HABIT #3:
Keep Things Informal

PARA requires precision in only one place: the definition of projects. Everything else is not only allowed to remain somewhat messy; that’s how it should be. Highly precise systems require a lot of effort to maintain, which means most aspects of your digital world should remain loose and informal by default.

This rule recognizes that imposing order on information doesn’t always make it more valuable. You heard that right: sometimes organizing information too much makes it less valuable.

The greatest breakthroughs often come from unexpected connections between ideas, and if your system is too rigidly formal, you’ll prevent such connections from ever forming. Allowing some messiness and randomness into the system creates opportunities for very different ideas to be connected and intermixed.

This is why I don’t agree with a lot of the recommendations made by organizing gurus. For example, I don’t recommend:

• •  Creating an internal structure inside folders
• •  Using a standardized template for the contents of notes or documents
• •  Creating a hierarchy of subfolders within subfolders many levels deep
• •  Using databases or other formal methods for organizing personal information

I’ve tried all these practices in the past, but always found that they took up valuable time that was much better suited to engaging with the ideas themselves. Resist the urge to create overly complex mechanisms where simple, straightforward ones will suffice. Your future self will thank you for saving them all the time-consuming effort such mechanisms always require.