Office organization doesn’t just apply to the physical space. Let’s not forget about our inboxes, Google drives, cloud storage and computer desktop storage. We’ll tackle the easy one first - your computer desktop.
We are all guilty of having too many files crowding our desktops. Think about it… it’s the digital version of the stack of papers on the corner of your desk!
We’re challenging you to spend a few minutes tidying your desktop. Don’t worry. We’ll walk you through it.
1. Declutter
If you only do one step listed here, this is the most important. The simple directive….remove anything you don’t access daily.
2. Categorize
Make specific folders for each category of files you’re keeping on the desktop.
3. Standardize
We like to have a standardized naming convention for our files so it’s easier to locate the file you need.
4. Customize
While it’s not necessary, we like to add a customized desktop background to make our desktop more visually appealing and help with maintaining categories. (You can access our customized desktop below).
5. Maintain
As with any space, maintenance is key. Set a reminder to clean up your desktop once a week, month, quarter, etc.
You can find more details on each step by checking out Shannon’s tips in Apartment Therapy’s article “How to Best Organize Your Computer Desktop, According to Pro Organizers”.
A little more on that customized background…
We like to add a customized desktop background to make our desktop more visually appealing and help with maintaining categories. Shannon created this one for her own laptop. Canva has a bunch of customizable templates to choose from based on your needs. These templates are great for creating broad file categories like “reference files,” “client projects,” “personal,” and “active projects” to categorize your files. From there, drag all corresponding files to the appropriate grouping, and presto, an organized desktop.
Want to use this background? Drop us a line and we’ll send over the file!