4 ms·

OP here I wrote this article last May and back then it was unclear whether or not I'd stick with PARA Here's the update three months later: The Bad: I’m kind

OP here I wrote this article last May and back then it was unclear whether or not I'd stick with PARA Here's the update three months later: The Bad: I’m kinda getting falling behind on some of the proactive archiving/organizing parts of it, especially for my personal notes The Good: Falling behind where PARA's Just In Time aspects really shine. I can organize just the notes that I’m about to use The Great: BASB made a night and day difference to my project management style In the past I organized my notes and todos in a completely different way. I was constantly struggling to find the important bits or would miss important tasks. I'd always be feeling overwhelmed and lost I still feel like that today, but it's no longer because of my notes. My system is no where near perfect now, but it's waaaaaaay better than what it used to be I shared more of my thoughts in this tweet thread [1] describing the advice I've been giving to my friends who asked if they should sign up for the Building a Second Brain class (where I learned PARA) [1] https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1296532147096834048 https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1296532147096834048

peterlk 6y ago
> I hated the idea of wasting all that time I spent reading Personally, I've come to the conclusion that I read in order to draw broad patterns, not necessarily to remember all the things in every book - my brain has limited space. What are your thoughts on optimizing retention at the expense of remembering to see the forest?
- ZainRiz 6y ago
  100% agreed. It's been a journey for me to get to this point, but Tiago Forte's thoughts were really influential for me here. Now I try to only save notes that I found particularly surprising or insightful, I'm definitely not trying to save everything in the book. I don't put it in: * If the fact didn't make me think * If it doesn't trigger an "aha" moment * If it was something I already knew, For example, I'm currently taking notes as I read The Art of Doing Science and Engineering. If you looked at my notes[1] then you could barely tell that it's a book about engineering. [1] https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1289964671563214848 https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1289964671563214848

peterlk 6y ago

> I hated the idea of wasting all that time I spent reading Personally, I've come to the conclusion that I read in order to draw broad patterns, not necessarily to remember all the things in every book - my brain has limited space. What are your thoughts on optimizing retention at the expense of remembering to see the forest?

ZainRiz 6y ago
100% agreed. It's been a journey for me to get to this point, but Tiago Forte's thoughts were really influential for me here. Now I try to only save notes that I found particularly surprising or insightful, I'm definitely not trying to save everything in the book. I don't put it in: * If the fact didn't make me think * If it doesn't trigger an "aha" moment * If it was something I already knew, For example, I'm currently taking notes as I read The Art of Doing Science and Engineering. If you looked at my notes[1] then you could barely tell that it's a book about engineering. [1] https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1289964671563214848 https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1289964671563214848