Peace of Mind Organizing

The clean computer desktop

12 July 2013

I write all the time (most recently, here) about how important it is for me to clear off the top of my desk each evening. That habit, which takes just a few minutes at the end of the day, makes it so much easier for me to function in the morning.

But I never think about my computer desktop. Mine is cluttered, and that hasn’t bothered me. In fact, I’ve barely given it a thought.

I just read this excellent article on Lifehacker called, How clutter affects your brain and what you can do about it. There’s lots of great stuff in there. You really should read it.

The item that really captured my imagination was the very last in the article’s list of four things you can do to master clutter: Remove all files from your desktop daily.

It’s the same habit I’ve created for my physical desk, only it’s for the computer desktop. The article’s writer, Mikael Cho, showed a screenshot of his desktop, which contains just one folder he calls Home. Here it is:

By contrast, here’s a screenshot of my desktop:

As I said, my messy desktop hasn’t bothered me before. I use my Mac’s Finder to find everything and don’t really even know what’s kept on the desktop. But I’m so enamored of Mikael Cho’s desktop that I think I’ll give it a try. My plan is to work on it a little at a time (I love the little and often approach) and report back here in two or three weeks with the results.

I’m curious: Is your computer desktop neat and tidy or is it a jumbled mess like my current desktop?

Tagged with: clean desk, computer desktop, habits, lifehacker

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