Imagine for a moment the perfect organizational system.
想象一下完美的组织系统。
A system that told you exactly where to put every piece of information in your life – every document, file, note, agenda, outline, and bit of research – and exactly where to find it when you needed it.
一个告诉你生活中每一条信息——每个文档、文件、笔记、议程、大纲和研究资料——应该放在哪里，并在你需要时准确找到它的系统。
Such a system would need to be incredibly easy to set up, and even easier to maintain. After all, only the simplest, most effortless habits endure long term.
这样的系统需要非常容易设置，更容易维护。毕竟，只有最简单、最轻松的习惯才能长期坚持。
It would need to be both flexible, adapting to your needs in different seasons of your life, but also comprehensive, so you can use it in every one of the many places where you store information, such as your computer’s file system, a cloud storage platform (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive), or a digital notetaking app.
它需要既灵活，能够适应你不同阶段的需求，又全面，能够在你存储信息的每一个地方使用，比如你的电脑文件系统、云存储平台（如 Dropbox 或 Google Drive）或数字笔记应用。
But most of all, the ideal organizational system would be one that leads directly to tangible benefits in your career and life. It would dramatically accelerate you toward completing the projects and achieving the goals that are most important to you.
但最重要的是，理想的组织系统应该是一个能直接带来职业和生活实际利益的系统。它会极大地加速你完成最重要的项目和实现目标的进程。
In other words, the ultimate system for organizing your life is one that is actionable.
换句话说，组织生活的终极系统是一个可操作的系统。
Instead of putting more obstacles in your way, postponing the actions that will make a difference, it would pull those actions closer and make them easier to start and finish.
它不会在你面前设置更多障碍，推迟那些会产生影响的行动，而是会拉近这些行动，使它们更容易开始和完成。
After more than a decade of personal experimentation, teaching thousands of students, and coaching world-class professionals, I’ve developed such a system.
经过十多年的个人实验、教授成千上万的学生和指导世界级的专业人士，我开发了这样一个系统。
It’s called PARA – a simple, comprehensive, yet extremely flexible system for organizing any type of digital information across any platform.
它叫做 PARA——一个简单、全面、但极其灵活的系统，用于在任何平台上组织任何类型的数字信息。
I promise you that it will not only bring order to your life, but equip you with a set of tools for skillfully mastering the flow of information to achieve anything you set your mind to.
我向你保证，它不仅会给你的生活带来秩序，还会为你提供一套工具，帮助你熟练掌握信息流，以实现你设定的任何目标。
4 Categories to Encompass Your Entire Life
涵盖你整个生活的 4 个类别
PARA is based on a simple observation: that there are only four categories that encompass all the information in your life.
PARA 基于一个简单的观察：你的生活中所有的信息只有四个类别。
You have projects you’re actively working on – short-term efforts (in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind. For example:
你有正在积极进行的项目——短期的工作或个人生活中的努力，带着某个特定的目标。例如：
- Complete webpage design 完成网页设计
- Buy a new computer 买一台新电脑
- Write research report 撰写研究报告
- Renovate the bathroom 翻新浴室
- Finish Spanish language course
完成西班牙语课程 - Set up new living room furniture
安装新的客厅家具
You have areas of responsibility – important parts of your work and life that require ongoing attention. These might include:
你有责任领域——工作和生活中需要持续关注的重要部分。这些可能包括：
- Work responsibilities such as Marketing, Human Resources, Product Management, Research and Development, Direct Reports, or Engineering
工作责任，如市场营销、人力资源、产品管理、研究与开发、直接报告或工程 - Personal responsibilities such as Health, Finances, Kids, Writing, Car, or Home
个人责任，如健康、财务、孩子、写作、汽车或家庭
Then you have resources on a range of topics you’re interested in and learning about, such as:
然后你有各种你感兴趣并在学习的资源，例如：
- Graphic design 平面设计
- Personal productivity 个人效率
- Organic gardening 有机园艺
- Coffee 咖啡
- Modern architecture 现代建筑
- Web design 网页设计
- Japanese language 日语
- French literature 法国文学
- Notetaking 笔记
- Breathwork 呼吸练习
- Habit formation 习惯养成
- Photography 摄影
- Marketing assets 营销资产
Finally, you have archives, which include anything from the previous three categories that is no longer active, but you might want to save for future reference:
最后，你有档案，包括前三类中不再活跃但你可能想保存以供将来参考的任何内容：
- Projects you’ve completed or put on hold
你已完成或搁置的项目 - Areas that are no longer active or relevant
不再活跃或相关的领域 - Resources that you’re no longer interested in
你不再感兴趣的资源
And that’s it! Four top-level folders – Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives – each containing a small number of subfolders dedicated to each active project, area of responsibility, resource, and archive in your life.
