Notion Tour - P.A.R.A. Setup

[@DavidMalan01]

Comrades - if you can't be bothered building this yourself I have a template on Gumroad: gum.co/bNxLl

[@adrian.diaconescu]

The entire video was insightful and really helpful, but as a dad who has to deal with nausea and an upset stomach right now, the mini-rant about the germs made me smile.

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks Adrian! It’s hard being a dad, take it easy! //Dave

[@DominiqueHendersonCFP]

Thanks!

[@nihonnights]

What I found most useful: A very well done description of the PARA method, specially describing what is the point of each part of the methodology. What I would like to see more of: How do you handle task management since you say you do it mostly from your projects? I haven't been able to find a proper way to do task management and I'm always going back to Todoist for it. Thank you for time and the awesome content you are putting out there!

[@DavidMalan01]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks!

[@clarisajoy9136]

Thank you so much! I've watch alot of videos like this but I've never had the clarity on how I want to organize my notion not until watching you.

[@DavidMalan01]

You’re welcome!

[@mastandstars]

I like the idea of a symptoms journal shown in monthly form. I did get a few ideas from your video that I’ll try to recreate in Notion. Thanks! Also I like that you speak slowly and clearly. I’m so over excessive Jump-Cuts.

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks for your feedback!

[@samuelitooooo]

I've been having trouble grasping PARA. This is helpful in that it gives me some ideas about what should go into Areas and Resources. (Projects is easy to understand IMO.) Thanks!

[@DavidMalan01]

I totally agree! I’m glad it’s been helpful for you! Thanks for letting me know! //Dave

[@iertan69]

Hi David, awesome video! Really liked the idea about journalizing the health related patterns. Thanks for sharing.

[@DavidMalan01]

Hey you’re welcome! Do you use Notion for journaling as well? Thanks for dropping by! //Dave

[@iertan69]

@@DavidMalan01 Yes, for my day trading results. Still trying to figure out what layout is the best :)

[@DavidMalan01]

@@iertan69 that’s a cool idea! I’ve been thinking about day trading, but am sticking to index funds at the moment!

[@chriscarson1903]

Just getting started with Notion and so glad this came up for me. Thank you!

[@DavidMalan01]

You’re welcome Chris, thanks for your comment! You can buy this whole workspace here! gumroad.com/l/bNxLl

[@senseibas8199]

Thank you so much! Love this setup and the interlinkability!

[@DavidMalan01]

No problem! Thanks! //Dave

[@colindouglas7415]

Very helpful. Looking to organize Obsidian in a similar way and this was a great way to organize, thx

[@DavidMalan01]

No problem! My friend Santi has amazing videos on Obsidian! You should check out his channel: kzbin.info

[@colindouglas7415]

@@DavidMalan01 hahah nice promotion, I’ll give him a look

[@gemizo1]

This made the job of setting up PARA in Notion less intimidating. I can start with these baby steps and build

[@DavidMalan01]

Glad it helped!

[@eloisevisser2471]

Hey David & Fellow Notioners! 👋 I started drawing Notion icons a few days ago and thought I'd share it with the community 🤗 If anyone is interested in getting their own custom notion profile picture, check out the link in the comment below 👇

[@HomesickMac]

Very good walkthrough David, I paused at times to see what you consider these various parts of the PARA. My Areas are a bit more "compressed", for ex. the area of Health contains my workouts routines, habits, food databases, fitness in general, medication during periods of any conditions etc. I liked your Property of "Related projects" within the Projects database. Instead of having several pages within your Inbox, may I just give an idea of creating one database called Inbox (in my case it's "Notes / Ideas" where all ideas, fast notes or whatever strikes your mind can go, and then it's processed whenever the time allows, or at scheduled times. I have a very basic tagging (local, not connected to the Master Tags Database) so that I can gather all ideas that are similar - or can relate to the same area/project/...

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks Dragan!

[@danielmejia8214]

Thank you, so useful to start!

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks! //Dave

[@DannyHatcherTech]

Nice video, thanks for sharing!

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks Danny!

[@InspiredIqbal]

Nice video - nice and simply explained.

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks!

