Imagine for a moment the perfect organizational system.
设想一下完美的组织系统。
A system that told you exactly where to put every piece of information in your life – every document, file, note, agenda, outline, and bit of research – and exactly where to find it when you needed it.
一个系统，能精确指导你将生活中的每一份信息——每份文件、档案、笔记、议程、大纲和研究片段——放置在何处，并在你需要时准确指引你找到它们。
Such a system would need to be incredibly easy to set up, and even easier to maintain. After all, only the simplest, most effortless habits endure long term.
这样的系统需要极其易于设置，并且更易于维护。毕竟，只有最简单、最轻松的习惯才能长期保持。
It would need to be both flexible, adapting to your needs in different seasons of your life, but also comprehensive, so you can use it in every one of the many places where you store information, such as your computer’s file system, a cloud storage platform (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive), or a digital notetaking app.
它需要既灵活，以适应你一生中不同季节的需求，又全面，让你能在众多存储信息的地方使用，比如你的电脑文件系统、云存储平台（如 Dropbox 或 Google Drive），或数字笔记应用。
But most of all, the ideal organizational system would be one that leads directly to tangible benefits in your career and life. It would dramatically accelerate you toward completing the projects and achieving the goals that are most important to you.
但最重要的是，理想的组织系统应能直接为您的职业生涯和生活带来切实的益处。它将显著加速您完成那些对您至关重要的项目和实现目标的进程。
In other words, the ultimate system for organizing your life is one that is actionable.
换言之，组织生活的终极系统是具有可操作性的。
Instead of putting more obstacles in your way, postponing the actions that will make a difference, it would pull those actions closer and make them easier to start and finish.
与其在你的道路上设置更多障碍，拖延那些能产生重大影响的行动，不如将这些行动拉近，使它们更容易开始和完成。
After more than a decade of personal experimentation, teaching thousands of students, and coaching world-class professionals, I’ve developed such a system.
经过十多年的个人实践、教授数千名学生以及指导世界级专业人士，我已开发出这样一套系统。
It’s called PARA – a simple, comprehensive, yet extremely flexible system for organizing any type of digital information across any platform.
它被称为 PARA——一个简单、全面且极其灵活的系统，用于在任何平台上组织各种类型的数字信息。
I promise you that it will not only bring order to your life, but equip you with a set of tools for skillfully mastering the flow of information to achieve anything you set your mind to.
我向你承诺，它不仅能为你的人生带来秩序，还将赋予你一套工具，助你熟练驾驭信息流，实现心中所愿。
4 Categories to Encompass Your Entire Life
涵盖你整个生活的四大类别
PARA is based on a simple observation: that there are only four categories that encompass all the information in your life.
PARA 基于一个简单的观察：你的生活中所有信息都可以归入四个类别。
You have projects you’re actively working on – short-term efforts (in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind. For example:
您手头有正在积极推进的项目——这些短期努力（无论是工作还是个人生活中的）都是您为了特定目标而承担的。例如：
- Complete webpage design 完整的网页设计
- Buy a new computer 购买一台新电脑
- Write research report 撰写研究报告
- Renovate the bathroom 翻新浴室
- Finish Spanish language course
完成西班牙语课程 - Set up new living room furniture
设置新的客厅家具
You have areas of responsibility – important parts of your work and life that require ongoing attention. These might include:
您拥有责任领域——您工作和生活中需要持续关注的重要部分。这些可能包括：
- Work responsibilities such as Marketing, Human Resources, Product Management, Research and Development, Direct Reports, or Engineering
工作职责，如市场营销、人力资源、产品管理、研发、直接汇报或工程 - Personal responsibilities such as Health, Finances, Kids, Writing, Car, or Home
个人责任，如健康、财务、子女、写作、汽车或家庭
Then you have resources on a range of topics you’re interested in and learning about, such as:
那么，您将拥有一系列您感兴趣并正在学习的话题资源，例如：
- Graphic design 平面设计
- Personal productivity 个人生产力
- Organic gardening 有机园艺
- Coffee 咖啡
- Modern architecture 现代建筑
- Web design 网页设计
- Japanese language 日语
- French literature 法国文学
- Notetaking 笔记记录
- Breathwork 呼吸练习
- Habit formation 习惯养成
- Photography 摄影
- Marketing assets 营销资源
Finally, you have archives, which include anything from the previous three categories that is no longer active, but you might want to save for future reference:
最后，您拥有档案，其中包含来自前三个类别的任何不再活跃但您可能希望保存以供将来参考的内容：
- Projects you’ve completed or put on hold
您已完成或搁置的项目 - Areas that are no longer active or relevant
不再活跃或相关的领域 - Resources that you’re no longer interested in
您不再感兴趣的资源
And that’s it! Four top-level folders – Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives – each containing a small number of subfolders dedicated to each active project, area of responsibility, resource, and archive in your life.
