Time to Let Go or Rearrange Deck Chairs?

I have been reading about the P.A.R.A. Method for organizing digital information; long story short, I need a digital reset. I have noted areas that normally have been well organized in my digital life are becoming less so. Nash talked about his use of this method in his Morning Coffee newsletter from March 25 (my birthday by the way). We got to talking and he provided me with a bit more insight into the ways in can be used.

The crux of the idea is this (from Luca Pallotta):

Four Primary Categories (all information is organized into one of these categories, which are listed in order of actionability):

• Project: A series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline
• Area: A sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time
• Resource: A topic or theme of ongoing interest
• Archive: Inactive items from the other 3 categories

It appears to be a lot of work up front, but seemingly worth it in the long run and it naturally jibes with how I was working within Things for a long time. I am thinking about this being the process I use to go through all my files, to help me get back to a more minimalist approach to such things. Nash suggests:

Sketch out the outline in field notes or something.

Visualize all your info, outline it, a lot of the little things are most likely resource folders.

But my thinking is to be even a bit more harsh; I really want to be ok with getting rid of (read: deleting) old cruft. Eventually, the items in the Resources group become just as useless as if they weren’t categorized at all.

Take Google Docs for example; it is too easy to make an individual Note, so it becomes an unintentional catch-all. Quickly jotted thoughts, meeting agendas and minutes, long-form writing all co-exist as if they are of equal importance, but they’re not, right?

I have been at my current position for ten years (celebrated on March 26) and I have emails, notes, documents, and files of almost every type from that day onward, along with things I have inherited from others as they have moved on. When is it OK to let go? When is it necessary?

Because eventually the things you are unwilling or unable to let go will become your anchor, the thing that stops you from moving forward or thinking about things in new ways.