Virtual Studio for the Creative
Tidy your writing projects with this minimalist approach to PARA on Notion.
It was too late when I realised that I was putting all my research into a dump. I was “documenting” my work on a single gigantic wall of notes. My intention was to keep things in place.
What I didn’t know was that they tend to lose context if I keep appending them to the other. And that my research will grow into an epic.
That’s the flashback I saw when I decided to write on Substack. I was already stacking references, inspirations, ideas and the body on top of each other. I wanted a long-term solution to keep them tidy.
I used to build fairly robust systems on Notion. But how do I mildly structure creative projects just right? Like a creative studio, It had to be something that maximises the empty space as much as having the essentials would allow.
As one of the early users of Notion, I knew there was no end to it once you started complicating it. Something popped up in my mind, a video from my research about journaling. That’s why I decided to adopt, translate, and Notionise Tiago Forte’s PARA method.
As usual, most similar Notion templates bombard you with a thick list of properties. I managed to keep it minimal with the new wiki feature.
I’ll briefly introduce the PARA method and Notion for beginners. You can skip the next two headings if you want to dive into the template design.
About PARA method
Called Second Brain, PARA is a simple, generic framework for digital notes. The gist is categorising all notes by how actionable they are.
Projects: notes about scheduled execution
Areas: notes about sustained effort
Resources: notes that are useful
Archive: notes that have been useful
It’s particularly relevant for creative individuals as it helps the circulation of projects. I also like the Archive part because I used to put things in the bin and lose it forever. Now I keep everything quiet.
You can start by casually jotting down an idea in Resources. Given an opportunity, it can move to Projects for execution. Then it could become a regular thing in Areas, end up in Archive, or go back to Resources depending on how it goes.
PARA is a highly flexible concept that can be implemented with any tool of your choice. It’s often presented with note-taking apps with folder-like structures. I’ve been using it on the Notes app as well.
Now, Notion is a different story because it has no folder per se. Notion pages can be on another page, or a database. Did you know you have a third option? More on this a bit later.
New to Notion?
If you have been stuck with Google Docs or another paper simulator, let me hold your hands with teary eyes. You’ve come to the right place. Notion is the best online tool to create and collaborate which 30 million are using today.
You can place blocks on your page with a click. Some can be text, some can be images or links. If you go down the list, you have all sorts of integrations, including Google Docs. It has become the centre of the tools you might use.
The blocks simplify the formatting/styling options to what’s essential, eradicating confusion and any unnecessary cognitive load. It has become one of the most practical applications of AI too.
You can invite people and it will send invitation emails. Once have joined your workspace, you can tag them, comment on them, and track the changes they make on your workspace. Or you can simply publish the page on the Web so anyone can see it.
At this point, if I’m processing a partnership and I don’t get a Notion page, I’d feel something is off. That’s enough talk. It’s time to see it yourself.
The minimalist approach
One of the common mistakes on Notion is setting up databases everywhere. PARA has four letters. There must be four databases! Right? When I looked it up, most of the “PARA Second Brain” templates go down this route. I hope they haven’t separated their first brains into four.
Having a database for each category is how you begin messing up Notion. Each of PARA would be pointing to one another with different relation properties.
Projects database would naturally develop properties with Sprint terminologies. What if you move around the items? While Notion tries its best to handle it, the properties section gets ugly quick.
People do this because most PARA demo videos are recorded using apps that have folder-like structures. They highlight the fluid nature of PARA moving the notes around drag-and-dropping them.
And the Notioneers understand the advantages of databases over pages. A page gives you composability, but a database gives you control. So they create the four databases like four folders on the videos.
Databases are not folders.
This doesn’t apply to Notion for the simple reason that databases are not folders. A folder is called a directory because it’s a mere signpost. Folder items are homogeneous. They are meant to be compatible wherever they go within their system, like citizenship.
Database membership is closer to employment. They are built to interact with the neighbours and not to move around too much. When they do, it's called migration for a reason and it has as much involved as it sounds. It looks trivial only because Notion makes it so.
Okay, we keep them in a single database. How would you achieve it? The simplistic way would be a select property with four values, again: project, area, resource, and archived.
A drawback is that the property type encourages you to add new values. Whenever you type in pro
to make it a project, it will also nudge you to Create pro
, tempting you to complication.
Create p
Create pr
Create pro
Create proj
Create proje
Create projec
Oh, project, OK.
