Forte Labs

I ~like~ love Obsidian. I also like Steph Ango and his philosophies. In fact, a lot of his ideas shaped and improved mine. His approach is opinionated. So pick the good ones you like and make your own. For instance, I’m pretty well-organized, and I like it that way. This leads me to native organizations using folders and some patterns that I learnt aloong the way. Nothing more complicated. One day, if I have to walk off Obsidian, I can, and I will still know where things are. Right now, my organization is a loose combo of PARA[1] and Johnny Decimal.[2] Obsidian is another tool; it just happens to be one hell of a good tool. 1. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/ 2. https://johnnydecimal.com

Surprised nobody has mentioned the PARA method. After years of ad-hoc organizing setups I started using it for both home and work (separately). Best thing is it’s simple and gets out of the way, so I focus on what I’m trying to do and not on the metawork of maintaining some complex hierarchy. I looked at more complicated schemes like Johnny Decimal and they were not for me. I organize my filesystem, notes app, and todo app in the same way. It works really well for me and has stopped the nagging desire to periodically optimize the system. It just gets out of the way so I can focus more. I’m actually pretty neutral on Tiago Forte overall, not a big fan for various reasons. But his PARA system has been super useful for me. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/

I like PARA a lot, which has some great ideas: https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/

I use the PARA system across all my platforms and it works great. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/ And it should go without saying on hn that the everything software you seek is emacs org-mode ;)

I found Dendron via HN a few months ago and absolutely love it. I was hemming and hawing with my Dendron file structure until I found the PARA method (in a Dendron tutorial): https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/. I love that the dots in Dendron file names (e.g. resource.orgs.pacific-energy-center) lets me avoid the awkwardness of folders while still having hierarchical organization. I move around and make changes fast with Dendron's shortcuts. I'm opting to keep a lot of my lists (e.g. my to-do list) in Excel, and rely on Dendron more for the written-out stuff. I'm grateful for this free open-source awesomeness!

This is one of the best article about this topic [1]. Here is the best advice I took seriously: "Organize your notes by context, not by topic" [1] https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-to-take-smart-notes/

Tiago Forte has a lot of thoughts on this topic and a partialy free/paid blog: https://www.fortelabs.co/ I'm not affiliated in any ways but his ideas a really well thought out and apparently thoroughly tested with clients.

Check out Tiago Forte's PARA system: https://praxis.fortelabs.co/new-post-the-p-a-r-a-method-49c73913a544 It's paywall-gated ($5/month), but totally, totally worth it.

Yeah, sorry about that. Next best thing is to sign up for email updates: http://www.fortelabs.co/blog

I seriously love Tiago's work. I don't know if anybody remembers, but I once wrote a post about procrastination that got to the frontpage of HN, a couple of years ago [1]. And since then, I've been basically reading everything relevant I've been able to get my hands on. (Here's a 'research review' of sorts: [2]). I'd put Tiago squarely in my top 3-5 list of 'People Who Get It'. I highly recommend reading the rest of his work on the subject. [3] __ [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6468521 [2] http://visakanv.com/1000/0333-procrastination-pt1/ [3] http://www.fortelabs.co/blog

haven't seen anyone recommend this yet so I will toss in a link to PARA: https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/ You want a system simple enough to remember, as well as all these other properties (quoting Tiago here): - universal, encompassing any conceivable kind of information from any source - flexible, able to work with any project or activity you take on, now and in the future - simple, not requiring any time-consuming maintenance, cataloguing, tagging, or reorganizing beyond a bare minimum - actionable, integrating seamlessly with task management and project management methods - cross-platform, able to be used with any application, now existing or yet to be developed - outcome-oriented, structuring information in a way that supports the delivery of valuable work - modular, allowing different levels of detail to be hidden or revealed, depending on the needs of the current task - opportunistic, in the good sense, taking advantage of work already being performed, instead of requiring dedicated overhead time So PARA breaks down to Projects — Areas — Resources — Archives: - A Project is “a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.” Examples include: Complete app mockup; Develop project plan; Execute business development campaign; Write blog post; Finalize product specifications; Attend conference - An Area of responsibility is “a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.” Examples include: Health; Finances, Professional Development; Travel;…

I didn't really understand org-mode for a long time either - my problem was that I would read tutorials which gave very detailed descriptions about the various theoretical abilities of org-mode, which are like tools, but left up to the reader the task of determining an overall "goal" or workflow to be accomplished using these tools. So I ended up just working in a single org-mode file, not really understanding which tools I might like to use, how I could use it as an organizational system. For me, the lightbulb moment came from a couple of blog posts called "Building a Second Brain in Emacs and Org-Mode" [0][1], which outlined an actual workflow (based on Getting Things Done or GTD [1]) and explained how org-mode enhanced it. If you follow along, you may find it helpful to see the author's actual emacs configuration (especially the parts that relate to org-mode) [3], the templates he uses to create projects and e.g. weekly reviews [4], and a talk he gave at an Emacs meetup about his workflow. It could be a little more organized in a single place, but this is the best "tutorial" I've ever found about org-mode. After implementing this myself, I've found that I use certain parts of it a lot, and other parts not at all. I also found that I prefer to periodically refile org-mode notes into a "knowledge repository" (a series of text files in my org-mode directory), rather than in evernote as suggested, and that this is best managed/browsed (for me) using Deft [6] rather than…

What I've written also has a connection with productivity systems like GTD (which I don't use personally but serves to illustrate my point). Many if not most people on HN are knowledge workers. For us especially, many tasks in our inboxes are non-actionable. E.g. a link you stored that teaches a great trick to use your editor, or an elusive shell one-liner you came up with. What to do with these? A good productivity system should also include a knowledge base, so that those non-actionable bits of information that have future value can be easily stored and later retrieved. Here they explain it better than I do: https://praxis.fortelabs.co/gtd-x-pkm-8ff720ef6939/ A further tweak is to force spaced repetition on those knowledge bits you want to be able to learn by heart. In Emacs, you can achieve this by simply tagging them for later org-drill (spaced-repetition) sessions. As a student I used to do this with pen & paper. I would patiently deconstruct books into extremely long lists of items that included definitions, theorems, corollaries, demonstrations, and whatever concepts in the right order. Then I recalled them during repetition sessions. Doing this with a spaced-repetition algorithm is a much more efficient way, as you focus your effort on hard stuff and you time sessions appropriately to maximize the chances of learning it.

