Thanks.
I quite like PARA as an approach to organising though do not use it religiously.
I like how NotePlan handles the metadata/YAML. Is really slick in terms of how it is displayed and how new elements can be added.
If I may page him and if I recall correctly, I believe that I’ve come across comments by @karlnyhus on other forums (MPU) about his use of both NotePlan and Notenik. Perhaps he may have useful input here.
I think PARA is a great mental model for productivity. It’s not something that I follow strictly but it is a fine way to comprehend duties relevant to the writing process. Tiago Forte’s CODE model is also useful.
I’d also like to append my notes (with some annotations to provide context to the present reader) on Sascha Fast’s article that includes a good appraisal of the PARA method: How to Increase Knowledge Productivity: Combine the Zettelkasten Method and Building a Second Brain • Zettelkasten Method. Reading it helped how I distinguish ‘knowledge work’ from ‘productivity’ today.
The latest additions to Notenik that focus on PARA have me curious on how I can revise my approach to the method.
I may become convinced of the PARA/CODE method. I think I’ve mentioned that it doesn’t conflict with CUP’A but can compliment it.[1]
This summary may be better than the actual book.[2]
Projects – short-term efforts; what’s being done now that has a start, finish and concrete result; think Utility.[3]
Areas (of responsibility) – high-caliber long-term interests; influence projects; big pictures; contain projects.[4]
Resources – Potent topics, subjects and information; at the lower level may be affinities; resources are staged until they become relevant enough to be a Utility to a project.[5]
Archive – Inactive material from the above categories; may rise in potency or usefulness. But not yet. Is appealing.[6]
Capture – filling your inbox
Organise – file according to PARA
Distill – process resources according to a “progressive summarization” method.
Express – generate output.
The result is a note that contains all information about the project. It refers to all notes that are relevant for the project. However, it also references resources and excerpts that are outside the Zettelkasten. So, you process everything until you have one structure note that just links to notes and comments on them and their relationships.
For more on ‘CUP’A’ check out: CUP’A: A framework for assessing knowledge resources. ↩︎
Here I’m referring to Forte’s Building a Second Brain. ↩︎
‘Utility’ is a reference to the aforementioned CUP’A framework—U. ↩︎
Again, ‘caliber’ is a reference to CUP’A—C. ↩︎
‘Affinities’ is related to the letter A in CUP’A which actually stands for ‘appeal’. ↩︎
‘Potency’ corresponds to the letter P in CUP’A. ‘Usefulness’ is basically synonymous with ‘Utility’. ↩︎
I think the PARA collection works well. Is set up in a similar in structure to another method that I have dabbled with called Johnny Decimal which i think could also tie in quite nicely with Notenik.
Thanks for the shout out. Not sure I can help with your situation. I’m old and retired but have used Macs for a long time, chiefly as personal machines at home. For work, I only had Windows and UNIX machines and the tools available on those systems to track my projects and keep daily notes.
Since NotePlan appeared on the horizon, I’ve been using it primarily to keep a Daily Note, but also a few notes, and folders of notes, for personal projects that don’t fit in the daily scheme. PARA never stuck for me as an organizing paradigm. My “system” was always evolving, usually built on plain text documents and spreadsheets.
Today I have a template for my Daily Note that continues to evolve. My use of NotePlan is probably more like a Bullet Journal than anything else.
I go back and forth between the Apple Numbers app and the Notenik app for any flat-file database needs that pop up. These two apps can interact surprisingly well.
All manner of static documents, and any of my own notes that have “aged out” of current interest, go into the EagleFiler app on my Mac.
On behalf of the community, we appreciate the insight into your personal background and workflow.
I’m beginning to adopt a similar practice on my own. A lot of information that I’ve been compiling intuitively strikes me as best expressed and stored as CSV files. When stored in DEVONThink you can view them as spreadsheets just like how you would in Excel, Numbers or Google Docs. I don’t know what I plan on doing with them. But between the numerous open source utilities available online, sed & awk [1] and Notenik I reckon I’m equipped to manipulate them in different ways if need be.
