The ONLY 3 Rules You Need for Better Digital Organization

1. Start by taking everything out of your folders, archives, and drawers, and drag all the files, books, and paperwork into a pile on your desk top. 2. Once you have a big pile, open each item, one-by-one and consider if it sparks joy. 3. If it does not, discard it. But before getting rid of items, sincerely thank each one for serving its purpose.

Dear Lea, you would be proud of me today 🎉 after watching this and your desktop video. I cleaned out 1400 files, streamlined my desktop and made a start with a new descriptive file structure across three of my hard drives.

I created a folder on my desktop named "desktop". :) If I need to save something quickly, I use this folder rather than the desktop. Periodically, I clean the "desktop" folder by deleting things I don't need from it and moving the files I need to my permanent folder structure. I also don't allow apps to put shortcuts on the desktop, but some still do, so I keep an eye on them and delete any shortcut immediately or move it to the "desktop" folder to decide later if I will add it to my taskbar or delete it altogether.

Thanks for the real world scenarios and cuts to examples! Keep advising me what videos i need to watch next.

"Have a place for everything and keep the thing somewhere else; this is not advice, it is merely custom." - Mark Twain. After a long struggle I hit upon the concept of organization - a real sanity saver - like structure based on naming things that make them easily recognizable and in a format that is easily searchable: Dates, key words, any special functions or other identifiers, et cetera. Then put them somewhere else and consequently become very familiar with (and somewhat skilled at) search functions. . .

Great video! It's also worth noting that you can use the Windows Key + Number to open applications pinned to your taskbar. For example if the browser is your first pinned icon, Win+1 will launch it. On all my computers I keep my task bar consistent so Win+1 always opens my Browser app, Win+2 is Outlook etc, etc (I skip File Explorer because that's Win+E). Once you've decided on a system and memorised it you can jump between apps in no time without ever having to move your hand off the keyboard.

Your videos have been instrumental in helping me put together an electronic portfolio of evidence!

Thank you. That is a nice organization system. I use my Desktop folder for current projects. Most of the stuff gets moved or deleted after the project is complete. Years ago, a friend had so much stuff on his Mac OS 7.6 desktop that he had a scroll bar. Windows OS just displays what it can, and the rest has to be accessed through Windows Explorer. I have been in the IT business for a while and have seen some cluttered desktop folders.

I create new wallpaper monthly. It contains a calendar and important information. In my case, client codes and campaign color codes, conversion formulas, financial/sales goals, etc. And a new photo of my pup. :)

I spent an hour last night just cleaning up my desktop. Thanks for the tips & motivation.

Glad to see that I've been using all these tricks for more than 10 years. Nice video.

Clean desktop all the way 😅 it freaks me out ...messy desktop would send me crazy. Your video is very clear. Thank you 👌

I never knew I could organize my bookmarks. Thank you very much for that info. Did some needed cleaning up as well.

I love ❤what you are teaching.🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿.

Personally I pin all programs I use everyday to my taskbar, then the less common but still important ones will have shortcuts on the desktop to the left. On the right side of my desktop I put shortcuts to folder that I consider important. Using date of creation is bit redundant and prone to error when you can already include a Date Created column in file explorer. The "client project title" format let's me think you might be better off with proper folder structure. For bookmark on the bookmark bar I keep the most use ones on the top layer and I delete their name so that only the icons are visible. I coo think you can do in google is to name the window by right-clicking and selecting "Name Window" this way I can have a window for YouTube that is always going to be name YouTube in the taskbar, same for ChatGPT, Udemy, Current Project, etc.

as for the desktop i don't even have the recycle bin icon in it cause you can alway access it via file explorer. As for the taskbar, keep in mind that windows let you open those with the WIN+1, WIN+2 etc shortcuts so i tend to put those that i use more and don't already have a windows shortcut like file explorer (WIN+E) in the first positions (it works of course with only the first 9 icons here).

Yes I myself fully support a Clean Desktop, it's also going to prolong life of your computer/laptop etc ❤

I do not know how to use a computer. I know how they are built, the internal workings, components, god, I fix computers for a living, but I realized that I do not know how to use a computer. This video gave me some insights about the purppse of a computer. Thank you so much

Great video - I `ve already set up a new canvas for my desktop and I am optimizing my browser bookmarks with these files. Thank You very much, indeed.

i learnt a long time ago to organize my files and emails and bookmarks based on what i want to do with it, not what it is, since 2005 i never changed my folder structure, my bookmarks is a bit intimidating sometimes though 😁