At this point some people will wonder, “Do I really have to create corresponding, identical folders on all platforms?”
And the answer is: Absolutely not!
First, you should create a folder on any platform only when you have something to put in it. Otherwise, you’ll just end up creating a maze of empty folders that clutter your workspace while leading nowhere. It takes mere seconds to create a new folder anyway, so you should do so only if and when it’s needed.
Second, there is no reason that a given category should have corresponding folders across multiple platforms at all. For example, the recordings of my Zoom calls are automatically saved in a resource folder on my computer, but I certainly don’t need a “Zoom recordings” folder elsewhere. Many categories of information can exist on only one platform—extend them across multiple platforms only if needed to move a project forward.
I know it may seem like a waste of time to manually create the same folders in the different places where you store information. It does take a little extra effort, but in return you gain a tremendous benefit: you are not stuck with any single platform.
I was once working on a major consulting project for a large telecommunications company, when without warning the project management platform we were using stopped working. They had been acquired by a large tech company, which had decided to shut down the product abruptly. While the rest of my team was in disarray, I was able to pivot to a new platform within minutes because my projects and areas already existed independently of any particular software program.
The landscape of productivity software is always changing, but that doesn’t mean your organizing methods have to be. If a feature you depend on stops working, or the policies or pricing of a platform unexpectedly change, that affects only one platform. With PARA, any risk or vulnerability is limited to just one part of your digital life and doesn’t automatically knock out all the others.
PARA is a cross-platform system for one simple reason: your projects are cross-platform. You’ll rarely use just one app to bring a project to completion. PARA provides a way to tie together the information you’ll need to access even though it’s stored in multiple places.
Imagine what would be possible if the multiplicity of software tools you use wasn’t a problem, because they all worked together in harmony with each other.