就是这样！四个顶级文件夹——项目、领域、资源和档案——每个文件夹包含少量子文件夹，分别用于你生活中的每个活跃项目、责任领域、资源和档案。
It may be difficult to believe that a complex, modern human life like yours can be reduced to just four categories. It may feel like you have far more to deal with than can fit into such a simple system.
你可能难以相信像你这样复杂的现代人生活可以简化为仅仅四个类别。你可能觉得你要处理的事情远比这样一个简单系统所能容纳的多得多。
But that is exactly the point: if your organizational system is as complex as your life, then the demands of maintaining it will end up robbing you of the time and energy you need to live that life.
但这正是重点：如果你的组织系统和你的生活一样复杂，那么维护它的需求最终会剥夺你生活所需的时间和精力。
The system you use to organize information has to be so simple that it frees up your attention, instead of taking more of it. Your system has to give you time, not take time.
你用来组织信息的系统必须足够简单，以至于它能解放你的注意力，而不是占用更多的注意力。你的系统必须给你时间，而不是占用时间。
The Key Principle – Organizing Information By Your Projects And Goals
关键原则——按项目和目标组织信息
Most of us first learned how to organize information in school. We were taught to categorize our class notes, handouts, and study material by academic subject, such as Math, History, or Chemistry.
我们大多数人第一次学习如何组织信息是在学校。我们被教导将课堂笔记、讲义和学习材料按学科分类，如数学、历史或化学。
But then without realizing it, we took that same approach into adulthood. We continued to categorize our documents and files according to incredibly broad subjects like “Marketing,” “Psychology,” “Business,” or “Ideas.”
但在不知不觉中，我们将这种方法带入了成年期。我们继续按照非常宽泛的主题来分类我们的文件和资料，如“市场营销”、“心理学”、“商业”或“想法”。
This makes zero sense in your post-academic career. In the workplace, there are no classes, no tests, no grades, and no diplomas. No teacher is going to tell you what to write down for the final exam, because there isn’t one.
这种方法在你的职业生涯中毫无意义。在工作场所，没有课程、没有考试、没有成绩、也没有文凭。没有老师会告诉你期末考试要写什么，因为根本没有期末考试。
What you do have, both at work and in life, are outcomes you are trying to achieve. You are trying to launch a new product, plan a family vacation, come to a crucial decision, find daycare in your neighborhood, publish a new piece of writing, or reach a quarterly sales number.
你在工作和生活中所拥有的是你试图实现的结果。你在努力推出新产品、计划家庭度假、做出关键决策、在社区中找到托儿所、发表新作品或达到季度销售目标。
In the midst of your busy day, as you are trying to make these things happen, you absolutely do not have time to go rummaging through a vast category like “Psychology” to find the one piece of information you need.
在你忙碌的一天中，当你试图实现这些目标时，你绝对没有时间在像“心理学”这样庞大的类别中翻找你需要的一条信息。
Instead of organizing information according to broad subjects like in school, I advise you to organize it according to the projects and goals you are committed to right now. This is what it means to “organize by actionability,” a mantra I will return to again and again throughout this book.
与其像在学校那样按宽泛的主题组织信息，我建议你按你当前致力于的项目和目标来组织信息。这就是“按可操作性组织”的含义，这是我将在本书中反复提到的一个口号。
When you sit down to work on a graphic design project, for example, you will need all the notes, documents, assets, and other material related to that project all in one place and ready to go.
例如，当你坐下来处理一个平面设计项目时，你需要所有与该项目相关的笔记、文件、资源和其他材料都集中在一个地方，随时可以使用。
That might seem obvious, yet it is exactly the opposite of what most people do. Most people tend to spread out all the relevant material in a dozen different places that would take them half an hour just to locate.
这看起来似乎很明显，但这恰恰与大多数人的做法相反。大多数人倾向于将所有相关材料分散在十几个不同的地方，光是找到它们就需要半个小时。
How do you make sure that all the material related to each project or goal is all in one place? You organize it that way in the first place. That way you’ll know exactly where to put everything, and exactly where to find it.
如何确保所有与每个项目或目标相关的材料都集中在一个地方？你一开始就这样组织它们。这样你就会确切知道把每样东西放在哪里，也确切知道在哪里找到它们。
The Power of Organizing By Project
按项目组织的力量
For several years, I worked as a productivity coach in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the peak of the tech boom, and high-powered professionals from some of the world’s most influential companies were looking for any edge in their performance. I was happy to oblige.
