How to Know Where to Put a Given Item

Since you’ll have the same PARA categories across multiple platforms, the next obvious question is: How do I know on which platform a given item should be saved?

I use the following rules of thumb to tell me which digital storage medium is best for any given piece of information:

1. 1. If it’s an appointment or meeting happening at a specific time, it goes on my calendar
2. 2. If it’s a task that I can complete anytime, it goes in my to-do list app
3. 3. If it’s text, it goes in my notetaking app (since that offers the best search function by which to find it again)
4. 4. If it’s content that I’ll be collaborating on with others, it goes in my cloud storage drive¹⁰
5. 5. If it can’t go in any of the above locations (because it’s too large or a specialized file type, for example), then it goes in my computer’s file system (the Documents folder)

Note that four of the platforms mentioned above are organized using PARA:

• •  To-do list app (projects and areas only, since these are the two categories that have tasks associated with them)¹¹
• •  Notetaking app
• •  Cloud storage drive
• •  Computer file system