How the PARA System Helped Me Simplify Digital Organisation

Digital clutter creates friction.

When files, notes, and information end up scattered everywhere, even simple tasks become harder than they should be.

That’s what led me to the PARA system.

The Problem with Digital Clutter

The PARA system is a simple but powerful way to organize your digital life. Developed by Tiago Forte, it stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. Each of these categories represents a different aspect of your digital life and can be used to help you manage everything from work projects to personal hobbies.

What the PARA System Is

Let's break down each category and see how it works:

1. 
   Projects: This category refers to any task or project you're currently working on. It could be a work project, a personal project, or anything else that requires your attention. Each project should have a dedicated folder or tag that contains all relevant files and documents.
2. Areas: Areas represent different areas of your life, such as work, home, hobbies, or health. Each area should have a separate folder or tag that contains all relevant files and documents.
3. Resources: This category includes any reference material or information that you might need in the future. This could include articles, books, notes, or anything else that you might want to refer back to later. Resources should be organized in a way that makes them easy to find and access when needed.
4. Archives: Archives refer to any files or documents that are no longer needed but are still worth keeping for future reference. This could include old projects, emails, or anything else that you might want to keep for historical purposes. Archives should be organized in a way that makes them easy to access but doesn't clutter up your current projects and areas.

How I Started Using It

So how does this all work in practice? Here's an example:

Let's say you're working on a project for work. You would create a Projects folder and then create a subfolder for the specific project you're working on. Inside that subfolder, you would save all relevant files and documents related to that project. If you have any reference material that might be useful for that project, you would save it in the Resources folder with a tag or label that makes it easy to find later. Once the project is complete, you would move any relevant files to the Archives folder to keep for future reference.

Why It Works for Me

I recently adopted the PARA system in my own life, and it's been revolutionary. No longer do I create random folders to store things only to forget where I have stored them. It takes out a lot of the thought and makes things so much simpler. An item immediately falls into a home, and I can easily find it later.

The biggest benefit wasn’t better folders—it was reducing the amount of thinking needed to organise things.

Instead of constantly deciding where something should go, most items naturally fall into one of four simple categories.

Adopting the PARA system does take some initial setup time, but it's well worth the investment. By organizing your digital life in this way, you'll save time, reduce stress, and be more productive overall.

Keeping Organisation Simple

What I like most about the PARA system is its simplicity.

Good organisational systems should reduce friction, not create more of it. PARA gives just enough structure to stay organised without becoming complicated to maintain.

This also connects closely to how I use date-based file naming to keep digital information easier to manage.

It follows the same thinking behind why I use Todoist—simple systems with low friction tend to work best.

Simple organisational systems can remove a surprising amount of friction from daily work.

I spend a lot of time simplifying websites, workflows, files, and digital processes to make them easier to manage and maintain.

You can take a look at my TechFix service if your digital setup has become harder to manage than it should be.

Searching for Purpose as a Work-From-Home Engineer

One thing I noticed during the pandemic was how different work feels when you can clearly see who it helps.

Building online forms that helped people during that time gave me a stronger sense of purpose than I’d felt in a long time.

Work That Felt Meaningful

During the pandemic, I had the opportunity to develop online forms to assist people in need. 

For the first time in a long while, the connection between the work and the people it was helping felt immediate and visible. The forms were practical, simple things—but they helped people access support during a difficult time.

That changed how the work felt. It stopped being abstract tickets, systems, and projects, and became something more human.

What Changed After the Pandemic

Although the pandemic has ended, I'm still working from home as a software engineer. While I'm grateful for the work I do, I'm currently exploring ways to find a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment in my work and personal life. My family is my main focus in life, and while I enjoy my hobbies, I've been wondering what my overall purpose is.

After some reflection, I've realized that finding purpose is a journey that requires patience, introspection, and a willingness to take action. Here are some tips that have helped me find meaning and fulfillment in my work and personal life.

What Actually Matters to Me

Reflect on Your Values

For me, family is my top priority. I want to make sure that I'm spending quality time with my loved ones and supporting them in any way I can. What values are most important to you? Take some time to reflect on what matters most to you, and use those values as a compass to guide your decisions and actions.

Set Goals That Align With Your Values

Once you've identified your values, set goals that align with them. For me, this means finding ways to spend more time with my family and being present for the moments that matter. Maybe for you, it's about making a positive impact on the world or pursuing a creative passion. When your goals align with your values, you'll feel more purposeful and fulfilled.

Find Meaning in Your Work

Even if your job is not your primary focus in life, you can still find meaning and purpose in your work. For me, developing online forms that helped people during the pandemic was incredibly rewarding. Now, I try to focus on the positive impact my work is having, even if it's smaller. It's important to recognize the value of your contributions, no matter how big or small.

Pursue Your Hobbies

Hobbies are a great way to find fulfillment outside of work. For me, woodworking and working on cars are my go-to activities. Pursuing hobbies can also provide a sense of accomplishment and purpose, as you learn new skills and create something with your own hands.

Embrace Your Role as a Parent

Finally, as a parent, I know how important my role is in shaping the lives of my children. Being a loving and supportive parent is one of the most purposeful things I can do. Embrace the joys and challenges of parenthood, and let your love for your children inspire you to be the best version of yourself.

Trying to Find Balance

I don’t think purpose is something you suddenly discover once and keep forever.

It changes over time, and often comes from smaller things than we expect—family, useful work, building things, helping people, or simply feeling connected to what we do.

I’m probably still figuring it out.

A lot of this also connects to my thoughts on working from home and how it changes the balance between work and life.

