

05:01

💡 5 tips for easy organization within the Power System

Useful tips include: 1) Create an Inbox to temporarily hold new info until you can file it properly. 2) Number key folders like Projects for easy access. 3) Use consistent naming formats. 4) Work offline since Projects hold active priorities. 5) Backup files in case of data loss.

Keywords

💡knowledge management system

A system for capturing, organizing and storing information and ideas that one finds valuable. The Power Method described in the video is an example of a knowledge management system that uses categorized folders to store notes and information.

💡Power Method

The knowledge management system devised by Thiago Forte, using four folders - Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives - to store valuable information. This provides an actionable and accessible way to organize knowledge.

💡projects

One of the four Power Method folders. Used to store information related to current work one is actively doing that has a defined end date or outcome. For example, the video mentions a NFL fantasy draft project folder.

💡areas

Another of the four Power Method folders. Used to store information relating to long-term management topics that require ongoing attention over time.

💡resources

The third Power Method folder. For storing information about topics one has an active interest in and wants to learn more about.

💡archives

The final Power Method folder. A type of long-term cold storage for information that one may want to access in the future, but is not currently being used.

💡attention

A key concept in the video. Keeping all information and never deleting anything takes up mental bandwidth and reduces productivity. Archiving unused stuff clears space to focus.

💡implementation

The process of actually setting up one's own Power Method knowledge management system. The video outlines simple steps like creating project folders and archiving old material.

💡actionability

How accessible and ready-to-use the information filed in the Power Method system is. Storing items in the correct folders enhances their actionability.

💡productivity

The ultimate aim of the knowledge management system. By efficiently organizing information, it frees up mental resources to focus on productive work.

Highlights

The power system is a knowledge management system that uses four separate folders to store valuable information: projects, areas, resources, and archives.

Projects are for things you're actively working on with a defined end date and outcome. Areas require ongoing management over time.

Resources are things you have an interest in learning more about. Archives are inactive things you may use later.

Putting information in archives gets it out of your main view so it doesn't take up mental bandwidth, but preserves it.

Step 1: Archive all existing information so you have a clean slate to work with.

Step 2: Create a projects folder and subfolders for everything you're actively working on now.

Step 3: Only create additional folders (areas, resources) when you have something to put in them.

Create an inbox to temporarily hold information until you can process it.

Number your power folders alphabetically so projects is first for easy access.

Use consistent naming schemes across folders like dates, emojis, or codes.

Activate offline mode since the power system works without internet access.

Back up your power system in case you lose access to the files.

The book and videos explain the power method's knowledge management approach.

The power folders allow you to capture information and store it in the most actionable place.

Implementing the power system takes only about a minute across your platforms.

Transcripts

the knowledge management system

contained in this book is one of the

easiest systems to capture and organize

all the information you find truly

valuable this book is the power method

by tagu Forte the developer of the

second brand productivity system the

method of storing notes otago has

devised is simple accessible and

ultimately actionable regardless of who

you are or what you do in this video I'm

going to go through the process of

implementing and organize the power

system across all the various platforms

that you use to capture and store

information and ideas for this video I'm

going to be using the Google apps before

that though the power system is a

knowledge management system that uses

four separate folders to store all the

information and all the ideas you

encounter that you think are truly

valuable and worth capturing proves

extra things you're actively working on

right normally with a defined end date

and outcome areas are for things that

require ongoing management over a long

period of time resources are things that

you have an active interest or want to

learn more about and archives are things

that you're not actually using right now

those are the four folders of the power

system that are going to allow you to

capture any piece of information and

that are going to allow you to store

that information in the most actionable

place at that moment in time time this

basically means that you're putting in

the players that you're the most likely

to use it at that moment in time so to

implement these power folders enter your

own Knowledge Management System there

are three steps that you can follow

which only take around a minute to do so

you might think that the very first step

in creating your own power system is to

create every folder you think you're

going to need and to move every piece of

information that you've already captured

into the relevant folder well that is

the completely wrong way to actually

start building your power system before

you look at the actual steps the build

your own power system if you have any

questions but anything in this video or

anything related to the power method or

the second brand productivity system

leave them down in the comments below

I'll try my best to answer any questions

you have so the first step to actually

implementing the power system in your

knowledge management system is to

archive all your existing files before

we started using computers to store our

digital information everything had a

specific place in a specific folder

however in the digital world we have

access to an almost unlimited amount of

information and we can capture as much

as this information as we could possibly

want to this basically means that we

never really have to throw anything away

although this sounds like a really good

thing that isn't always necessarily the

case the problem with keeping everything

that we capture is that it takes up one

of our most precious resources that we

have available which is our attention if

you're anything like me when you open up

your Google Drive and you see a whole

load of random fuzz and information and

documents just sitting there staring at

you in the face you can feel yourself

literally becoming drained by the sheer

amount of information just there looking

at you the truth is if our physical

environment is really messy and has just

random pieces of paper and information

all over the place the chances are we're

not going to be very productive and

we're not going to do the best work that

we can so why should we trade our

digital environment any differently

within the power system there is a place

where we can store all of this

information so that it's not going to

take up as much of our attention as it

otherwise would have that is something

called an archives folder by putting

something into an archives folder you're

basically putting it into cold storage

for when you might need that bit of

information in the future so here's what

you should do select everything that

already exists within your cloud storage

device doesn't matter whether it's

Google Drive I Collide the actual

physical documents on your computer and

you're going to move them all to a

completely new folder called archives

with whatever today's date is so today

is the 23rd of August so I would name

this folder archives 23rd of the 8th 23.

