PARA method on iPhone: a ten-minute setup in Apple Notes

PARA was not designed for a phone, but a phone is where most notes start. Apple Notes already has what it needs: folders, subfolders, tags and filters. The work is in using them lightly enough that you still capture a thought in five seconds on a train platform.

What maps to what

Tiago Forte defines the four categories by how soon you must act on them. Here is how each one looks inside the Notes app.

PARA category	Forte's meaning	In Apple Notes
Projects	A short-term effort with a goal and an end point	A subfolder inside a folder called Projects, one per live project
Areas	An ongoing responsibility with no end date, such as Health or Home	Folders (or subfolders) named for the area
Resources	A topic you are interested in or learning about	A Resources folder, with a subfolder only when a topic has more than a few notes
Archives	Inactive items from the other three	An Archives folder that receives finished project folders

The ten-minute setup

Forte's first step is to list your active projects, because areas are hard to manage until they are broken into specific projects. Do that on paper or in a note before you touch any folders.

1. Open Notes. If the folders list is hidden, tap to show it.
2. Tap the new-folder icon, pick an account if you have more than one, tap New Folder and name it Projects. Apple asks which account the folder belongs to, so pick the one you use every day and stay with it.
3. Create Areas, Resources and Archives the same way.
4. Create one folder per live project, then touch and hold it and drag it onto Projects. It becomes a subfolder.
5. Move existing notes by swiping left on a note and tapping the folder icon, or by touching and holding the note and tapping Move.

Stop there. Do not sort your whole backlog today. Sort what you touch this week.

Make the inbox the main Notes folder

PARA says where finished thoughts live. It says nothing about where a thought lives in the first ten seconds. Our suggestion is to leave new notes in the main Notes folder and treat it as the inbox. Apple's pages describe that folder, since converting a folder to a Smart Folder moves its notes there. Using it as an inbox is a habit choice and not an Apple feature, and it works because you never choose a folder at capture time. The reasoning is in capture first, organize later.

The weekly ten-minute sort

Once a week, open the inbox and move each note once:

• Belongs to a live project: move it into that project's subfolder.
• Belongs to an ongoing responsibility: move it into the matching area.
• Something you might want to read or reuse: move it to Resources.
• Neither useful nor wanted: delete it. Apple keeps deleted notes in a Recently Deleted folder, so a mistake can be undone.
• A project is finished: drag its folder onto Archives.

If the inbox has more than twenty notes, sort the newest ten and delete the oldest ones unread. The routine in the weekly review guide covers the rest of the week.

The second route: tags and Smart Folders

Apple's tags page explains that you type a hash sign and a name, then add a space; the tag turns yellow when active. Tags must be one word, though dashes and underscores can join words. In the folders list, a Tag Browser shows all tags and lets you pick one or several, or exclude one. A Smart Folder then filters notes across folders by tags, dates, mentions and more, matching any or all of the filters you choose.

The Sweet Setup article, from October 2023, suggests an Inbox Smart Folder for notes without a tag, and says PARA could be built with folders or with tags. Its author says he had not fully built it himself. That candour is useful: this route is plausible, not proven.

	Folders	Tags plus Smart Folders
Setup	Four folders and a few subfolders	A tag scheme and one Smart Folder per category
A note can sit in	One place	Several views
Risk	A note fits two projects and you must pick	Near-duplicate tags, and typing them exactly
Good for	Beginners, small screens	People who already tag and want views without moving notes

The conversion trap

Apple's Smart Folders page says that converting an existing folder moves its notes to the Notes folder and tags them with the Smart Folder's name. It also says you cannot convert a shared folder, a folder that contains a subfolder, or one with locked notes. A Projects folder full of subfolders cannot be converted. Create a new Smart Folder next to your folders instead, and test it on a copy first.

A worked example

Imagine a freelance translator with a new baby and a half-marathon in the spring. This is an invented example. Her Projects folder holds two subfolders, Client contract and Half marathon plan. Areas holds Home, Money and Health. Resources holds Sleep routines and Running shoes. In one week the inbox collects eleven notes. Six go to the contract subfolder, one to Money, two to Running shoes, one to Half marathon plan, and one is deleted. When the contract ends, she drags the folder onto Archives. The weekly sort took about eight minutes, and nothing was renamed.

When PARA on a phone is not enough

PARA gives notes a home. It does not make you think about them. If you read to produce writing or research, add a small set of idea notes elsewhere; Zettelkasten vs PARA shows how a light mix works. If PARA feels heavy after a month, go back to the smallest system, which needs one inbox and a weekly sort.

Common mistakes

• Too many project folders. If a folder holds one note, it is not a project yet.
• Sorting at capture. It brings back the friction PARA is meant to remove.
• Never archiving. The Projects folder then stops showing what is live.
• Mixing accounts. Folders in different accounts do not merge, so keep your PARA folders in one.