It also links closely to my post on visual thinking and understanding how different people experience work and learning differently.

Technology feels very different when it genuinely helps people.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how systems, services, and digital tools can be made simpler and more useful for the people using them.

You can take a look at my TechFix service if that resonates.

Remembering “The Count” on the VIC-20: A Text Adventure Classic

Before games had graphics, they relied on something else—imagination.

One game that stayed with me was “The Count” on the VIC-20.

Do you remember playing games as a child, when everything felt larger than life and your imagination had no bounds? For me, one such game was "The Count" for the VIC-20, a text-based adventure game written by none other than Douglas Adams himself.

As an 11-year-old, I was immediately captivated by the game's premise of exploring a haunted castle, collecting treasures, and avoiding the notorious vampire Count Dracula. Even though the game had no graphics or sound, the story, and puzzles were engaging enough to keep me hooked for hours on end.

Now, years later, I still look back on "The Count" with fond memories of my childhood and the joy that video games brought me. 

Exploring the Castle

As a child playing "The Count" on the VIC-20, I remember being immediately drawn in by the game's text-based adventure format. The game took place in a haunted castle.

To this day I still have a mental map of the different rooms and the different artifacts you could collect.  I would sit with pen and paper making my own map and walk around the castle with commands "GO NORTH", "GO WEST" etc.  You could only enter two-word commands.  I remember in the kitchen there was Dumb-Waiter.  At the time I had no idea what a Dumb-waiter was.  There was no internet to google this at the time.  I assumed it was a waiter that could not speak.  By chance, after exhausting all options I said  "ENTER DUMB-WAITER" and all of a sudden the game had a whole new set of options.  You could "GO DOWN" and "GO UP".  down would take you to a workroom and down again would take you to the dungeon.

Without graphics, you had to build the world in your head. I would sit with pen and paper drawing maps and slowly working out how everything connected together.

Looking back, it probably shaped the way I still think about systems now.

Why It Stayed With Me

I have refreshed my memory on this as I found a VIC-20 emulator that runs on my Mac. After a hunt and a Google, I found and downloaded the software for "The Count". It took a while to figure out how to run the game.  But when I figured it out 1981 came flooding back.   I have been reliving my childhood again with this game.  I had forgotten that you have to complete the game within a number of commands.  If you use too many commands the sun goes down, you get tired and Dracula gets you and you wind up back in bed.

I've not got far enough but you find garlic to keep Dracula away, pills to stay awake, and matches to light a torch.  Oh and the Solar oven you can get into when the sun goes down.  Again I had no idea what a solar oven was.

Despite never completing the game, "The Count" has remained a nostalgic favorite of mine for years. As a child, it sparked my imagination and provided hours of entertainment, and as an adult, it's a reminder of simpler times when games were about exploration and discovery.

Looking back, what made games like this memorable wasn’t graphics or realism—it was exploration and imagination.

You had to experiment, map things out, and slowly build an understanding of how the world worked.

That way of thinking has stayed with me ever since.

Thinking about it now, I can see echoes of this style of exploration in Redcastle, a text-based adventure game I later created myself.

This also connects closely to my post on visual thinking and how I naturally build mental models of systems and spaces.

Understanding systems often starts with curiosity, exploration, and experimentation.

I spend a lot of time simplifying and understanding how systems fit together—whether technical or otherwise.

You can take a look at my TechFix service if that sounds useful.

How Working from Home Changed My Life

One thing working from home changed for me was the relationship between work, time, and everyday life.

Living in rural Aberdeenshire, removing the daily commute gave me back hours of time and a much calmer way of working.

Getting Time Back

I used to spend a lot of time commuting to work, but now I can enjoy breakfast with my family and help my kids with their homework after school. I also attend more of their extracurricular activities, like sports games.

Creating a Better Working Environment

I used to dread the daily commute to and from work, but now I no longer have to deal with rush hour traffic or other stressors associated with the traditional office environment. I can work in a quiet, comfortable environment that I've tailored to my needs, which has significantly reduced my stress levels.

More Control Over the Day

One unexpected benefit of working from home was how much unnecessary friction disappeared from everyday life.

Without the daily commute, I gained back both time and energy. The day felt calmer and less fragmented without rushing to get out the door, sitting in traffic, buying lunch, or organising everything around travelling to and from an office.

I also found I had more control over how I worked. Being able to focus in a quieter environment, take breaks when needed, and structure the day more naturally reduced a lot of background stress that I probably hadn’t fully noticed before.

For me, working from home wasn’t just about productivity—it was about creating a way of working that felt more balanced and sustainable.

Another thing that changed was the nature of collaboration itself. A large part of my day is now spent on Teams calls with colleagues in India, Latvia, London, and the US.

At that point, commuting into an office just to spend the day on remote calls starts to feel slightly disconnected from the way modern work actually happens.

The work is already distributed, digital, and location-independent. Working from home simply aligns more naturally with that reality.

What I’d Struggle to Give Up

Working from home isn’t perfect, and I understand why some people prefer office environments.

But for me, having more control over my environment, time, and balance has fundamentally changed how I think about work.

I’d struggle to go back to losing hours each day commuting.

A lot of this also connects to my thoughts on meaningful work and purpose.

It also links closely to how I’ve tried simplifying digital organisation using systems like PARA and Todoist.

Good systems and environments can make everyday work feel much calmer and more manageable.

I spend a lot of time simplifying digital tools, workflows, and working environments to reduce unnecessary friction.

You can take a look at my TechFix service if that sounds useful.