Share on Applying PARA in Zettelkasten System

Knowledge management
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PARA+Zettelkasten

I’ve been using the ZK process to manage my note taking system, but some pain points remained unresolved:

  • Sometimes I need to save the original text of some literature, such as web page archives, personal output article archives, and templates, which have no place in the ZK system.

  • Daily goals and some structured materials (like collections of test questions) have no place to be stored.

  • Sometimes engineering like files, such as code snippets, color matching references, and plugins, have nowhere to be placed.

Recently, I came across this PARA integrated vault (PARA + Zettelkasten Vault Template: Powerful Organization, Task Tracking, and Focus Tools All in One!), which sparked my inspiration. PARA can be used by me for goal management and archiving.

Borrowing PARA’s classification concepts and simplifying them (lightweight PARA, reducing cognitive load, only responsible for action and project file archiving). ZK is responsible for knowledge precipitation.

System core: Serving the thinking process, knowledge internalization, and management with PARA.

Overview of two systems：

PARA (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives)

  • Action oriented, fast paced (emphasizing goal decomposition and execution)
  • Core: Attention anchors, dynamic information flow, progressive filtering (knowledge extraction), informal structure

ZK (Zettelkasten)

  • Knowledge topology oriented, slow thinking (focusing on knowledge connection and creative thinking)
  • Core: Atomic, link first, self closed, organic growth (bottom up), non deletion (evolutionary history)
  • Flow: Progressive induction, evergreen flow

Workflow:

workflow examples
workflow examples880×672 25.4 KB

My vault structure(Sub levels are some examples):

  • 0-HUB
    • Homepage (PARA+ZK navigation, TMOC, recent focus, recent edits, search)
  • 1-Fleeting Notes (fragmented inspiration, regular summarize)
    • 0.Todo, Archives, DAILY
  • 2-Literature Notes (rethought literature materials)
  • 3-Permanent Notes (atomic cards, bidirectional links, self closed)
    • Structure notes, atomic notes
  • PARA1-Projects (80% energy, SMART principle, time limited goals)
    • 202503 article output (SMART principle, decompose goals into milestones and atomic tasks)
    • 2025Q2 game demo realization
    • Overview and planning
  • PARA2-Areas (responsibility fields, only keep action guides, including regularly updated skill books, plans or checklists, industry tracking, article output)
    • Personal growth (output, personal growth psychology, note taking system)
    • Personal health (skill tree exercise plan?)
    • Programming (output, backend interview sort out, design patterns)
    • Game development (output, principles)
    • Other responsibility areas (like music instruments and music theory, art color matching)
  • PARA3-Resources (resources, literature, interest points, tool tutorials, configuration files)
    • Book category (can link to Zotero)
    • Academic literature category (can link to Zotero)
    • Loose article category (web page archives)
    • Sync collection category (sync WeChat reading, official accounts, etc.)
    • Skill areas
      • Programming (Geektime courses, programming configurations, code snippets, operations related)
    • Tools (software configurations, instructions, sync templates)
  • PARA4-Archives (experience review and archiving, historical reference,achievement Library, need regular cleanup and reusable content extraction)
  • 9-Tools (fonts, templates, plugin configurations, scripts, etc.)

Extended Reading 1 (Used to remind oneself):

  • ZK Permanent Notes: Serve the thinking process, not a wiki
    • Non deletion (evolutionary history) principle: Mark as obsolete, keep version history (time and reasons)
    • Permanent Notes: Progressive + evergreen process, spaced repetition maintenance
  • PARA:
    • Project (SMART principle)
      • Manage Project atomic tasks with Kanban plugin for intuitive progress tracking
      • Auto generate project progress dashboards with Dataview plugin
    • Active maintenance, avoid Areas and Resources becoming “black holes”
      • Areas only keep action guides (like annual plans, checklists)
      • Resources only store original files
    • Quarterly regular review and downgrading (useless to Archives)
    • Index Archives (classified by year/field) for quick追溯

Extended Reading 2:

  • Design templates for fleeting notes, literature notes, and project plans to reduce repetitive work
  • Daily 10 minute light maintenance: Quickly file fleeting notes, update project dashboards, prevent backlog
  • Weekly 1 hour deep review:
    • Generate weekly review templates (auto aggregated) with plugins like Tasks or Templater
    • Focus on knowledge refinement (fleeting to permanent notes) and PARA content flow
    • Cross system entropy reduction (clean up redundancy, strengthen links, update bridging MOC)
  • Knowledge island detection: Monthly scan of permanent notes without backlinks with Relationship plugin
  • Set periodic reminders (e.g., quarterly) to force Archives and fleeting notes cleanup
  • Progressive iteration: Optimize directory structure and tagging system quarterly based on feedback, avoid “all at once” pressure
  • Flexible rule design: Allow 20% “exception buffer” to prevent system collapse due to rigid rules

Extended Reading 3:

ZK Core Flow:

  • Progressive Induction
    • Gradual Refinement (based on value):
      • Raw text, key points in bold, essence highlighted, summary of mini abstracts, content association and restructuring
  • Evergreen Flow (concept oriented, lots of links, for yourself rather than readers)
    • Collection state
    • Processing state: Bold key points, split into atoms, title as core concept, concise
    • Evergreen state: Atomic, API style titles, associations and cross thematic
    • Stable state (a reliable cognitive anchor, not fixed): Iterative convergence (multiple iterations and core arguments stabilize), link density, back index
    • Advanced Practices:
      • Core periphery structure (balance between static and dynamic)
      • Matrix annotation (orthogonal index cross domain, knowledge entropy, cross domain bridging degree same theme/inter disciplinary/hub level)
      • Automatic tag flow (auto tag # collection state for lengthy content)
      • Visual regular review (high entropy pending, stable but few cross domains, decay warning)

The above content has been translated and may be distorted. Please let me know if there are any translation errors or if you have any questions.

You can also share your suggestions or improvement ideas for this PKM process.

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