Uncluttering your machine

Is your desktop a shining example of neatness and cleanliness? Or is it a big heap of icons only fit to be sorted in some manner? How many files are in your Documents folder? What does your directory structure look like? Easy to work with and a natural fit for you and what you do? Can you easily find what you are looking for or does the way you organise suck totally and drain your energy?

Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are helpful for many tasks, but they box you in in the tasks the designer designed the GUI for. M$ systems come with a preset set of directories, and so does linux (if it isn't stripped). Like beliefs and rules, such predefined organisations can act like post hypnotic suggestions (spell casting) and filter our experience of reality and affect us in undesirable ways.

Not only that, standard default folders tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important. For M$ that is in MyDocuments, for Linux that is /home/user and most such application directories have a dot in front and are not visible (you have to set "Show Hidden Files" in your "View" menu if you are using a GUI).

Case study: Uncluttering your machine

There is so much written about cluttering and uncluttering your machine, about (re)organising your files and directories [1], some of it may be useful for you, some of it may not. Just use what you need. Here I describe steps for reorganising your machine in highly generalised form that worked for me for building a resilient machine that allows me to focus on what I want to do with it and quickly recover from intrusions and crashes.

Methodology

• Step 1 Make a decision to unclutter your machine

• Step 2 Create your own file system from scratch!

• Step 3 Separate Application Files from Data Files

• Step 4 Customise and accessorise

• Step 5 Regular maintenance

• Step 6 Making backups

• Step 7 Synchronise

Synthesis

Focus on your priorities, make efficient use of your time on this planet, choose a design for your life that allows for relaxing and replenishment, and make it so.

References

[1] Zen and the Art of File and Folder Organization http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization/