PARAmore
PARAmore
On Extending The PARA Method Without Breaking It + Moving Above & Beyond
This is the index post of my essay series called PARAmore.1
It's a deep dive into the PARA method by Tiago Forte and explores who to improve and move beyond it.
The first season (episodes 1-6) explores ways to extend PARA without breaking it. In the second season (7-11), PARA is slowly developed in a more powerful method called PEAKER.
I started this series over two years ago and it is now complete.
Here’s the index for all episodes that have appeared:
Setting WIP Limits — Increasing throughput with small constraints on top of P.A.R.A.
Splitting the Archives — Addressing the main bottleneck in scaling P.A.R.A.
Managing Personal Programs — A temporary but natural extension for multi-project endeavors
The Meta-Layer — Using a lightweight, antifragile tagging system on top of P.A.R.A.(supplementary post with an example of my system: here)
Unlocking the Incubator — The Art of Channeling And Feeding A Someday-Maybe Empire
Inbox Management — Interfacing with the Source.
Breaking Project Obsession — Graduate from the cult of the project to become a more holistic effort manager.
The EARA Method Explained — Move from PARA to EARA, a more flexible and powerful organizational method.
A Proper Place for Protocols — Turn your PARA content factory into a lab for personal growth, a true LifeOS. Plus, move from EARA to PEAR.
Introducing “The Keep” — Truly move Beyond PARA by giving up on much of the folder-based knowledge base and instead embracing structureless links. Move from PEAR to PEAKR.
A Hothouse for Embers — Unlock the “Embers” space for “things in transit” and move from PEAKR to PEAKER.
The Seasons
Season One: PARA Modding
As with all methods and frameworks, P.A.R.A. is no silver bullet. So, most individuals who try to install it sooner or later feel they need to tailor it to their needs.
While that’s something to be expected, I believe this change is delicate!
"Make it your own" - "Do what works for you" — these phrases do not imply that you can change a framework however you like and expect it to work as before. Unfortunately, this is exactly what I see people do. They may start from the vanilla version, but soon after, there's nothing left to tell them they ever did. And that's what I want to address in the first season of this series:
Modifications to PARA only work as long as the result still aligns with its underlying principles.
Over the years, I have battle-tested many of such adaptions to PARA. I call them PARA mods (modifications), and here are my most successful ones. You can read them in any other or only the ones that interest you:
Whether you try out some of these or build your own, I encourage you to
Stick with the vanilla P.A.R.A. method until you grasp the underlying principles. Most of this will take many weeks, even months, of daily usage.
Make every modification experimental and temporary at first. Put every change on trial first. Keep it Only if you believe you are making a meaningful and non-breaking exception.
I am curious about your story and how you personally altered PARA. Did some of my suggested changes stick with you? Which turned out unfeasible?
Season Two: Beyond PARA
The PARA modding season discussed how PARA should be seen as a foundation to build upon, not a restrictive ceiling. It introduced small and safe modifications to PARA to help make it more powerful and flexible. The Beyond PARA season is bolder. It challenges the underlying principles of PARA itself. It breaks away from them in several cases, creating a better system based on even more potent principles better suited to our unique workflows and life demands. Beyond PARA elevates PARA from a mere organizational method to a general-purpose LifeOS.
My PARA modding and the discovery of Nick Milo’s ACE method have contributed to this. But what I present here is mostly based on many hard-earned lessons.
Here are the episodes of the second season. They should be approached in sequences as they build upon each other:
