The PARA method for ADHD: a lighter way to use it
PARA sorts your notes by what you are working on now. Here is what it is, where it gets hard with ADHD and a smaller version you can keep up.
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After this chapter you will know if PARA is worth trying, and which parts to keep small.
Short answer
PARA is a way to sort your notes and files into four groups: Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives. It sorts things by when you will use them, not by subject. It can work well with ADHD if you keep it light. The parts that most often fail are filing every note by hand and the weekly review.
This guide is for anyone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who has tried a A place outside your head where you keep your notes, tasks and ideas. You can look things up there, so you do not have to remember them., or wants to. You do not need to have read the book.
This guide is general information. It is not medical advice. For diagnosis or your health, talk to a health worker.
What is the PARA method?
After this chapter you will know the four groups and why PARA sorts things the way it does.
Tiago Forte made the PARA method. He explains it in his book Building a Second Brain and on his website, Forte Labs (opens in a new tab). PARA stands for the four groups you sort things into.
The four groups in PARA
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Projects
Work with a goal and an end date.
For example: plan the Tidewell launch by Friday.
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Areas
Parts of your life you look after all the time. They have no end date.
For example: health, money or your job.
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Resources
Things you may want to look up one day.
For example: recipes, articles or notes from a course.
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Archives
Things you are not using now. They are kept, not deleted.
For example: a finished project.
Why it helps. Most people sort notes by subject, such as "marketing" or "travel". PARA sorts them by when you will need them. Things for the work you are doing now go in Projects. Things you may never need again go in Archives. So the first things you see are the things you are working on.
Where PARA gets hard
After this chapter you will know which parts of PARA take the most effort, and why ADHD makes them harder.
Short answer
PARA asks you to make a choice for every note, and to look over your system each week. Those jobs are hard for most people. ADHD makes them harder, because they use working memory and need a habit with no deadline.
For most people, three jobs make PARA hard to keep up:
- Filing every note by hand. Each new note needs a choice. Which of the four groups does it go in?
- Keeping up a weekly review. PARA works best if you look over it often. You move finished projects to Archives and check what is still open.
- Choosing one folder for each thing. A note about a client's budget could fit a project, an area and a resource. Folders make you pick one.
With ADHD, each of these is harder:
- Filing uses working memory. The short-term space where your brain holds what you are using right now. In ADHD it is often smaller and less reliable. has to hold the note and the choice at the same time. When that is too much, notes wait in a "sort later" pile. Then the pile grows.
- A weekly review has no deadline. Nothing bad happens on the day you skip it. Tasks like this are easy to miss with ADHD. Miss two or three, and the system feels out of date. Then it is easy to stop using it.
- One place means one thing to remember. If you put a note in the wrong folder, you have to remember where it went. If you cannot, the note is lost to you, even though it is still there.
None of this means PARA is wrong for you. It means the full version needs upkeep that ADHD makes hard. The next chapter keeps the useful part and cuts the upkeep.
For more on why ADHD affects memory, see why do I forget everything with ADHD?
A lighter version of PARA
After this chapter you will have a small version of PARA you can set up today, in any app or on paper.
- Start with Projects only. Write down the things you are working on now that have an end. Three to five is enough. Leave everything else where it is.
- Do not sort as you save. Put every new note in one place first. Sort it only when you next open the project it belongs to.
- Keep Areas as a short list of names. Five or six is enough, such as work, home, health and money. You do not need a folder for each one.
- Leave Resources until you need them. Search can find most things. Make a Resources group only when you keep looking for the same kind of note.
- Make the review small. Once a week, look at your project list only. For each one, ask: is it finished? If it is, move it to Archives.
- If you miss a review, do not start again from the beginning. Look at this week's projects only. The rest can wait.
This works with any tool: a notes app, folders on your computer or a notebook. The aim is to see what you are working on now, without filing everything first.
How to follow PARA in Humble
After this chapter you will know how to set up each PARA group with tasks, notes, tags and links in Humble.
Humble has no PARA folders, and it does not sort things for you. You can still follow PARA with what is in Humble today. Humble helps you see how your tasks and notes connect, so you do not have to choose one place for each thing.
- Projects. Add a task for the project and give it a due date. Add each step as its own task. Then open the project task, select Related, then Add link, and pick each step. Open the project task to see all its steps in one place.
- Areas. Give tasks and notes a tag for each area, such as #health or #work. Open the task or note and select Organise to add one. To see one area, pick its tag in the filters on the Tasks page or the Notes page.
- Resources. Save things you want to look up later as notes. Find them again with Search notes, or filter by a tag or a contact.
- Archives. Humble has no archive button. When you mark a task done, it goes to Completed, under the board on the Tasks page. Nothing you finish is deleted. Old notes stay where they are, and search still finds them.
Picture: the task "Plan the launch", due Friday. Under Related items it shows three linked tasks (Book the venue, Send the invites, Write the plan), one linked note (Launch ideas) and the tag #work.
Good to know. Links go one way: the smaller task does not show a link back to the project. The steps in Related items show by name. Open each one to see if it is done.
One thing can be in more than one place. In folders, a note can live in only one place. In Humble, you can link one note to a project, tag it with an area and link it to a person. It shows in each of those places, so you do not have to pick. Linking is private. It does not share anything with anyone.
Common questions
Clear answers to the questions people ask most.
It can be. PARA puts what you are working on now first, which helps when it is hard to keep many things in mind. The hard parts are filing every note by hand and keeping up a weekly review. Keep those small, as in chapter 04, and PARA is easier to keep using.
A second brain is a place outside your head where you keep your notes, tasks and ideas. Tiago Forte made the idea popular in his book Building a Second Brain. It can help with ADHD, because you do not have to hold everything in working memory. It helps most when saving a note is quick and finding it again does not depend on where you filed it.
Start with Projects only. Write down the three to five things you are working on now that have an end. Leave your old notes where they are. You do not need to sort them before you begin. Add Areas, Resources and Archives later, only when you need them.
Do not try to catch up on every week you missed. Look at this week's projects only. Move the finished ones to Archives, and check what is next on the rest. A short review you do is better than a long one you put off.
Yes. A project is a task with a due date, with its steps linked to it. An area is a tag. Resources are notes. Finished tasks go to Completed. Humble has no PARA folders and does not sort things for you. Because you can link one note to many things, you do not have to choose one place for it. See chapter 05 for the steps.
Sources and about this guide
Who wrote this, what it's based on and when it was last checked.
The team at Humble writes this guide and keeps it up to date. Our team includes people with ADHD. The guide uses our own experience and the sources below. It explains PARA in our own words. For the full method, read Tiago Forte's own work.
- Tiago Forte, Forte Labs — The PARA method (opens in a new tab)
- Tiago Forte, Building a Second Brain (2022)
- NHS — Overview of ADHD (opens in a new tab)
- Humble help centre — Can I add subtasks to a task? and Where are my completed tasks?
Last reviewed: October 2026. We re-review this guide every six months.
The PARA method and Building a Second Brain are the work of Tiago Forte and Forte Labs. Humble is not connected to them, and they do not endorse Humble. This guide is general information. It is not medical advice.
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