[@JustMedicareAnswers]

Thanks for the video! Would have enjoyed seeing you add things to the data base. Like add a task or add a consumption item..... Really learned a lot, New Sub!

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks for your comment Sarah! I have some other Notion videos that might help, this one in particular: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJnZgoKhaKeCqpI

[@sophiemulders]

question: i see on the left side in your navigation that every PARA part is a 'workspace'?( under private) you can relate to them. so the projects can relate to the Areas. I thought everything needed to be in 1 thing. and underneath that you make the para structure? Can you then also make a dashboard with relations to all of them ? my mind is boggled right now...

[@orafacezar]

Thank you David! very helpfull video!

[@DavidMalan01]

You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@DominiqueHendersonCFP]

Loved it! Thanks!

[@DavidMalan01]

No worries comrade! //Dave

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

Hello Sir, Please help me in understanding "meeting" notes, which folder it is supposed to be ? . Is it in AREAS or PROJECTS ? I am working on a particular PROJECT eg: Building a software , which is in my PROJECT folder. And i have regular weekly team meetings on it , so i keep my "meeting notes" inside the PROJECT folder. But "meetings" is a on-going thing as well which is supposed to be in AREAS folder. I am very confused on this. Do i need to duplicate meeting notes in both PROJECT and AREAS ? Please share your thoughts Sir . Thanks !

[@senseibas8199]

What would be really helpful for me, and I kinda miss in all the PARA explanations is the AREA sector. How do you keep the measure of quality and where do things like routines, practices, KPI measurements and so on fit in?

[@DavidMalan01]

I think this article might be helpful. It provides some additional detail and structure regarding Areas: timothykenny.com/blog/harmonizing-tiago-fortes-para-with-my-mastering-organization-and-learning-project-taxonomies/

[@LockeVincent]

The most useful for me was the simplicity of the setup. The beauty of Notion is that you can start anytime and then build and change as you evolve to full Intelligencia status. The most glaring thing for me right now is what goes into the Archives section!? I don't forsee Areas going in but maybe something like Projects. I'm unsure on the best methodology on how to move tasks to my Archive, since they all live in the master task list. Any insight or findings would be useful.

[@DavidMalan01]

My projects list is starting to get a bit long so potentially would move some into Archives. However, could also use the date filter to only show projects from past 6 months for example. For Areas, if for example I stopped doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu I'd transfer it to the Archive. For Tasks, I'd just leave in the Master Task Database. My other video where I show how to build the Master Task Database may be helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJnZgoKhaKeCqpI Marie Poulin's video on her Master Task Database is also super helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/maaof4OsnahjfZY

[@LockeVincent]

@@DavidMalan01 I just did a bit of research and I MP's method is kind of doing a soft archival process every quarter or half year. Would be happy to hop on a call to elaborate. [I'm also keen on your idea of building reln outside of your village] ;)

[@daviddelgadovendrell]

When you decide, on a folder basis, to archive an active project, what about the "Area" relationship information? Does it become missing? Or should we mirror the Area Folders also within the Archive parent Folder? This is not a problem in a relational DB framework, but it is on storage or repository ones.

[@DavidMalan01]

I must admit I have not used the Archive very often. I would expect that the relationship would still exist but not sure!

[@viakondratiuk]

You have such an excellent minimalistic design. How did you get that?

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks! I made it myself! It’s available for purchase via the description. //Dave

[@antinocr]

Very good video! Thanks

[@DavidMalan01]

Glad you liked it!

[@abhinavdc]

Great Walkthrough David. I see you have read GTD, is there a way to integrate ideas from GTD in PARA. Have you thought about it ?

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks Abhinav! I know it is one of the "go-to" books on productivity but I didn't really enjoy it. My main takeaway from it was to be compulsive about writing your ideas down as soon as you have them... Whether that's in your notebook, the notes app on your phone, a napkin, whatever! Just write them down. In terms of integrating into PARA, I haven't really considered it beyond writing my ideas down then turning them into projects.

