I’ve spent a lot of time making my physical desk fit my work. I flip through new office supply catalogs with anticipation. That doesn’t mean my office isn’t a mess at the end of the semester, but I usually have a number of tools to get it in order. On the other hand, my Windows desktop is–well, out of control. Whenever I’m in a hurry, I fall into the habit of saving almost all files to my desktop for quick uploading or email. This week, I set out to excavate it out from under a mass of rarely-used icons and half-remembered files and found myself faced with the ongoing challenges of virtual organization. Here are a few steps that helped me along the way.
- Treat your desktop like your closet. The finite nature of physical space makes it easier to let things go. When cleaning out a closet, for instance, the standards are easy: does something fit? Do you need it? Will you ever use it again? It’s easier to recognize when we’re holding on to something we’ve physically outgrown, but software programs can be the same way.
- Eliminate duplicates. It’s a lot easier to end up with exact duplicate files in digital–a tool like Duplicate Commander, a freeware program that works across all versions of Windows, can do the work of culling files saved over and over again.
- Keep the active work size limited. Storage limits are only rising, and there’s a perceived endlessness to the virtual. A game I’ve already beaten? Still on the hard-drive, just in case, along with twenty others. Four alternatives to the built-in Windows Explorer? Still there. Sample papers from the very first class I taught six-some years ago? Five folders deep in a series of well-intended back-ups of–you guessed it–my desktop. Moving some of these to a back-up system can cut down on the chaos of search results and distinguish archive from active work.
- Enjoy unexpected discoveries. Just as cleaning out a closet can lead to finding a suit for that next big presentation, facing your files can lead to finding a paper that might be dusted off for a journal call or forgotten photos from trips that were never archived. Computer file system search tools can only help us find what we’re looking for.
- Forget the search button. The task of keeping a computer file system in order used to be much more important. Before the integration of sophisticated (and relatively fast) search tools into the desktop, the file system was more in tune with its physical equivalent. Careful indexing made a real difference to a computer’s usability. But the same software that has made finding things more convenient also encourages us to be sloppy or abandon organization altogether.
- Try out a new perspective. There are a number of alternatives to the Windows Explorer system built-in to Windows 7 for file management. Even if they aren’t ideal for daily use, some of them can be valuable for facing organization. I used FreeCommander, a freeware program with a dual view, for tasks involving repeated actions between two folders–great for working on back-ups. For added power tools, like color-coding and easier filtering, xplorer2 is a powerful alternative with a free lite version.
- Remember that the desktop metaphor is a lie. Steven Johnson wrote in his book Interface Culture about how the desktop metaphor came to be: there’s no real reason for our digital files to be in folders or trash cans, but the design referenced what was familiar. There’s no reason to expect folders on the desktop to follow the same logic as those in an office, which frees us to rethink the very foundations of file organization. Systems like Gmail have abandoned the folder system for good reason–for examples, check out Amy Cavender’s post on making good use of filters.
A cluttered virtual desktop can be just as paralyzing as a messy office, and it’s great to get a clean slate before fall comes crashing in. Do you have an out-of-control desktop? Or perhaps a great strategy for keeping things in order? Let us know in the comments.
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