It occurred to me today that it would be much easier for me to make sense of the items on my computer desktop if I could organize them by the next action, just like I do with my paperwork.
But like many visual people, if I put the documents into a file marked “to do” I am totally not going to look in there and do it. And it doesn’t help to write it on a list. The thing that gets me to do stuff is to see it sitting on my desktop. That probably sounds weird coming from a professional organizer, but it works for me because I take action often and hate to have a lot on my desk at any time.
So I decided to come up with a desktop wallpaper that would allow me to sort out my to-dos on my computer screen just like I sort them out into file trays. I made quadrants for:
- to do
- in progress
- to file
- reminders/notes (could also be for ideas)
View the screen wallpaper here and download if you like.
You can set it as a desktop background by right clicking and saving as background.
I manually move the items to the quadrant where they belong.
I found most of my items are actually in progress or to be filed and I just need to finish ‘em and file ‘em.
Tell me what you think of this and if you would use something like this on your screen?
What changes would you make?
HI!
I am also a professional organizer, and just like you, I need to see things in order to take action on them. If I put things in a to do file, I never see them again! I really like this idea of dividing the desktop up into sections for different actions, but personally, my desktop really only contains program icons, and a few shortcuts to certain commonly used files. So, this wouldn’t work for me. But I’d really love to be able to suggest it to my clients, if they could benefit from it…would that be ok with you? And do you/could you have a design for men?
I actually might could use this concept. In the last year I have started my own online business and all the passwords and userids I need to keep track of. Plus my business expenses, purchases, everything is online. Right now I have them in my email system in different colored folders, but I could possibly use something like this. I just need help getting it all organized. Currently I have 3 email accounts. I just need to consolidate.
I love it! The only problem I have with it is the size of the image. My screen is so big that when I stretch the image to fit my desktop, it gets all pixelated, but merely centering it, it’s too small. More image sizes would be perfect!