就这样！四个顶级文件夹——项目、责任区、资源和档案——每个文件夹内含少量子文件夹，分别对应你生活中的每个活跃项目、责任领域、资源和档案。
It may be difficult to believe that a complex, modern human life like yours can be reduced to just four categories. It may feel like you have far more to deal with than can fit into such a simple system.
或许难以置信，像你这样复杂、现代的人类生活竟能简化为仅仅四个类别。你可能会觉得，自己需要应对的事务远超这个简单体系所能容纳的范围。
But that is exactly the point: if your organizational system is as complex as your life, then the demands of maintaining it will end up robbing you of the time and energy you need to live that life.
但问题恰恰在于此：如果你的组织系统与你的生活一样复杂，那么维护它所需的努力最终会耗尽你享受生活所需的时间和精力。
The system you use to organize information has to be so simple that it frees up your attention, instead of taking more of it. Your system has to give you time, not take time.
您用于组织信息的系统必须非常简单，以便释放您的注意力，而不是占用更多。您的系统应该为您节省时间，而不是消耗时间。
The Key Principle – Organizing Information By Your Projects And Goals
关键原则 – 按项目和目标组织信息
Most of us first learned how to organize information in school. We were taught to categorize our class notes, handouts, and study material by academic subject, such as Math, History, or Chemistry.
我们大多数人最初是在学校学会如何组织信息的。我们被教导按照学科分类整理课堂笔记、讲义和学习资料，比如数学、历史或化学。
But then without realizing it, we took that same approach into adulthood. We continued to categorize our documents and files according to incredibly broad subjects like “Marketing,” “Psychology,” “Business,” or “Ideas.”
但不知不觉中，我们也将这种做法带入了成年生活。我们继续按照极其宽泛的主题来分类整理文档和文件，如“市场营销”、“心理学”、“商业”或“创意”。
This makes zero sense in your post-academic career. In the workplace, there are no classes, no tests, no grades, and no diplomas. No teacher is going to tell you what to write down for the final exam, because there isn’t one.
这在你学术生涯后的工作中毫无意义。在职场上，没有课程，没有考试，没有评分，也没有文凭。没有老师会告诉你期末考试该写些什么，因为根本不存在这样的考试。
What you do have, both at work and in life, are outcomes you are trying to achieve. You are trying to launch a new product, plan a family vacation, come to a crucial decision, find daycare in your neighborhood, publish a new piece of writing, or reach a quarterly sales number.
无论是在工作中还是生活中，你所拥有的都是你试图达成的成果。你正努力推出一款新产品，规划一次家庭度假，做出一个关键决定，在你所在的社区寻找托儿服务，发表一篇新的作品，或是达成一个季度的销售目标。
In the midst of your busy day, as you are trying to make these things happen, you absolutely do not have time to go rummaging through a vast category like “Psychology” to find the one piece of information you need.
在你忙碌的一天中，当你努力实现这些事情时，你绝对没有时间去翻找庞大的“心理学”类别，只为找到你需要的那一条信息。
Instead of organizing information according to broad subjects like in school, I advise you to organize it according to the projects and goals you are committed to right now. This is what it means to “organize by actionability,” a mantra I will return to again and again throughout this book.
与其像在学校那样按宽泛的学科来组织信息，我建议你根据当前致力于的项目和目标来组织。这就是“按可操作性组织”的含义，这一原则我将在本书中反复强调。
When you sit down to work on a graphic design project, for example, you will need all the notes, documents, assets, and other material related to that project all in one place and ready to go.
例如，当你坐下来着手进行一个平面设计项目时，你需要将所有与该项目相关的笔记、文件、素材和其他材料集中放置，并准备就绪。
That might seem obvious, yet it is exactly the opposite of what most people do. Most people tend to spread out all the relevant material in a dozen different places that would take them half an hour just to locate.
这看似显而易见，但实际上与大多数人的做法恰恰相反。多数人倾向于将所有相关资料分散在十几个不同的地方，光是找齐这些资料就要花费他们半小时的时间。
How do you make sure that all the material related to each project or goal is all in one place? You organize it that way in the first place. That way you’ll know exactly where to put everything, and exactly where to find it.