I’ve also struggled with over-analyzing where stuff should go. I’ve restarted a new Obsidian vault based on PARA [1], and am experimenting with using LLMs (both Cursor and Claude Code) to help me decide where stuff should go. Been a big help so far. [1] https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/

Here[0] is a blog post by someone who identified it as playing a part in a severe case of selective mutism that deeply impacted their professional ambitions. The description is interwoven with a narrative of their time at some sort of week-long retreat, but there are sections (mostly in italics, as they're memories) that describe the mutism, their efforts to identify its source, their learning about the vagus nerve interactions, and the takeaways about the vagus nerve and its role in their experience. [0]: https://fortelabs.com/blog/groundbreakers/

Indeed your view makes sense. I'm very much one of the people you mention, I forget things all the time, and use search in Notion to find the things most relevant to me. I also don't over-organize my notes, but rather use something simple much like the PARA method[0], and so would challenge the organization piece of your argument. To me, the value proposition would be anything incremental you can provide above and beyond simple search, but also something that isn't broadly accessible through other means (web search, GPT-like solutions, etc) [0] https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/

I like using Notion + PARA[1]. I have a journal where I write notes with daily todos or make notes about systems/code, etc. It's okay for everyday stuff. Then I have a separate PARA for larger ongoing stuff. [1] https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/

GTD has a concept of a tickler file - https://facilethings.com/blog/en/the-tickler-file - something i have zero use for but i need the same idea for digital artifacts. I tried different approaches over the years but i’ve settled on the PARA method - https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/ - Very complimentary to GTD and similarly pragmatic.

A system needs a filter (what is allowed in) and then you need time to work that system, which can include sending things into downstream systems. The important thing is that then those downstream systems also need filters and also need to have time for working on them (and maybe further downstream systems). If you just send them into a downstream system (like a bookmark that you never use) then they will just pile up somewhere else. In other words: https://fortelabs.co/blog/one-touch-to-inbox-zero/

I got curious, is this the one? https://fortelabs.co/blog/the-one-touch-guide-to-doing-a-weekly-review…

That's explained in part 2: https://fortelabs.co/blog/p-a-r-a-ii-operations-manual/

> These categories are all nested. Tasks are nested under Projects which fall under Areas which fall under Resources, with Archives serving as the catch-all category. This article got me reading about PARA. But it seems like this sentence is very much the opposite of what the creator of PARA says to do. Sounds like there shouldn't be any nesting of categories: https://fortelabs.co/blog/p-a-r-a-ii-operations-manual/

This seems too heavyweight to me, specifically step 3 with all the data structures and templates. There's just no way capturing all that metadata is going to pay off for me. I see it as: 1) define your basic structure for capture (I also like PARA[1]) 2) invest in the tools (for me, emacs/org-mode combined with the BrainTool browser extension - disclosure I built it[2]) 3) understand your inflows and workflow. 4) just use search on your second brain for retrieval. [1] https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/ [2] https://braintool.org/2021/05/15/Organizing-your-life-with-a-Topic-Man…

> For me - a better alternative is to only seek and store knowledge about things you are currently working on, and organise it by project. That's the PARA method in a nutshell https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/ I use this, very helpful, the prioritization piece is by far the most important, if you don't need it now but think you might later, just throw a note with a link in the archive with a couple of tags.

There is a link for Part 2 of the article, which has more info - https://fortelabs.co/blog/what-i-learned-about-the-future-by-reading-1…

The book deal was signed Apr 14 with Atria Books which is an imprint of Simon & Schuster. I couldn't find any info on an expected publication date. https://fortelabs.co/blog/book-deal-for-building-a-second-brain/

Anecdotal disagree here. I have a system that would probably be deemed complicated by anyone that would look at it (even more so than the OP article). While I wouldn't consider myself the most successful person, I've got a lot done, and I attribute a lot of it to my system, notes, and organization. The system wasn't immediately complicated either, it has been developed and refined over 10 years to suit my needs. And for me in particular, it alleviates a lot of mental overhead and allows me to just focus on whatever it is I'm working on. But that's just me, I think you do have a point to some extent. It depends on the person, YMMV. Here's an article that goes into more about these concepts, the author calls it a "Second Brain": https://fortelabs.co/blog/basboverview/

Zettelkasten is the original name of the concept of networked note-taking. It even worked on paper. Roam took the concept close to users with a polished UI. Some history: https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-to-take-smart-notes/

Some do claim that it's a cult. But that's not my experience. Course leaders are generally highly charismatic, but are not typically authoritarian. There is a heavy emphasis on participants sharing experience with the group, and being coached to see their machinery. But it's a stretch to call that "public shaming and gaslighting". However, people are sometimes very attached to their interpretations, and it can get very intense. But you can leave, at any time. And if you leave early enough, they'll refund your payment. Edit: This is representative, based on my experience: https://praxis.fortelabs.co/a-skeptic-goes-to-the-landmark-forum-9eb96…

Another summary of the book that was discussed on HN three weeks ago: https://praxis.fortelabs.co/the-body-keeps-the-score-summary/ Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21340636