Does your computer desktop look like the screen above? If yes, then we need to talk.
I’ve seen many computer desktops like this, mine used to be one of them. With my Dyslexia my mind doesn’t always register when my eyes are looking at the folder I want. When my desktop was cluttered I’d often have to scan it with my eyes for over a minute before discovering the file I wanted.
Sure, in the larger scheme of things a minute doesn’t seem like much. But when you consider how often you need to do this each day, every day, you could waste up to an hour or more per week trying to find things.
So what do you do? I stumbled upon a wonderful article over the weekend called How I manage email and stay at inbox zero, that made recommendations I’ve used with great success.
I borrowed one concept from that article and extended it to my desktop which now looks like this . . .
I’ve reduced the number of folders on my desktop significantly as they are no longer organized according to the kind of document(s) in them. They are now organized according to the action they require me to take.
Folders labeled:
- To Do
- To File
- To Read
Are all you see on my desktop. Having spent the weekend using this new system I can tell you that the speed with which I find what I’m looking for has increased significantly.
If you decide to adopt this strategy as well, please tell me about your experience with it.
Thanks for being you.
