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#title: Obsidian PARA with LifeOS: example vault, then a blank vault description: PARA is Tiago Forte's method. LifeOS adds a plugin, a filled PARA vault, and a blank vault. 2024 Obsidian Gems Best Templates runner-up, not the category winner.

#Obsidian PARA with LifeOS: example vault, then a blank vault

After PARA or Building a Second Brain, the stall is rarely the four words. It is templates, a sample project index, and periodic notes inside Obsidian. This page is the LifeOS path: open the filled PARA vault, do the ten-minute exercise, then use the blank vault as the real one. The method belongs to Tiago Forte: PARA.

If daily capture is not stable yet, start with a lighter vault from the chooser (Chinese). Moving from Notion, flomo, or Logseq is the migration page (Chinese).

#Short answer

• PARA sorts by actionability, not by subject folders such as Marketing or Psychology.
• The LifeOS path is the plugin (visual PARA and periodic notes), LifeOS Pro PARA Vault, then LifeOS Pro PARA Blank Vault.
• Journals hold the timeline. Projects, areas, resources, and archives hold the long-lived structure. Tasks in a daily note can link back to a project.
• This is not the only second-brain template, and it is not the 2024 Best Templates winner.

#Four folders are easy. A system is not.

Anyone can create empty Projects / Areas / Resources / Archives. The hard part is the project index, how a task in today's note returns to that project, where weekly and monthly notes live, and whether to wipe the sample. LifeOS uses its own plugin instead of asking you to assemble a long community-plugin stack first. See Getting started.

The PARA walkthrough says the point is not to file every old note in one sitting. Folder names follow the language of the pack you downloaded.

#Periodic notes

Capture, organize, distill, and express are a sequence, not a second set of required folder names. LifeOS keeps daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly notes beside PARA. See usage.

#Steps

1. Open LifeOS Pro PARA Vault from the example templates in the full pack.
2. Trust and enable the plugin. Start at the root README.md, then folders 1–4.
3. Open one project index.
4. Follow the ten-minute exercise on the walkthrough: one line in today's journal, one - [ ] task, confirm it in the task view, create a real project from the template. The optional DeepAsk review is a separate license.
5. Open LifeOS Pro PARA Blank Vault as the working vault. Copy the plugin from the pack if it is missing. Do not empty the sample and call that your vault.
6. Replace content before renaming folders, so the default configuration still resolves.

Do not overwrite a live vault's .lifeos/settings.json with the blank vault's file.

#Other ways to set PARA up

Empty folders, community ZIPs, and Notion databases are all real paths. LifeOS is the combination of a plugin, a filled sample, periodic notes, and a blank vault. An AI inbox product is not this system. Local Markdown is the scope here; Notion remains stronger for shared databases.

#2024 Obsidian Gems

The official post 2024 Gems of the Year lists LifeOS for Obsidian by quanru as a Best Templates runner-up (third). It is not the category winner. This page does not invent vote counts or download numbers.

#Price

Checked 2026-10-14: LifeOS Pro is ¥179 or $49.90 lifetime, 5 devices, on the pricing page. The community plugin is ¥0 / $0. An annual $24.90 price appears on lifeos.vip/pricing, not as the lifetime price on lifeos.md. LifeOS Pro includes the calendar, so you usually do not also buy Calendar Pro. The comparison is Calendar Pro vs Full Calendar Remastered. DeepAsk is separate. When to upgrade: Free vs Pro.

#Next step

Open the PARA sample, finish the exercise, then switch to the blank vault. The shelf is shop.lifeos.md. Chinese: Obsidian 里的 PARA.