Organize Your Desktop

by Sarah (March 8, 2008)

My virtual desktop is as apt to get messy and cluttered as my literal one, and I’m just as likely to get flustered and frustrated when I can’t find something on it. It also slows down the computer itself, adding insult to injury when it comes to getting things done.

• Don’t use your desktop for storing files. Like your actual, physical desktop, your virtual desktop is designed to be used so that you can access files or tools (applications) that you use regularly. If you don’t use it at least once every couple of days, it doesn’t need to be there.
• Be careful of downloads. If you tend to save files that you’ve downloaded or received by email to your desktop so that you can go back to them quickly in a few minutes, make sure you file them properly later. If you do this frequently, create a “Downloads” holding folder on your desktop that you can send those files to, instead. Set the “Preferences” on your internet browser to automatically select this folder instead of your desktop.
• Put the icons where you want them. If you’re going to have several items on your desktop even after trying to pare down, locate them in places where you’ll know how to find them quickly. Move all file shortcuts to one side of the screen, for example, and all application shortcuts to the other, or put all of the ones you use most in one corner and less frequently used icons in another.
• Clean up your desktop often. Again, like your literal desktop, your virtual desktop doesn’t just keep itself clean. Periodically, you have to go through it and delete items you’re finished with, file items that you’re not going to need right away and reorganize items you still need and want to make sure you can access quickly. Make this the last thing you do before shutting down your computer every day, and turning it on the next morning will become far less stressful.

Learn to think of your virtual desktop space as something that you control, not as something that just seems to magically fill up with junk when you’re not looking. For me, this saves a huge amount of time and reduces that headache-inducing frustration of scanning filenames over and over without being able to find what I need.

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