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My Entire File System in 9 Minutes

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tagsyoutube, video, para, organization, claude

2 min read

My Entire File System in 9 Minutes

Author: Tiago Forte (8:55) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0pdL3MS_7E

Forte shows his real setup — laptop + 3 drives — organized by PARA (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives), and how pointing AI at those folders turns the file system into a thinking tool.

The Setup

  • Local folders: home folder, Desktop, Downloads — things that never need to leave the machine.
  • Personal Google Drive: an inbox + the four PARA folders, strictly personal, kept separate from work.
  • Individual work Drive: same five top-level folders (inbox + Projects/Areas/Resources/Archives), private to him.
  • Forté Labs share drive (~17 TB): uses Google Drive’s streaming mode instead of mirroring — everything appears local but lives in the cloud. Only actively-worked folders get “make available offline” (green checkmark).

Every project sits inside a broader Area: his book project lives under a “books” area; building a recording studio is one project inside the company’s YouTube area.

Why this matters for AI

The sidebar shortcuts give 1–2 click access to any folder he wants to point an AI assistant at. The killer move: give a Project folder plus its parent Area folder(s).

Example task: “Analyze the contents of the AI course folder, then create a launch & marketing plan, drawing on my marketing and content area folders.” The AI scans current specific data (testimonials, survey feedback) plus long-term broad themes — two levels of abstraction working together.

Other combinations he demonstrates:

  • Two projects → compare strengths/weaknesses, cross-pollinate learnings.
  • Two areas → “how can health lessons inform work? gardening inform marketing?”
  • All projects → portfolio review: which to scale down or cancel.
  • Full archive → what past efforts could be revived into current work.

Getting it yourself

The reorganization skill is a free Claude skill (originally built for his AI Second Brain cohort): point it at your files, it proposes a step-by-step plan to reorganize everything into PARA. Distributed via his newsletter.

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