S1E2: Structure
Structure
The PARA Intervention
Scene 1: The Intervention
Section titled “Scene 1: The Intervention”Flora McCombie had seen enough. Three weeks of watching Hodl lose files, miss deadlines, and slowly unravel had pushed her past the breaking point.
“Right,” she said, adjusting her glasses as she marched into the Monday meeting. “We need to talk about your folders.”
Hodl looked up from his screen, where he was simultaneously searching four different apps for a single document. “My folders are fine, Flora.”
“Hodl. You have a folder called ‘stuff’ containing another folder called ‘misc’ containing another folder called ‘important stuff’. Inside that? A single PDF from 2019.”
Scene 2: The PARA Revelation
Section titled “Scene 2: The PARA Revelation”Flora pulled up a diagram on the screen. Four simple boxes. Four simple words.
Projects. Areas. Resources. Archive.
“Every single thing you save falls into one of these categories,” Flora explained. “Projects are active work with deadlines. Areas are ongoing responsibilities. Resources are reference material. Archive is completed stuff.”
Angus leaned forward. “So the Henderson proposal…”
“Project,” Flora nodded. “Client relationship management…”
“Area,” Isla finished, catching on.
“Industry research and competitor analysis…”
“Resources!” Hodl exclaimed, the lightbulb finally flickering on.
Scene 3: The Digital Archaeology
Section titled “Scene 3: The Digital Archaeology”They started with Hodl’s desktop. It was archaeological work.
“What’s in ‘New Folder (47)’?” Flora asked.
Hodl clicked. Blank. “Nothing, apparently.”
“And ‘URGENT - READ THIS’?”
“A reminder to buy milk. From six months ago.”
Flora sighed. “We’ll need Claude for this.”
Within an hour, they’d asked Claude to analyse Hodl’s file structure and suggest a PARA organisation. The results were humbling.
“According to this analysis,” Flora read, “you have 847 files with no clear home, 23 duplicate documents, and four different versions of the same proposal—all named ‘final’.”
Scene 4: The Migration
Section titled “Scene 4: The Migration”The team spent the afternoon migrating. Not manually—that would take weeks. Instead, Flora guided them through instructing Claude to reorganise their files.
“Move all documents mentioning ‘Henderson’ into a project folder,” Hodl typed. “Name it ‘Henderson Website Refresh’ and add today’s date.”
Done.
“Find all my meeting notes from the past quarter and organise them by client.”
Done.
“Create an archive folder for everything older than six months that I haven’t touched.”
Done.
Hodl stared at his newly structured digital workspace. For the first time in months, he could actually find things.
Scene 5: The Templates
Section titled “Scene 5: The Templates”But Flora wasn’t finished. “Structure isn’t just about folders,” she said. “It’s about consistency.”
She showed them the templates she’d created with Claude’s help. Client brief templates. Meeting note templates. Project kickoff templates. Each one with smart placeholders that Claude could fill automatically.
“Every time we start a new project, we don’t reinvent the wheel,” Flora explained. “We use the template. Claude fills in what it knows from our existing documents. We just review and refine.”
Isla’s eyes widened. “So when I start a new marketing campaign…”
“You already have competitor analysis from Resources pulled in, client preferences from their Area folder, and previous campaign learnings from Archive.”
Scene 6: The System
Section titled “Scene 6: The System”By the end of the week, GrowthPath had transformed. Not just Hodl—everyone.
Each team member had their own PARA structure, but they all followed the same principles. Projects were visible. Areas were maintained. Resources were searchable. Archives were respected.
And Claude? Claude understood the system now. When Isla asked for “everything related to the upcoming Henderson campaign,” it knew exactly where to look.
“This is… organised,” Hodl said, almost reverently, staring at his clean desktop. “I’m not sure I recognise it.”
Flora smiled. “The owl sees clearly because she organises her thoughts. Now you can too.”
“Did you just refer to yourself in the third person as an owl?”
“Perhaps.”
What Happens Next?
Section titled “What Happens Next?”With structure in place, GrowthPath is ready for the next step. In Episode 3: Automation, Angus and Isla build the workflows that turn manual processes into effortless systems.
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