Right now I’m interested in figuring out how NotePlan incorporates or is affected by the PARA method. I think they have it documented somewhere. My main objective—and what inspired me to return to this thread—is how to go about merging my daily notes collection into my primary collection. Or at least how to lessen the friction/distance between the two. A lot of ideas come to mind that aren’t necessarily associated with the atomic notes I have stored in the primary collection, at least at first thought, So I wind up writing them in my daily collection and if I think it’s particularly intriguing all mark it as ‘Flagged’ using a boolean field. The problem is reviewing those flagged daily notes and incorporating them into the main repository. To be frank: I rather not.
I haven’t initiated one but I’m thinking that a PARA starter pack could serve as the basis for a new Essential collection. Figuring out how software like NotePlan conceptualizes the PARA method can be usual in figuring this out further. Maybe looking into what Bullet Journaling is can help too.
I would like to have a centralized space to view all the materials of mine that align with the PARA method. I think Forte’s introduced a sound typology in its own right. My issue has been whether executing it is congenial to my own workflow, which at this point assumes Notenik’s feature set as a lingua franca in practice.
I say all this to say your advancement in this direction is well appreciated, @hbowie. How has your own workflow been influenced by it in the last week?
Robbins, Arnold. 619AD. Sed and Awk : Pocket Reference. 2nd ed. Cambridge, LaVergne: O’Reilly Media, Incorporated Ingram Publisher Services [distributor]. http://VH7QX3XE2P.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=VH7QX3XE2P&S=JCs&C=TC0000077925&T=marc&tab=BOOKS.] ↩︎
Well, as it happens, I’ve been on vacation for the last week, so I’ll wait until later this week to take the time to give this thread the sort of thoughtful response that it deserves.
Well, first of all, thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I really appreciate your input!
I just stumbled across NotePlan recently, and was intrigued by it. I like the fact that it stores everything in text files using Markdown, and yet also syncs everything to its iPad and iPhone apps. And I liked the way it has one sidebar that shows you Daily notes along with reference notes. And so far I am liking the PARA method for organizing notes.
I have to admit, though, that while I like the idea of keeping Daily notes, I haven’t really found the practice to be useful.
And then, I didn’t really see any easy way to create one set of notes that could be accessed by NotePlan and by Notenik, so I finally gave up on NotePlan.
So then I tried to think how the PARA method could best be used within Notenik. My first thought was to use the folder field to create subfolders but, since Notenik only allows one level of subfolders, I thought that would be too constraining.
So then I considering using the Seq field to organize things into virtual folders, and so far I’m finding that to be working pretty well. I’m using the header class to represent folders, and the item class for notes within the virtual folders. Then it occurred to me I could use an action class to represent to-do items. So now I have one collection that combines what used to be three different collections:
And then I’m using the Outline tab to see everything organized using the PARA numbering, and then using the List tab, sorting Tasks by Date, for the action items.
So this has become my Essential collection.
So far this seems to be working pretty well for me, but it’s still early days, so we will see how it all pans out over time.
I came to the same conclusion and am currently trying out a different approach: a ‘topic notebook’ in the NoteTaker 4 outliner. My biggest issue was returning to past daily notes to revise and incorporate them into my main collection. I ended up using the include command to place them in my regular notes and eventually realized that I should just write what I was thinking of there.
How you use headers is interesting. I’ve kept the default PARA header notes and designate everything else as an item or action.
For example I have two projects each corresponding to individual areas. I use the Link field to point to a lot of different things that place me in the necessary ‘frame of mind’ for the associated actions. All notes in this collection link somewhere (e.g. Notenik Collections, DEVONThink/Eaglefiler databases, Project notes).
I kept the starter pack’s description in mind when I got to setting it up:
Combo launcher, to-do and reference organized using PARA method
So I treat it like a directory instead of a place for notes more substantial than what the setup invites.
This starter pack feels like the culmination of a lot foundational features.
Level field was introduced, complimenting the Seq field and contributing to the framework that would turn Notenik into a legitimate outliner if desired.There may be more to it but I view these practices—planning, bookmarking and outlining—as the fundamentals of the PARA pack. When we combine these three things with the concept of a project launcher and sprinkle Forte’s method on top we get the PARA pack.
What I like about this starter pack is that it can give me a top-down view at other collections that are setup in different ways, such as a Zettelkasten (which would go under the resource header), a Website or Blog (which would go under the areas header), Daily Notes (which is perfect for the inbox header) or something like a Travel Planner (which would go under projects).
The most interesting thing I’ve realized about starter packs is that they show how the different that ways a collection can be setup and used are a matter of Fields, Labels, their functions and relationships.