如何确保与每个项目或目标相关的所有材料都集中在一处？首先，您需要有条理地组织它们。这样一来，您就能明确知道每样东西该放在哪里，以及在哪里可以找到它们。
The Power of Organizing By Project
项目组织的力量
For several years, I worked as a productivity coach in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the peak of the tech boom, and high-powered professionals from some of the world’s most influential companies were looking for any edge in their performance. I was happy to oblige.
在旧金山湾区，我担任了几年的生产力教练。那时正值科技繁荣的巅峰，来自全球最具影响力公司的高管们都在寻求提升表现的任何优势。我很乐意满足他们的需求。
I coached several executives at a well-known biotech firm in South San Francisco, on a beautiful campus overlooking the bay. I remember one beautiful spring day I was waiting for my next client, a Senior Director in charge of developing several new life-saving pharmaceuticals.
我在南旧金山一家知名生物技术公司，一个俯瞰海湾的美丽园区，指导了几位高管。我记得在一个美丽的春日，我正等待下一位客户，一位负责开发数种救命药物的高级总监。
Once he arrived, our coaching session started like every other, with a simple question of mine: “Do you have a project list?”
他一到，我们的辅导课便如往常一样开始了，我的第一个问题是：“你有一个项目清单吗？”
When working with a client as a productivity coach, one of the first things I will always ask them is to show me their project list. I need it to get a sense of what kind of work they do, their current workload, and what priorities and outcomes they are trying to move forward.
在与客户合作担任生产力教练时，我首先会要求他们展示他们的项目清单。我需要了解他们从事的工作类型、当前的工作量，以及他们试图推进的优先事项和成果。
He said “Sure!” and, after jotting down a quick list from memory (the first warning sign), handed me a list like this:
他说：“当然可以！”随后，凭记忆匆匆写下一张清单（这是第一个警示信号），递给我一张这样的清单：
Do you see the problem? Look again closely.
你发现问题了吗？再仔细看看。
Not a single item on this list is a project, according to our earlier definition. Does “strategic planning” ever end for good? Is there ever a time when you can permanently cross off “vacations” from your list? Hopefully not!
根据我们之前的定义，这份清单上的每一项都不是一个项目。“战略规划”是否会有彻底结束的一天？你能否永久性地从清单上划掉“度假”这一项？希望不会！
Every item on this list is, in fact, an area of responsibility. This might seem like semantics, but it’s anything but. I’ve learned that no matter how smart or driven you are, there are two critical things you cannot do until you break down your areas of responsibility into specific projects.
这份清单上的每一项实际上都是一个责任领域。这看似只是语义上的区别，但实际上远非如此。我领悟到，无论你多么聪明或充满动力，有两件关键的事情你无法做到，直到你将责任领域细化为具体项目。
1. You Can’t Truly Know the Extent of Your Commitments
1. 你无法真正了解自己承诺的深度
One of the most common complaints I hear from people is that they “have no bandwidth.” And I sympathize – how much of the time does it feel like you have way too much on your plate?
我经常听到人们抱怨“没有带宽”，对此我深表同情——有多少时候你会觉得手头的事情多得难以应付？
But as long as you view your work through the lens of areas, you’ll never quite know just how much is on your plate. Looking at the list above, how much of a workload does “Hiring” represent? It could be anything from a part-time hire every 6 months to filling 50 positions this quarter.
但只要您透过领域的视角审视工作，就永远无法确切了解自己肩负的重担。回顾上述清单，“招聘”这一项究竟意味着多少工作量？它可能从每 6 个月招聘一名兼职人员，到本季度填补 50 个职位不等。
There’s simply no way to know at a glance, and that uncertainty will manifest itself as every area feeling more burdensome than it really is.
一眼望去，根本无法知晓，这种不确定性会表现为每个领域都比实际情况显得更加沉重。
Imagine if you identified each of the projects within Hiring, and kept that list in front of you every day. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to tell how much there is left to do, and what you should do next? For example:
设想一下，如果你能明确列出招聘中的每个项目，并每天将这份清单摆在眼前。这样，判断剩余工作量和下一步该做什么，岂不是变得容易许多？例如：
2. You Can’t Connect Your Current Efforts to Your Long-Term Goals
2. 你无法将当前的努力与长期目标相联系
One of the most challenging (but also rewarding) aspects of knowledge work is that it requires our creativity. And creativity can’t really be sustained without a sense of motivation. You can’t keep doing your best thinking and contributing your best ideas if you’re burned out and demoralized.
知识工作最具挑战性（但也最有回报）的方面之一是它需要我们的创造力。而没有动力感，创造力实际上无法持续。如果你筋疲力尽且士气低落，就无法持续进行最佳思考和贡献最佳想法。
What does our motivation depend on? Mostly, on making consistent progress. We can endure quite a bit of stress and frustration in the short term if we know it’s leading somewhere.
