Edition no.12. April 20th, 2023

Organizing is overrated.

Don't get me wrong. Your Organization is a central piece in your Second Brain.

But the focus of organizing is twisted upside down.

The act of organizing your knowledge usually gets 10x more attention than it deserves.

That's because organizing is simple.

And chaos is an inherent part of the process.

Most of the effort behind organizing is deployed to go from chaos to order.

But organizing is NOT about order.

Organizing is about finding shit.

💬 4 Quotes

Quote 1

You don't need to spend hours on a perfectly organized system.

You just need to find things when you need them.

Organizing is not about storing.

Organizing is about finding.

Quote 2

Not sure if these were the exact words used. 🤔

But anyway, see that Shakespeare was clearly a man ahead of his time.

He predicted that organizing could potentially be a waste of time.

There are times when organizing is useful.

But there are times when it's not.

Keep that question in mind.

Quote 3

And here, we arrive at one of the most fascinating principles in the world:

• Pareto's Principle - The 80/20 Rule

This principle states that 80% of the outcomes come from 20% of the efforts.

And that the other 20% of the outcomes come from the remaining 80% of the efforts. 🤕 🗯️ "Ouch."

In this case, 80% of the benefits come from 20% of the organizing.

This is why organizing is SIMPLE.

You should be putting in 20% of the effort to receive maximum returns, and then just use your freakin’ search.

Quote 4

In this quote, Tiago describes "The Hollywood model” of how productions are made.

A team is put together just for a specific project, then splits up again.

"But wait, why are you bringing this up, Fis?" – You ask

Well, this is to illustrate that sometimes life happens in short bursts of inspiration and creativity.

You do not need a perfectly organized system for this to happen.

You just need to find items that are related to this specific project, while you are working on it.

And then, make sure you can later find this project's knowledge.

You only need that 20% of effort to make these happen.

📄 3 Notes

1. PARA - Organize by actionability

PARA is Tiago Forte's method for Organizing information.

He says that "Completed creative projects are the oxygen of your Second Brain.”

Based on this key principle, he designed PARA; with the idea of prioritizing action.

PARA is designed for Actionability. And stands for:

• Projects

• Areas

• Resources

• Archives

Projects are what you are working on right now, Areas are ongoing responsibilities, Resources are your interests, and Archives are inactive or unorganized information.

Projects are the oxygen of the Second Brain.

They are also the most actionable category.

🚨 80/20 Principle Alert!

Most of your efforts should be directed at your projects.

80% of the results come from effectively organizing information about the projects you are working on.

Including the organization when you finish the project. (More on this later.)

PARA is designed for Folders, and the core principle is to put ideas where you'll use them the soonest (Projects).

But this mindset also applies to networks.

In networked tools, information can live in many places simultaneously. For example, you can have a note belonging to both a Project and a Resource.

The focus is still on projects, the fuel of your Second Brain.

2. The Knowledge Management Processes

The four major processes of knowledge management consist of:

• Creating (updating)

• Storing and Retrieving

• Transferring (sharing)

• Applying

🤔 And why is this relevant to organizing?

Usually, Organizing is limited to the second step: Storage and Retrieval.

But I try to encompass all 4 processes in my organization.

By definition, Organization deals with your entire Second Brain's structure.

I challenge you to deal with all the processes in your organization.

Why limit yourself to storing and retrieving?

My Organization structure has:

• A place to Create (Think)

• A place to Transfer (Express)

• A place to Apply (Act)

3. PACKA Organization

This is a work in progress of my unique perspective on how to organize my Second Brain.

PACKA stands for:

• Projects

• Areas

• Capture Inbox

• Knowledge Hub

• Action Zone

Projects and Areas serve the same role.

What's different is:

• An official Capture Inbox

• A Knowledge Hub

• An Action Zone

This is my current setup on how to bring into play the other processes of knowledge management as well as the other stages of CODE.

🎲 Projects:

• Overall management of knowledge.

• Hub for Capture, Organize, Distill + Express.

• A place to create, store, retrieve, transfer, and apply knowledge.

🏡 Areas:

• A broad perspective of responsibilities.

• Hub for Organize.

• A place to plan, and have perspective.

🕸️ Capture Inbox:

• Deals with the creation of knowledge.

• Naturally, is the hub for Capture.

• A place to store captured ideas and notes.

🪴 Knowledge Hub:

• Creation and updating of knowledge

• Hub for Distill.

• A place to store, retrieve and enhance my knowledge.

🤾🏽‍♀️ Action Zone:

• Transferring and applying knowledge

• Hub for Express.

• A place to act and create.

🔗 2 Links

Link 1: Short 80/20 Principle video

This short video presents the 80/20 of the 80/20 Principle.

Nicely animated, to teach or remind you about the Pareto Principle.

Watch this video thinking about what I've mentioned regarding Organization. Remember how 20% of Organizing can bring 80% of the benefits.

Be efficient!

Link 2: PARA Method by Tiago Forte

The foundational article describes the PARA Method in detail.

Keep in mind that PARA was designed for a hierarchical (folders) structure.

Take the most important ideas from this article, not necessarily 100% of the steps and mindsets.

Remember the 80/20 Principle.

That's it. Thank you for reading!

See you next week, my friend!

Cheers,

Fis