Desktop clutter

How is your desktop looking these days? Hold on: NOT the physical desk (that’s a whole different story), but the one you see on your computer monitor? Do you see a lot of icons on your desktop or are you one of the purists who keeps it as empty as possible?

While there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to use your desktop to start with, there most certainly is a ‘not so good’ and a ‘better’ way to use it. Before we decide on the makings of ‘good’ use, let’s have a close look at the different things we might find (or place) on a desktop.

In most cases, there are some standard icons, right? Think electronic bin, computer management access, program icons, and the like. Besides, most of us like to “temporarily” save files on the desktop, especially the ones we are currently working on, for ease of access. Many people also like to use the desktop as a download location, to extract email attachments from the emails and be able to work on them until sending them on. Another category of files on the desktop is based on the use of the desktop as a ToDo list, or because we are afraid of losing track of the file in another location.

It’s interesting to look at other people’s desktops, isn’t it? We usually see stuff there that we would never have placed in that area, or are wondering how they could do without a couple of icons we feel are indispensable for the proper functioning of our daily routine. However, at the end of the day, there are several issues with all of those, and it really boils down to two things: keep the desktop clear of things that do not belong there in the first place or can be easily placed elsewhere, and basic maintenance of whatever remains.

As with all clutter, electronic or physical, once there is a critical weight of stuff, it starts attracting others exponentially. It is important to find a way to make use of the desktop for the purposes you require, without it becoming a dumping ground for things that either belong elsewhere or have no place to go at all.

There is also a security concern with the desktop. If you work on an office network, the automatic backup systems do not always back up your local desktop on a regular basis. In case of computer breakdown – and that is especially true for laptops that are not always connected to the LAN – your desktop files may just be lost for good.

All this begs the question: “How can I limit the number of items on my desktop?”

Reference files

A lot of the files on the desktop have ended up there because we want to refer to them regularly. That – in itself – is a sound plan. Believe me: I’ve done that, too. If you have just a handful of those, why not?
There are a couple of conditions I would like you see imposed on those, though, to keep help identify clutter and avoid it in the long term:

• Make sure to check occasionally (better yet: regularly, maybe schedule it once a month?) if the files you would identify as reference files are still being used regularly. If they are: grand. If they are not, you want to find a better place where they can stay for the remainder of their life span.
• If you find your desktop inundated by reference files, you could simplify things a little by creating a folder (yes: there is such a thing as a folder on the desktop!) and grouping all your reference files into that folder. This not only declutters your desktop, but it saves time identifying the files you are actually looking for.
  

Convenience location files

The desktop is usually filled with lots of files because it is such a convenient location to save stuff to if you have neither time nor inclination to look for a better place. Never forget: laziness creates clutter! The most common reasons for convenient filing on the desktop are downloads you want to keep working on straight away, email attachments that need to be saved somewhere, and emergency saving when time runs short.

Once more, there is no problem with either of those, provided they are being taken care of afterwards and moved to the location they should really have been saved in from the start. You may want to consider the following tips, though:

• How much time does it really take to save the files in their final location straight away? Isn’t it worth thinking about it at that moment, as this would not only save you time and clutter in the future, but also make you more aware of your filing system, its strengths and limitations overall. Experience tells that ongoing filing is more efficient and makes locating files easier in the long term.
• Most operating systems have at least one shortcut option to access your hard disk from the desktop anyway. Saving the files in their rightful place is just one click away, really.
• Temporary files that you only need for now but not indefinitely are often saved here: make sure to discard those as soon as they are no longer of any use to you.
  

Forgotten files

Even with as much checking going on as you can muster, there will undoubtedly be files you have overlooked, especially if they sit in a desktop folder.

• Regular filing is an absolute necessity, in any circumstance, but never as much as on the desktop. File regularly and try to look in those desktop folders as well.
• Whenever you go into any location in your filing system, and you find one or several files that are out of place, or that you do not use regularly any more, make sure to move them at that time.
• If you know that a particular file is no longer of use, ditch it!
  

Program icons

Most operating systems have several ways of accessing applications, usually some kind of toolbar holding a set of standard options and allowing you to add to it and manage as you go along. That would be the natural place to host anything relating to starting and running programs on your machine.

Sadly, most downloads and installations will place an icon not only on the toolbar, but also on the desktop (and the menu, in many cases). My advice is to find the place away from the desktop that you can access your new program with, and then remove the program icon from the desktop right away. It is just clogging up your view and ultimately makes you lose time because you have to decide which option to use and then look for it.

Top tips:

• Keep the number of files on the desktop to a minimum.
• Make use of shortcuts to folders in your local filing system. [Of course, you’ll have to take into account that those links are broken if that filing system is on a network and you are away from your workspace. Consider cloud storage, then: dropbox or similar are available. They store the files locally AND back up to a cloud location to synchronise with your other devices.]
• Group files whenever possible: often this is done by dragging them together on the desktop, but consider creating a folder for them.
• Better yet: instead of creating a folder on the desktop, why not create a folder in your file location and place a shortcut to that folder on your desktop? Any files you save in there will always be in the right place to start with.
• As with all clutter, it pays to take decisions right away, and to avoid temporary solutions (that invariably become an additional task sometime in the future).