多年来，我在旧金山湾区担任生产力教练。那是科技繁荣的巅峰时期，来自世界上一些最具影响力公司的高管们都在寻找提升绩效的任何优势。我很乐意提供帮助。
I coached several executives at a well-known biotech firm in South San Francisco, on a beautiful campus overlooking the bay. I remember one beautiful spring day I was waiting for my next client, a Senior Director in charge of developing several new life-saving pharmaceuticals.
我在南旧金山的一家知名生物技术公司担任教练，该公司位于一个美丽的校园，俯瞰海湾。我记得一个美丽的春天，我在等待我的下一个客户，一位负责开发几种新型救命药物的高级总监。
Once he arrived, our coaching session started like every other, with a simple question of mine: “Do you have a project list?”
他到达后，我们的教练课程像往常一样开始，我问了一个简单的问题：“你有项目清单吗？”
When working with a client as a productivity coach, one of the first things I will always ask them is to show me their project list. I need it to get a sense of what kind of work they do, their current workload, and what priorities and outcomes they are trying to move forward.
当我作为生产力教练与客户合作时，我总是首先要求他们展示他们的项目清单。我需要通过它来了解他们从事的工作类型、当前的工作量以及他们试图推进的优先事项和结果。
He said “Sure!” and, after jotting down a quick list from memory (the first warning sign), handed me a list like this:
他说“当然！”然后从记忆中快速写下一个清单（第一个警告信号），递给我一个这样的清单：
Do you see the problem? Look again closely.
你看到问题了吗？再仔细看看。
Not a single item on this list is a project, according to our earlier definition. Does “strategic planning” ever end for good? Is there ever a time when you can permanently cross off “vacations” from your list? Hopefully not!
根据我们之前的定义，这个清单上没有一个项目。战略规划会永远结束吗？你能永远从清单上划掉“度假”吗？希望不会！
Every item on this list is, in fact, an area of responsibility. This might seem like semantics, but it’s anything but. I’ve learned that no matter how smart or driven you are, there are two critical things you cannot do until you break down your areas of responsibility into specific projects.
这个清单上的每一项实际上都是一个责任领域。这看起来像是语义问题，但绝不是。我了解到，无论你多么聪明或有动力，在你将责任领域分解为具体项目之前，有两件关键的事情你无法做到。
1. You Can’t Truly Know the Extent of Your Commitments
1. 你无法真正了解你的承诺范围
One of the most common complaints I hear from people is that they “have no bandwidth.” And I sympathize – how much of the time does it feel like you have way too much on your plate?
我听到的最常见的抱怨之一是他们“没有带宽”。我很同情——你有多少时间感觉自己有太多事情要做？
But as long as you view your work through the lens of areas, you’ll never quite know just how much is on your plate. Looking at the list above, how much of a workload does “Hiring” represent? It could be anything from a part-time hire every 6 months to filling 50 positions this quarter.
但只要你通过领域的视角来看待你的工作，你就永远无法确切知道你有多少事情要做。看看上面的清单，“招聘”代表多少工作量？它可能是每 6 个月招聘一名兼职人员，也可能是本季度填补 50 个职位。
There’s simply no way to know at a glance, and that uncertainty will manifest itself as every area feeling more burdensome than it really is.
根本无法一目了然地知道，这种不确定性会使每个领域感觉比实际更繁重。
Imagine if you identified each of the projects within Hiring, and kept that list in front of you every day. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to tell how much there is left to do, and what you should do next? For example:
想象一下，如果你确定了招聘中的每个项目，并每天将该清单放在你面前。知道还剩多少工作要做以及接下来该做什么，是不是会容易得多？例如：
2. You Can’t Connect Your Current Efforts to Your Long-Term Goals
2. 你无法将当前的努力与长期目标联系起来
One of the most challenging (but also rewarding) aspects of knowledge work is that it requires our creativity. And creativity can’t really be sustained without a sense of motivation. You can’t keep doing your best thinking and contributing your best ideas if you’re burned out and demoralized.
知识工作最具挑战性（但也最有回报）的方面之一是它需要我们的创造力。而创造力如果没有动力感是无法持续的。如果你感到筋疲力尽和士气低落，你无法继续做出最好的思考和贡献最好的想法。
What does our motivation depend on? Mostly, on making consistent progress. We can endure quite a bit of stress and frustration in the short term if we know it’s leading somewhere.
我们的动力依赖于什么？主要是持续的进展。如果我们知道它正在引向某个地方，我们可以在短期内忍受相当多的压力和挫折。
Which brings us to our second problem: without a list of individual projects, you can’t connect your current efforts to your long-term goals.
