The Productive Student

This is the first post in the series “How to Defeat Your Digital Mess Forever“.

The first step to regaining control of your stuff is to clean up the place it’s in. I daresay that 80% of the inflow of information we have can be labeled as garbage without thinking about it twice.

Our goal, therefore, should be

• to focus on the tools we need to get our job done and
• to rid ourselves of all that which consumes our time and attention without legitimacy,

whilst respecting the golden rule of minimalism: Too much minimalism can be counter-productive. [via Minimal Mac]

Apart from that, performance gains and metric productivity gains in terms of time saved are an added benefit of performing a tabula rasa with your computer.

Step 1: Reclaim Drive Space – 5 Fast Ways to Clean up Gigabytes of Space

The simplest principle in reducing clutter is to renegotiate your relationship with stuff. Consider this: Having just 5 things you love significantly enhances their value than having 20 things you like more or less. Rethink what you love about stuff, and go by that principle.

1. Go through your music. Delete songs you’ve rated low, don’t listen to very often or simply don’t like. Consider keeping just the songs you love, instead of keeping entire albums or discographies just for the sake of it.
2. Discard bad photos. Take a moment to delete all those pictures that are shaky, blurred or just have no meaning to you. Keep a high-quality, meaningful photo library you love.
3. Eliminate apps. Many applications we have installed can be easily replaced by simpler system alternatives. Go through the list of applications on your Mac (Applications folder) or Windows machine (via Add/Remove Software in the control panel). Identify programs you don’t use, and research for lightweight alternatives, often found within the system itself.
4. Switch to “conveyor belt mode”: Instead of hoarding files and maintaining large libraries of videos and PDFs, consider switching to the principle of throwing stuff away when used once. If you keep files for long-term storage, think of getting external storage (online or offline) to keep those things. I keep a bunch of videos and old project folders this way (for security as well as for nostalgic reasons).
5. Clean Out Hidden Garbage: Use a tool to visualize your drive and identify long lost or hidden chunks of data that are eating away space. Do a spring cleaning.

Step 2: Reclaim your Workspace

1. Slimming Shortcuts: Examine your Mac OS X Dock or Windows Start Menu for Shortcuts. Chuck out everything. Bring back the things you really need from your Applications/Programs Folder (be sure to create fresh Shortcuts on Windows in order not to move the entire Application per se to the Start Menu). Consider using Spotlight or Windows Search for launching apps, I’ve found they work really well.
2. Background Bashing: Menubar on Mac, System Tray on Windows. On the Mac, use Cmd+Mouse to drag out icons you don’t need. Be sure you know what each icon does before dragging it out. Sometimes Apps run background processes that can easily be turned off in their preferences. On Windows, examine the icons in the tray, adjust preferences in each of the applications, and use Windows’ settings to hide icons you don’t need.
3. Desktop Diet: I personally don’t advocate an empty desktop as a standard feature. I use the desktop to keep stuff I’m currently working on. It’s a temporary space, jsut like a real desk. That said, 90% of people’s computer desktops usually contain stuff that belongs in long-term storage. Identify and file.

Step 3: Perform Maintenance – 1 Simple Step to a Well-Oiled System.

I don’t bother too much about system maintenance. I do, however, use tools both on Mac and Windows in order to keep my system trouble-free. Onyx on Mac OS X and TuneUp on Windows are excellent choices to get rid of unwanted data and keep the system in good working order.

There are plenty more ideas and ways to clean up your computer. The idea is to chuck out everything you don’t need, keeping everything you need. I strongly don’t recommend going on a decluttering-spree with the goal of chucking things just for the sake of removing them. Be brave enough to keep things you need. Don’t inconvenience yourself for the simple pleasure of an empty Menubar. A cluttered desk reflects a cluttered mind, but an empty one reflects something too…

Let me hear your experiences in the comments!