我们的动力取决于什么？很大程度上，取决于持续的进步。只要我们知道这些压力和挫折会带来某种结果，短期内我们就能承受相当大的压力和挫折。
Which brings us to our second problem: without a list of individual projects, you can’t connect your current efforts to your long-term goals.
这就引出了我们的第二个问题：没有一份具体的项目清单，你无法将当前的努力与长期目标联系起来。
Look at the list above again. None of the items on it will end or change – that’s the definition of an area of responsibility, that it continues indefinitely. Now imagine the psychological effect of waking up week after week, month after month, and even year after year to the exact same list of never-ending responsibilities. No matter how hard you work, the endless horizon never seems to get any closer.
再次审视上面的清单。其中任何一项都不会终结或改变——这就是责任区域的定义，它将持续无限期。现在想象一下，周复一周、月复一月，甚至年复一年醒来，面对的总是这份永无止境的责任清单，心理上会产生何种影响。无论你多么努力，那无垠的地平线似乎永远无法靠近。
Honestly, I couldn’t design a better way to kill your motivation if I tried.
说实话，如果我尝试的话，我无法设计出比这更能扼杀你动力的方法了。
When you break down your responsibilities into bite-sized projects, you ensure that your project list is constantly turning over. This turnover creates a cadence of regular victories that you get to celebrate every time you successfully complete a project. Imagine how motivated and accomplished you’d feel by breaking out the broad area of “Events” into each individual event you’re running:
将你的职责拆解成小块项目时，你确保了项目清单不断更新迭代。这种更新带来了一种规律性的胜利节奏，每当你成功完成一个项目，就能庆祝一番。想象一下，将宽泛的“活动”领域细分到你负责的每一个独立活动，你会感到多么有动力和成就感：
No matter how wide-ranging your responsibilities are, you can always break them down into smaller projects. And you must, if you want to know whether you’re actually making progress toward your goals.
无论你的职责范围有多广，总能将其分解为更小的项目。而且，如果你想了解自己是否在朝着目标稳步前进，就必须这样做。
The Actionable Guide to implementing the PARA Method is out!
PARA 方法实施的可操作指南现已发布！
Order your copy now. The book is available in hardcover, ebook, and audio format.
立即订购您的副本。本书提供精装本、电子书和有声格式。
Getting Organized For the Life You Want to Lead
为理想生活而有序准备
Using PARA is not just about creating a bunch of folders to put things in.
使用 PARA 不仅仅是创建一堆文件夹来存放资料。
It is about identifying the structure of your work and life—what you are committed to, what you want to change, and where you want to go. It is about organizing information in such a way that it supports and calls into being the future life you want to lead.
它关乎识别你的工作与生活的结构——你致力于什么，你希望改变什么，以及你想要前往何方。它涉及以一种方式组织信息，使之支持并呼唤出你渴望引领的未来生活。
So much of what we call “organizing” is essentially procrastination in disguise. We tell ourselves we’re “getting ready” or “doing research,” pretending like it’s progress. When in reality, we are seeking any little thing we can polish or tidy to avoid having to face the task we are dreading.
我们所谓的“组织”，很大程度上实质上是伪装起来的拖延。我们告诉自己正在“准备”或“做研究”，仿佛这就是进展。而实际上，我们是在寻找任何可以打磨或整理的小事，以避免面对我们害怕的任务。
PARA cuts through this facade, giving us a method for organizing anything that is so radically simple, there is no excuse and nothing left to do except the next essential step. It is a minimalistic way to add just enough order to your environment that you have the clarity to move forward, and no more.
PARA 打破了这一表象，为我们提供了一种极其简化的方法来组织任何事物，以至于除了采取下一个关键步骤外，别无借口和剩余任务。它是一种极简主义的方式，为你的环境增添恰到好处的秩序，让你拥有清晰前行的能力，仅此而已。
There are other more complex, sophisticated, and specialized ways of organizing information out there, but PARA is the only one that stands the test of time because it gives you more time than it takes.
还有其他更复杂、精密和专业化的信息组织方式，但 PARA 是唯一经得起时间考验的，因为它给予你的时间多于它所占用的时间。
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关注我们在 Twitter、Facebook、Instagram、LinkedIn 和 YouTube 上的最新动态与洞察，涵盖生产力提升及构建第二大脑的方方面面。若您已准备好打造您的第二大脑，不妨获取此书，学习经过验证的方法来组织您的数字生活，并释放您的创造潜能。