this allows you to preserve everything

that you have in your storage system on

that particular date without worrying

about losing anything or without

worrying about maybe misplacing it in

the future you're then going to add this

folder you've just created into your

completely new folder called archives

which is why you're going to put

anything that needs to be archived in

the future before we go on to step two

if you find this video useful or helpful

in any way why not consider subscribing

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encourages me to continue to make

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in a massive way so step two is to

create project folders now you're

working with a completely blank storage

space apart from your archives folder

you're then going to create a completely

new folder called projects this is where

you're going to store anything relevant

to the things that you're working on

right now inside that folder you're

going to create a completely new folder

for every single thing that you're

working on right now which has a defined

outcome and a defined end date you

should really name each folder whatever

project you have going on the reason we

are focusing on projects next is because

they're the things that you're actively

working on right now usually with

deadlines attached to them any further

information that are going to help you

complete these projects before the

deadline can be moved to the relevant

folder but don't feel the need to do

this all at once this process can take

time to do so don't rush it for example

this Sunday is our NFL fantasy draft for

the upcoming season so this project

folder is going to be called NFL fantasy

draft 23 24. inside this folder I'm

going to have things like cheat sheets

team death charts mock drafts and

anything else related to Fantasy NFL

which I'm going to use in this project

step three is to create more folders

when you need to there is one basic rule

for this step of implementing your own

power system never create a folder

before you have something to put into it

this means you might have to wait a few

days or a few weeks before you actually

create your areas or your resources but

this is complete really fine it only

takes a moment to create a completely

new folder so there's no reason to

actually do this in advance so those are

the three steps for implementing the

power system and your own Knowledge

Management System but there are five

things that you can do to make the

organizing of this information even

easier the first thing to do is to

create an inbox as you go about your

day-to-day you may not have the time to

actually organize everything effectively

into your power system instead the inbox

allows you to temporarily hold

information until you have the time to

process it properly secondly you should

number your power files in my own power

system I have numbered my files from

zero one to zero four which means that

whenever you sort everything

alphabetically these files will always

be at the very top this gives me really

easy access to each folder that I need

this is also the order of actionability

of the parafas which means they are

organized in the order that I am most

likely to actually use them and most of

the time I'll only need to open up my

projects folder because those are the

things that I'm actually working on

right now and I'm only going to rarely

need you of my archive files so having

projects at the top just makes life a

lot easier when actually working on Pros

results thirdly use a naming system

consistently in your power system it's

really helpful to name all your folders

in a consistent way you might already

have noticed that all of my projects

have a date stamp beside them which

means that I can quickly see at a glance

when the deadline for that particular

project is about to happen tagoforte

uses another very different naming

system he uses emojis for projects

capitalized ladders for areas and

lowercase letters for his resources this

allows him to quickly see where each

folder fits in his own power system

there's only two examples of naming

systems that I use in Thiago Forte uses

but you can create your own as long as

it's consistent across all the different

apps and platforms that you're creating

a power system in fourthly activate

offline mode the vast majority of

software and platforms that you're using

to actually Implement your and organize

your power system they're going to have

some accessibility for an offline mode

the power system works flawlessly in an

offline environment as everything you're

likely to need is actually stored within

only one folder which is your projects

folder which basically means that even

if you're working without any internet

connection you still have access to

everything you might need to make

advancements or to make progress on any

project you currently have going on

fifthly and finally make backups as with

any method of digital Knowledge

Management always make sure you have

backups of your information as you never

knew what might happen if you're using a

code base storage system this is already

done for years the cloud will

automatically back up all your work as

you're online if your power system is

stored in your computer documents it

might be worthwhile investing in a good

external hard drive so that you can

backup everything onto it just in case

something might happen to your internal

hard drive imagine going through all

that effort of capturing and organizing

information using the power system to

all of a sudden find that it's

completely disappeared with no way of

retrieving it at least if you have a

backup on an external hard drive you'll

always have that information from that

point in time where you backed it up

onto the hard drive so that is always to

stop terabyte how to implement and

organize the power system according to

the power method by Thiago Forte if you

haven't already picked up this book I

will leave an Amazon affiliate link to

this book and also to his first book

building a second brain down in the

description below if you want any more

info information about the power method

here is a playlist where you can find a

range of other videos all dedicated to

this knowledge management system