这就引出了我们的第二个问题：没有单独项目的清单，你无法将当前的努力与长期目标联系起来。
Look at the list above again. None of the items on it will end or change – that’s the definition of an area of responsibility, that it continues indefinitely. Now imagine the psychological effect of waking up week after week, month after month, and even year after year to the exact same list of never-ending responsibilities. No matter how hard you work, the endless horizon never seems to get any closer.
再看看上面的清单。清单上的任何项目都不会结束或改变——这就是责任领域的定义，它会无限期地持续下去。现在想象一下，每周、每月甚至每年醒来面对同样永无止境的责任清单的心理影响。无论你多么努力工作，这无尽的地平线似乎永远不会更近。
Honestly, I couldn’t design a better way to kill your motivation if I tried.
说实话，即使我尝试，我也设计不出一个更能杀死你动力的方法。
When you break down your responsibilities into bite-sized projects, you ensure that your project list is constantly turning over. This turnover creates a cadence of regular victories that you get to celebrate every time you successfully complete a project. Imagine how motivated and accomplished you’d feel by breaking out the broad area of “Events” into each individual event you’re running:
当你将责任分解成小项目时，你可以确保你的项目清单不断更新。这种更新会带来一系列的常规胜利，每次你成功完成一个项目时，你都可以庆祝。想象一下，通过将“活动”这一广泛领域分解为你正在运行的每个单独活动，你会感到多么有动力和成就感：
No matter how wide-ranging your responsibilities are, you can always break them down into smaller projects. And you must, if you want to know whether you’re actually making progress toward your goals.
无论你的责任多么广泛，你总是可以将它们分解成更小的项目。如果你想知道自己是否真的在朝着目标前进，你必须这样做。
The Actionable Guide to implementing the PARA Method is out!
《可操作的 PARA 方法实施指南》现已发布！
Order your copy now. The book is available in hardcover, ebook, and audio format.
立即订购你的副本。该书有精装本、电子书和有声书格式。
Getting Organized For the Life You Want to Lead
为你想要过的生活做好组织
Using PARA is not just about creating a bunch of folders to put things in.
使用 PARA 不仅仅是创建一堆文件夹来存放东西。
It is about identifying the structure of your work and life—what you are committed to, what you want to change, and where you want to go. It is about organizing information in such a way that it supports and calls into being the future life you want to lead.
这是关于识别你的工作和生活结构——你承诺的是什么，你想改变什么，以及你想去哪里。这是关于以支持并召唤你想要过的未来生活的方式来组织信息。
So much of what we call “organizing” is essentially procrastination in disguise. We tell ourselves we’re “getting ready” or “doing research,” pretending like it’s progress. When in reality, we are seeking any little thing we can polish or tidy to avoid having to face the task we are dreading.
我们所谓的“组织”有很多实际上是伪装的拖延。我们告诉自己在“准备”或“做研究”，假装这是进步。而实际上，我们是在寻找任何可以打磨或整理的小事，以避免面对我们害怕的任务。
PARA cuts through this facade, giving us a method for organizing anything that is so radically simple, there is no excuse and nothing left to do except the next essential step. It is a minimalistic way to add just enough order to your environment that you have the clarity to move forward, and no more.
PARA 切穿了这种假象，给我们提供了一种组织任何事物的方法，这种方法极其简单，没有借口，除了下一步必要的步骤，别无他物。这是一种极简主义的方法，给你的环境增加了足够的秩序，让你有清晰的前进方向，仅此而已。
There are other more complex, sophisticated, and specialized ways of organizing information out there, but PARA is the only one that stands the test of time because it gives you more time than it takes.
还有其他更复杂、更精细和更专业的信息组织方法，但 PARA 是唯一经得起时间考验的方法，因为它给你带来的时间比它消耗的时间更多。
Follow us for the latest updates and insights around productivity and Building a Second Brain on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’re ready to start building your Second Brain, get the book and learn the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.
在 Twitter、Facebook、Instagram、LinkedIn 和 YouTube 上关注我们，获取最新的生产力和构建第二大脑的更新和见解。如果你准备开始构建你的第二大脑，获取这本书，学习组织你的数字生活并释放你的创造潜力的验证方法。
- Posted in Building a Second Brain, Note-taking, Organizing, Productivity, Project management, Technology
发布于构建第二大脑、笔记、组织、生产力、项目管理、技术 - On
2023 年 2 月 24 日发布 - BY Tiago Forte 作者 Tiago Forte
