Staying organized for 2010
With a new year comes the opportunity for change. Many people by nature are not very well organized however most would like to be. Occasionally when I am asked to look at someone’s computer in an effort to help them with a problem, I see TONS of clutter on their desktop and My Document’s folders (just to name a couple areas). I always wonder, “how do these people find a file when they need it?” Or better yet, “how long does it take them to find the file?”
I like to consider myself a fantastic multi-tasker, especially on my computer. In order to effectively multi-task, I HAVE to be organized. My work computer has over 2,200 files in the My Documents folder alone. How do I keep it organized? With 185 folders. Now, 185 folders is a BIG number. However, I have organized them as “categories” and I use a flow-chart type approach to my organization.
I start with My Documents as the Master category, then I work down from there. My company, personal, and a couple miscellaneous folders that tie into specific programs or that I am CONSTANTLY accessing. Then I just keep adding folders as categories from there down. I use simple logic when creating the folders. For instance, if I am looking for a file with Market Share statistics, I open My Documents, my company, marketing materials, statistics. With so many files floating around, I have to be detailed otherwise I will have 100 files in one folder that I have to sort through to find what I’m looking for.
It is easy to add a folder, just get to the place you want to add a folder, right click your mouse in that area (make sure you are not right-clicking on any icons), select “New”, then select “folder”. Give the folder a name and hit Enter and you’re done.
Now another place that gets cluttered is the computer desktop. I LOVE using my desktop to store files that I quickly need to download and then access. When I’m done doing what I need to accomplish, I either delete the file or move it to one of my folders. This keeps my desktop clear of clutter and it allows me to easily find those files that I quickly throw onto my desktop.
So many programs nowadays automatically install an icon on your desktop so you can “easily” open the program. How easy is it when you have 50 other icons on that desktop? So only put the icons you truly NEED on your desktop. Otherwise, move them over to your Start menu or delete them altogether. What I mean by this is if you have a program shortcut (or any shortcut icon for that matter) you can click and drag it over to your Start button and drop it above the gray line on the left side of the pop-up list. This is where you can store your most frequently accessed programs, and you can sort them however you want. You are limited in the number of shortcuts you list here though, so choose them carefully.
Finally, if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, when you click on the Start button, you get a little search box at the far bottom of the pop-up. It says “start search” in the box. If for whatever reason, you can’t find a file, start typing in the file name (or some keywords in the file itself, but it takes longer to search) in this box and it will start returning results at the top of the window. Once you find the file you are looking for, you can left-click on it to open it, or you can right-click on it to do a few different things, such as “print”. This is what I do when I need to quickly find and print a file, and it works like a charm.
Nobody is perfect when it comes to organization and everyone has their own “style”. If you’re one of those people who desire some suggestions, hopefully these will help. When time is short, you’ll be glad you spent the time to get your computer organized.
