Unique Methods of Organization
My desktop is not cluttered; 85% of my computer’s files are where they should be. 50% of these files are located in folders labeled sensibility: music is in the “Music” folder; videos are in the “Videos” folder; documents are in the “Documents” folder.
I’m not a digital slob, and I’ve never been one. I’ve just had occasional mishaps during which icons and files that I wanted but didn’t want to be bothered with piled up on my desktop… Those files were quickly relocated into a folder called something like “Crap.”
Now, I’m being particularly good. A “Crap” folder has yet to plague my 3-month-old laptop’s desktop. But a 3 month span of desktop cleanliness is not atypical because, as I said, I’ve never been a digital slob. My computers have always been organized.
What is atypical: videos in the “Videos” folder, music in the “Music” folder, &c. Videos have graced the hard drives of my computers for years. But, until now, I never thought it fit to put them in a “Videos” folder. I thought that doing that would make things too boring. Three months ago, I was putting my videos in the “Ebooks” folder. Ebooks were kept in an ambiguously titled folder elsewhere. My system of organization didn’t spring up accidentally. After mistakenly dropping one video in the “Ebooks” folder, I didn’t decide that the rest might as well go there too. I, intentionally, put them there. The decision was an improvement upon their previous location as they were no longer buried in a mess of whimsically titled folders.
Long story short: more of my files are sensibly located than ever before.
However, I am still me. I’ve taken my love of unique organizational themes to my bookmarks (RSS feeds). Surprisingly, a few of the folders’ labels may make sense (sans explanation) to average people. Legal sites are filed under “jurisprudents” and linguistic ones under “language.”
But the personal blogs I subscribe to are separated into four folders: “Marquise,” “Vicomtesse,” “Baronne,” and “Baronnet.” They’re ranked. Blogs I like the most are in the “Marquise” folder; the ones I like the least are in “Baronnet.” I have all sorts of complicated reasons for why I’ve used feminine French ranks of nobility to organize blogs and as to why certain ranks are missing but I suppose the real question is: why must I complicate things? I can put videos in the “Videos” folder but asking me to sort blogs into categories like “Blogs I Read Daily” and “Blogs I Sort of Like” is asking too much. I feel compelled to attach partly whimsical and highly symbolic titles to them … and to other things. :)
On the subject of the last entry: I will answer your questions. Thanks a ton for asking them.
I’m like you, I hate my desktop being cluttered.
I’m very OC when it comes to the files in my computer. I want them to be “where they are” meaning if they are pictures they should be in the designated folder, much like you. But then, people do have their own ways right?
I had fun reading this post, says a lot about you :)
My desktop gets pruned regularly and I also have a “crap” folder for all sorts of crap I get as well. :D
But your blogs… Lol. That’s actually nice. I don’t bookmark my blogs much. I subscribe to a few and they’re all bunched up together in a single “Readings” folder. :P French is nice though. I like the names. But why would you bookmark blogs you least like?
It seems like every week I do a complete folders overhaul. I check almost everything and delete half of what I’ve gathered over the months. I can’t stand bulk.
I’m apparently something of an anomaly…My desktop is all too often littered with failed attempts at getting something in Ubuntu to work or office documents that I can’t be arsed to place in a folder because they’re too conveniently located at the moment.
On a more positive note, this post has given me the impetus to pursue a semblance of order. Hurrah.
My RSS reader is organized as follows:
- Humor (The Onion, Overheards, Celebritywit, Colbert/Daily Show videos, et cetera..)
- Nerd (National Geographic, Literary Quotes, mental_floss, Psychology Today, TED Talks, The Dilbert Blog, MidEast analyses, science/etymology/linguistic feeds, et cetera — I have so many!)
- News (major domestic and foreign newspapers with a focus on international affairs–there are SO MANY!)
- Quirky (DesktopLinux.com, Free Software of the Day, Photoshop brushes, Site Colors, Web Designer Wall, NoFactZone.net, airfare deals, links to illegally uploaded movies and TV shows — THERE ARE SO MANY! This is the folder I had the greatest difficulty naming, given the diversity of the content).
- Weblogs (you are here — this is the one with the fewest number of feeds).
Originally I had a category for blogs I read regularly and blogs I didn’t, but the organization system swiftly collapsed when I realized that I wasn’t reading the ignored blogs AT ALL. At that point, I unsubscribed to blogs I only moderately enjoyed reading, given the little time I deigned to expend on this activity.
Now I’m very comfortable with the feed folders and do not feel inundated.
I have ZERO desktop/taskbar icons. I cannot tolerate them.
My files are a mess. Most of my folders have ambigious names (I have at least 3 “Stuff” folders in different locations). The whole My Pictures folder was accidentally dragged into the My Music folder and has been there ever since. There’s a lot of stuff in My Received Files that probably shouldn’t be there.
The one thing I (try to) keep track of is my school work, I have folders with the course codes and every year I put those folders into one appropriately labelled folder.
I like to be organized, and my obsessive-compulsive tendencies follow me even online. Everything has its own little folder. And I only have three icons on my desktop of pure purpleness.
Actually, I’m more a deleter than I anything. I delete everything once I’ve grown tired of it, has gotten too old, or have never used/watched/etc. it in a while. That’s really how I stay organized.
I don’t have a feed reader, because I am not down with the times. But I like your nobility rankings! I wanted to do something like that my links page, but that’s not nice… so, yes.
Hee I love what you did with the RSS feed names! That’s a great idea, though all of mine are filed under weblogs, humour (mostly webcomics), quirky (everything else) and web-related.
My desktop tends to get uber messy though because I usually download everything to desktop. I clear them off to proper folders every once in a while, but it reaches about 100 icons on my desktop on an average day.
I’m really organized too when it comes to my computer. Everything’s neatly in folders and I try to keep things super organized when I need to find them later.
But I must say your organization scheme is much more creative than mine. :P
Haha, actually that sounds a lot like me! I label every folder and every file accordingly so that everything is strictly organized. A couple of hours ago, I was reorganizing everything, even when it is organized, I like going over it all to see if I can find a new way to make it look / be cleaner.
I have a lovely folder called “Random Crap The Clutters The Desktop,” and every day, I throw whatever is on my desktop into this folder. It’s a nice system so far, but I shudder to think what will happen when I have to sort through the contents of said folder.
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