Why to make your desktop clean?

Whenever I’m away from my computer and have to rely on someone else’s, one thing that I notice many times is how unorganized some of those desktops are. A messy amount of icons populate a page that, on a productivity point of view, should be left clean.

Why have a desktop at all if it’s not to be used to store temporary items, you may ask. Just imagine you have a desktop full of files, sometimes not even organized by type nor alphabetically. Well, here is my why:

• Time lost. You need to find a file that you are sure you saved on your desktop three weeks ago. Now, find it amidst the masses. How much time does it take you to find that file? Maybe some seconds. Multiply that by the number of times you have to find a file during a year. See what I mean?
• Decrease in productivity. There are files that you should be working on now, there are those that you should look at in a few days. If you loose these in the middle of all the others living in your desktop, will you remember them? Probably only when someone comes at you and asks if you had time to review that last report due in tomorrow. Then I’m sure you will remember.
• A cluttered desktop is a source of stress. How this affects you depends on your standards and your capacity to deal with disorganization. Might only affect a little, might affect much. But as soon as that critical level is reached, there is a certain amount of stress being created every time you look at it. And if your working files are all there, these are many times a day. Another source of stress? I think you don’t need it.
• The “Desktop cycle effect”. You know that you should clean it, you know how much better it would look and how much more productive you would become. But it’s just a big pain to even think about organizing it. Well, let me tell you this: it is not going to clean itself up (Do you really trust that little balloon that sometimes comes up saying “There are unused items in your desktop. Do you want to clean them now?”). And the more the days pass, more cluttered it will look (assuming that you just don’t stop working). And here is the cycle effect: The more time you let pass, the more painful it will be to clean, the more time you let pass…
• Computer slowness problems. If you have a not so much state-of-the-art computer, you might have experienced slowness when going to the desktop to find something, that effect that resembles the shutters of a window coming down. Your computer is taking too long to load your desktop (specially if you have a fancy desktop picture). Are you willing to suffer that every time you need to look for something there?
• Your desktop says much about you. So you have a company meeting or some other presentation that is more informal. You are setting up your laptop as your colleagues pour into the room… and on the screen, behold, that infamous messy desktop of yours for everyone to see. Are you willing to bet that no one is going to pass judgement on that? Oh, and are all those files work related or can I see some pictures and movies there too? Your boss also can. Not giving presentations? Doesn’t matter, someone at some time will look over your shoulder while you work and spot the mess.

An organized computer desktop not only denotes productivity and organization skills, but it’s also a much easier environment to work on.
Make a habit of cleaning it regularly. You’ll see how much that will improve your productivity and sense of accomplishment. Organization actually pays.
In my next post I’ll give you a few tips on how to organize your desktop and keep it organized in a way that you’ll never “lose” files again simply because you always know where they are.
And your desktop? Is it as “clean” as you wanted it to be? Do you suffer from any of the points I made above? Share with us your tips for a clutter free desktop.