HOW TO ACHIEVE A CLUTTER-FREE DESKTOP

STAY FIXED TIP no.3


This week’s tip is not for the squeamish. It requires a change in deeply ingrained behavior, but if accomplished it will add an additional boost in speed to your Mac.

This week’s tip is all about the Desktop. For some it is a place to admire beautifully created wallpaper art but for others it’s the dumping grounds for all sorts of digital clutter. The need to see every file on your Desktop at all times is holding back the performance of your Mac.

The digital clutter on your Desktop will place a strain on your Mac’s startup time and its overall responsiveness. Follow the next steps to achieve a clutter free desktop, Zen-like peace of mind, and a speed boost for your Mac.
Step 1:
Select the Finder in the Dock and close the Finder Window that just opened. In the top Tool Bar click on View and scroll down and hover your mouse over “Sort By” to reveal a list of additional choices. Hover your mouse over the newly revealed list and select “Kind.” This will organize and group all the files on your desktop by kind. All Word documents will be grouped, All image files, all PDFs, etc.

Step 2:
Select the Finder in the Dock to open a new Finder window. Click on the Home icon in the left column. And click on the Documents folder. This is where most of your files should reside. But don’t just drag all the desktop files into this folder. There is still more work to be done.

Step 3:
Within the Documents folder there needs to be a folder structure created. In my Documents folder, for example, I have separate folders created for my Resume, Receipts, Bike Maps, Clients, and Invoices etc. Then as I create new files such as an invoice I save it immediately into the Documents->Invoices folder.

To create a new folder within the Documents folder, select the Documents folder to highlight it and in the Tool Bar select File -> New Folder. This will create a new folder and it should be renamed to suit your needs.

Step 4:
Create all the new folders within the Documents folder that are required. Ex. School, Work, Garden, Personal, Family, Manifesto, Bills etc.

Then all you have to do is drag and drop the files from the Desktop and into their corresponding folders.

Step 5:
Now as new files are created, resist the urge to save it to the Desktop, and get in the habit of saving them directly into their proper folders. It will take patience and time but it will be well worth the trouble.

Salud to a clutter-free Desktop! Until next week.