[@journalingmissy6164]

Hi David, i just found your channel and i really loved this video. I had trouble figuring out what goes where in PARA and this video helped a lot. I just have one question 😊 i really like that you add the symptoms to your journal. It just makes me wonder what you keep under your health area 🤗 and if there is a relation to be made between the two 🤔😁

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks for your feedback! In the health area I have a medical page which has a few key databases in it: Medical Visits, Immunisations and Medications etc etc! Dave

[@journalingmissy6164]

That is helpful to know 🤗 thank you for sharing 🙏🏻🤗

[@seanscreativity9708]

When did ali change keyboard!

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

Hello , new to your channel and subscribed. One doubt i have in using PARA method. I have PARA folders implemented in multiple systems - Apple notes, google drive, macbook , icloud drive . My PROJECTS folders have multiple project subfolders inside them. Similarly for AREAS , RESOURCES , ARCHIVES have multiple subfolders. google drive (PARA) - because when i am at office we cannot connect to icloud drive. icloud drive (PARA) - because i need to sync my documents in apple ecosystem. Apple notes (PARA ) - because i keep all my notes there instead of Evernote. Macbook (PARA) - because i am saving big size video files and photos locally in my macbook. My Question is : Do i need to daily copy paste manually all the contents of my PROJECT subfolders to all the different PARA systems implemented ( eg : google drive, macbook, apple notes ,icloud drive) to maintain sync between them ? Please do reply. I am very confused on this PARA system.

[@DavidMalan01]

I have a similar system but I don’t copy and paste across all my platforms.

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

@@DavidMalan01 Thanks David for your reply . Appreciate your quick response. I will follow what you said and not copy making duplications of notes.

[@petewam7]

Hi David. Love the video. I’m trying to work PARA into my day to day life. Can I ask where you got your icons from? I really like the clean minimum it’s look. 👍

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks Pete, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I get my icons from Notion VIP and Flaticon, links in description of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJnZgoKhaKeCqpI

[@franci-uz]

Are PDFs in notion searchable? Can I work offline in notion? Thanks for your great video! :-)

[@DavidMalan01]

Hey comrade, I just did some testing in my own workspace and yes PDFs are searchable (I searched PDF and it returned pages with PDF in the title as well as files saved as PDF). Re offline, at the moment this is the guidance from Notion: "If you need to access certain pages when you go offline, open the pages you want while you're still online and keep them open. This will allow Notion to cache the pages for offline editing. We'll sync all changes you make across your devices when you go back online. We know there's a ways to go on this 😅 Improvements to offline support are in progress!" As you can see, they acknowledge that the current process is not so bueno 🤓 Thanks for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it! //Dave

[@brandonbraner]

Where are the databases for things like Useful Consumptions. I see them in your favorites but not anywhere in your workspace or private?

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks for dropping by. I keep Useful Consumptions under Resources.

[@davatron5000]

Thanks for the setup tour. Not a lot of people go that in-depth, so it was really awesome to see how it all comes together. You still keeping up with it and doing things this way?

[@DavidMalan01]

Hey Dave thanks for your feedback! It’s hard to find the right balance when it comes to detail on these things so I’m glad to hear it was helpful for you! Yes I’m still using the PARA method in Notion, but I’m using Notion a little bit less extensively. I’ve transferred some components out into systems that are just a bit easier to access quickly, but still use and highly rate Notion for projects! //Dave

[@kemistrypops]

NIce Video Could you provide the template please??

[@DavidMalan01]

I don't have a template for the whole workspace yet but there are some templates in this video that should help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJnZgoKhaKeCqpI

[@dubosehome]

FYI - The Marie Poulin link does not work.....

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks for letting me know!

[@ArticParrot]

Video looks sharp. Which camera and lens do you use?

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks! Sony A6400 with SIGMA 16mm F1.4 DC DN Lens.

[@DavidMalan01]

Here's a new video where I go through all of the equipment I use: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmHFiaGqmMmWaq8

[@AhmetKaan]

I personally always enjoy your videos my friend, another great video with great content! Keep your awesome hard work, would love to see more videos from you in the future. :) 🙂🙂

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks Ahmet! Same to you!

[@skaterdude14b]

7:00 Saame 😭

[@lowkeyproducktvt2101]

It's weird how much you sound like Ali Abdaal