Stephen Chinnadorai

One of the most unproductive things on your computer is to have a cluttered desktop. It makes it hard to find files you need, slows your computer down and takes up more hard disk space. Here are four ways that should help you keep your desktop clean:

Trash files when you’re done with them

This applies to anything like Disk Images on the Mac or EXE files on Windows, Zip or RAR files and MP3s that you’ve now added to your iTunes library. Once copied to your iTunes Music folder, there’s no need for the extra file on your desktop. When you download a new app, there will be files that you’ve downloaded purely for the setup —there’s no need to keep these on your desktop; just trash them.

Use shortcuts

This may not necessarily remove the amount of clutter on your desktop, but it will speed up startup times. If you have documents on your desktop, just move them to your documents folder and create a shortcut (alias on Mac OS X) on your desktop. That way: 1. There will be less hard disk space used on your desktop, decreasing startup time and 2. Once you’re done with it, you can delete it - and you’ll have a backup copy in your documents folder for future reference.

Use the “Five Folders” rule

From Chanpory Rith’s article on LifeClever, creating five folders in your documents folder for everything that would normally sit on your desktop could work. “Inbox” is for things you’ve just received — you don’t know what to do with them yet. “Actions” is for things that will take a bit of time to complete — for example, installing applications. “Incubate” is for items you’re not ready to deal with yet. “Current Projects” is for stuff you’re working on right now. “Archive” is for things you’re no longer active with, but may want to return to in the near future.

Use apps to help you

Windows has a built-in tool to clean up your desktop; it can be accessed through: Start > Control Panel > Appearance & Themes > Display Properties > Desktop > Customize Desktop > Desktop Items > Click “Clean Desktop Now”. Windows is so simple, isn’t it?

On the Mac, your application shortcuts aren’t on the desktop — so it’s less of a problem. But there are some simple apps like Quicksilver, that could speed up the process of finding folders.

If you can think up any more ways of keeping your desktop clutter-free, please leave a comment.

Personal blogging isn’t anything new; people have had blogs since the late 90’s — but only recently has it become so easy for anyone to create one. Fully dynamic blogs can be created within seconds using software like WordPress, Blogger or TypePad — all three of these offer free hosting services too.

Gary Vaynerchuk does a good job of explaining why everyone should have an online video show; I’m going to try and do the same for why everyone should have a blog.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be — but whatever it is, it’s original. Here are some reasons why everyone should have a blog:

Your online home

If anyone ever Googles your name, this will be the first result (in most cases). This means that people who know you can find you online; your blog could potentially be a meeting point for old friends.

Make your view heard

Blogging is all about your opinion, and it’s one of the best ways to get it out there. Sometimes, if people agree with your view, you’ll get a lot of publicity from social news websites like Digg linking to you — suddenly your blog becomes the centre of attention — all because of your opinion.

Unleash your creativity

Not all of us will have the opportunity to write a book — but we can all write a blog. Share your thoughts, photos, videos and more to the world. It doesn’t matter if everyone doesn’t like what you share, but out of the millions of people in the world, someone will. 

It’s the new media

Mainstream media is slowly diminishing: Newspapers are becoming blogs; TV Shows are becoming YouTube shows; Radio shows are becoming podcasts. The future is on the internet, and blogging will be even bigger than it is today — establishing a domain and blog early may help you in the future.