Brendon Walsh
Organization is a problem that we all face. Some deal with it a little better than others and they have their own systems and procedures to handle the influx of data. The people that need the most help are the ones that cannot find the time or ambition to implement the procedures of the more organized users.
I’ve come up with some solutions to help people that have the most trouble trying to maintain order over their digital libraries.
Desktop Archiving
You may be aware of these people. They archive everything they are working on under the desktop. Anything that is ever saved, copied, or downloaded ends up amid the incomprehensibly large pile of 32bit icons arrayed over that stock wallpaper image. A dozen icons have to be pushed aside just to reach the one that is immediately important. This is a nightmare that allows markets for software such as Fences to exist.
It is a slippery slope to save things on the desktop. It starts with just a couple shortcuts, then the project file that needs that program ends up alongside it and before you know it you’ve got 20GB of animated GIFs and Windows Media files for your PowerPoint sitting there as well. True story.
The solution for this is pretty simple, albeit crude. Stop putting things on your desktop. If you need an extra push – and I know you do – change the permissions of your desktop to read-only and get used to archiving documents in the Documents folder.
Now that you’ve got all this free real-estate, I recommend decorating the space with a nice wallpaper.