The Status property type suits better. It doesn’t try to sell you more stuff other than the predefined values. But resource, for example, doesn’t sound like a status. There could be a better semantic.
You’d need a property for the project timespan anyway. You can neatly filter the items into PARA in conjunction with the default status values and a date.
Projects: active with schedule
Area: active without a schedule
Resources: done
Archive: inactive
Something like that. Considering practical implications, I added some more properties on Resources. Now you can draw a full project cycle mapped perfectly on PARA.
Project: In progress with Date
Area: In progress without Date
Resources: Done, Planning, Paused, Not Started
Archive: Archived
That was the progress I had made when I found out something new.
Wiki the wiki
For a long time, Notion gave you two options: pages and databases. Pages are the signature interface where you compose blocks. They can be nested as blocks as well. When it turns tedious, you can give up the composability in exchange of data control: sorts, filters, views, templates and more.
In conjunction, wiki has been the single word to describe Notion. It’s more than a page builder or a spreadsheet. It’s a knowledge base where people collaborate.
About a year ago, Notion doubled down on this notion. Turn into wiki gives you the third option. The new wiki feature in Notion gives you a database which is also a page. You can compose and process data in a wiki.
On your screen, it looks like a database with a special collection view. Like a normal page, the view can have nested pages. And all the nested pages will appear on the other views as they do in a database.
This versatile design makes unfolding the PARA scheme a lot more coherent and visible. It nests things where they belong like a page. Then they will get exposed like a database. You don’t have to cobble up pages and databases to achieve this display. Notion has done it for you.
Another lovely feature of a wiki is the horizontal property display. Typical Notion database properties list from top to bottom. This is useful when they pack a great deal of information. This classic design secures enough space for property-heavy items preemptively.
Wiki items show their properties from left to right. They can do this given that wiki items, albeit in a database, won’t grow properties. Properties step behind the curtains and the page content gets the highlight.
I find beauty in this kind of balance and detail.
Design walkthrough
Putting it all together, let’s carve up your virtual creative studio from scratch. Start by turning a page into a wiki. Open up the page menu by clicking the ⋯ button. Find the Turn into wiki button. A pop-up will try to make sure you have checked what wiki is for.
Once you have turned it into a wiki, trim properties. Verification is a useful property type unique to wikis. It lets you forecast how long the page will remain relevant for your teammates. But as you are repurposing the design, it’s not a necessity. Especially for creative individuals, it can go.
Owner property is the same except that you cannot simply delete it. Funnily enough, you can change it however you want. I turned it into a Created time. It’s the most basic yet useful property for a collection of data.
A general Tags property is very useful for handling data. You might want to keep it. Add a Status and a Date for PARA. Last edited time? Meh. All you need is:
Created time
Status
Date
Tags
Once you have sorted out your properties, get started with PARA. Your wiki is already a database. So you can simply add inline views on the collection or in the view list where you already have All pages and Pages I own.
Projects and Areas are best placed in the collection as inline views. It allows easy access to the frequently visited items. Timeline and gallery views are perfect for each. Resources and Archive gets a lot longer. Give them full-page list views. The filters are simple:
Projects: Status is In progress, Date is not empty
Areas: Status is In progress, Date is empty
Resources: Status is not In progress or Archived
Archive: Status is Archived
It’s almost done! You have a wiki with a minimal property setup. Changing the properties will naturally put the items where they belong.
When you create new items in a wiki, they come to the bottom of the collection page as a block. That’s where I organise the top-level pages of my virtual studio. This part is irrelevant to PARA. You can come up with your own way to organise them.
Page blocks are not as mobile as database views. You might want to keep it somewhat static. This is how I do it:
Create: what was born from your mind
Learn: what has been brought to your mind
Keep: what you don’t mind
It’s also how I organise pins on Arc browser.
At a glance, it overlaps with PARA. Let me clarify. PARA concerns how actionable the item is. Items are expected to move around with time. That’s why it’s implemented in the dynamic DB views on Notion. It also sees through the pages and exposes the nested items.
On the other hand, Create-Learn-Keep considers the nature of the items. Initial motivation sets the tone and rarely changes after that. Items are static blocks. It’s local to the collection page and doesn’t care about the nested items.
Have you been following along? Then what’s left is to customise it and make it fully yours! Add some buttons that make new pages from templates. Define subcategories for your workflow.
Thanks for reading.
It’s my first attempt to provide something practical. I hope it helps your creative journey in digital society.
Any thoughts? Leave a comment. If you have any questions or a request, feel free to reach out.