Buzz
A wealth of research demonstrates that your environment directly impacts your productivity, with even something as minor as color having the power to affect your memory and creativity. Given that most of our work is now done in the digital space, it's clear that the state of your desktop environment can significantly influence your productivity. Your desktop serves as the gateway to your entire computing experience, and if it's cluttered and chaotic, it will inevitably drag down your output. Here’s how to design a visually pleasing and well-organized desktop that promotes a clean, efficient, and productive workspace with minimal effort.
Step One: Select a Minimalist, Productivity-Enhancing Wallpaper
Although it might seem like a small decision, the wallpaper you choose can have a substantial effect on your daily productivity. When you’re looking at the same image over and over again, you’ll want it to be visually appealing. More importantly, however, choose something that won’t distract you. Ever notice how you sometimes close your eyes to help you remember? That's because you're intentionally blocking out an overload of visual information to focus. If your wallpaper is overly busy, it can create the same distracting effect.
Luckily, there’s no shortage of stunning wallpapers available, though many are more focused on visual appeal than on supporting productivity or focus. Websites like Simple Desktops and MinimalWall feature curated collections of wallpapers that are specifically designed to look elegant without overwhelming your senses. We’ve also compiled collections of gridded, food, minimalist, nature, and vintage wallpapers that serve a similar purpose. Alternatively, creating a custom bokeh wallpaper can be a great way to produce a stunning, distraction-free background for your desktop in just a few minutes. Whatever you pick, ensure it's simple and visually pleasing, as all of your other organizational efforts will be less effective if your wallpaper is unattractive or distracting.
Step Two: Select an Organization System and Put It into Action
Regardless of whether you’ve opted for a minimalist wallpaper, most of us end up placing files, folders, or shortcuts on our desktops. Without proper organization, you may soon find that your beautiful desktop background is hidden beneath a mess of clutter. Clutter can induce stress for a variety of reasons, so if you find yourself overwhelmed by it, it’s time to take action and clean it up.
If your desktop is already overloaded with clutter, the first step is to gather everything on your desktop and move it into a single folder—any folder will do, as long as it’s not the desktop itself. It’s much easier to tidy up once your files are out of sight and tucked away. So, for now, just throw everything into that folder. The next step is to decide on a system for organizing everything. Here are two methods we recommend. Pick the one that suits your style and needs, and use it to tackle the pile of clutter you just collected.
The Sorting Bins Method
If your desktop is so cluttered that files are stacking on top of each other, you’ll need to introduce sorting bins and a regular organizing routine. I personally lived with a desktop like the one shown here for over a decade, but once I started using bins to organize, I never faced this issue again. The sorting bins method requires minimal effort, looks tidy, and makes it easier to locate files when needed.
Simply create a few folders on your desktop that align with the work you do. For example, I have six folders, each named as follows:
Development - This folder holds my ongoing programming projects.
For Sale - This folder contains images of items I’m selling online. (Though it’s not necessary to have this folder on the desktop, I find it useful to keep it there.)
Incoming Media - This is where I store music and videos that need to be added to iTunes, watched, listened to (and possibly deleted afterward), or organized in some way.
Incoming Photos - For photos that require editing and uploading.
Temporary Notes - This folder contains stray text files that I eventually add to Simplenote (since that’s where I keep track of my plain text notes) or delete. (Despite using Simplenote for most of my text-related work, I always end up with random text files.)
To Be Archived - For anything that needs to be transferred to my NAS for archival purposes.
As you can see, these sorting bins can be highly customized to your specific needs. You’ll need to determine what bins work best for you, but I strongly recommend having a To Be Archived folder and an Incoming [WHATEVER] folder, as they tend to cover most situations. Just try to keep your bins under seven to avoid spending too much time deciding which one to use when saving or moving a file.
When setting up the bins, choose icons that stand out from other desktop items. I designed these white rounded-rectangle icons (which you can also download and use) for this exact purpose. When a file appears on the desktop, it stands out, and I’m more likely to organize it quickly. However, most files get sorted before they even make it to the desktop.
By putting all of this together, you create an easy-to-use and maintainable sorting system that is also visually pleasing. The only thing left to do is set aside about 10 minutes each week to go through the folders and organize the contents. Alternatively, check out step three for ways to automate this process.
Note: While I use this approach for organizing my desktop, it’s also paired with a Dropbox organizational system. If you use Dropbox or a similar tool and want to sync your newly organized desktop, you can simply create symlinks on each device.
The Sectioned Desktop Approach
If your desktop isn’t too cluttered but could benefit from a bit more structure, try altering your wallpaper to help organize things. You can use an image editing tool like Adobe Photoshop to add overlay sections onto your desktop background. You can see an example on the right or explore pre-made organized wallpapers with built-in sections here.
Creating these overlays is quite simple. Just follow these steps (or watch the video on the left for a demonstration):
Open your wallpaper in your preferred image editor.
Create a new layer and draw black boxes over that layer where you want your sections to be. You could divide your screen into four quadrants, add three sections at the bottom (as shown in the video on the left), make several tall, narrow sections, or customize it however you like.
Reduce the opacity of the box layer so you can still see the wallpaper underneath, but the sections will be darkened. An opacity of 50% tends to work well.
Add labels at the top of each section to indicate what you’ll place there (e.g. apps, documents, etc.).
Save your edited wallpaper, set it as your desktop background, and begin organizing!
That's all there is to it! If you'd like some extra help, we've created several high-resolution Photoshop templates to get you started. You can download them here. Once you've designed your organized wallpaper, simply start arranging your desktop icons into the relevant sections, and you'll be all set in no time.
If you'd rather let software handle the task for you, there's an alternative. Fences (Windows-only) is a handy tool that organizes all your current clutter. It allows you to define rectangular areas to group files, folders, and app shortcuts, keeping them contained to prevent icons from scattering across your desktop. While it’s a paid app, it provides the bonus of ensuring the organizational layout you create stays intact.
Step Three: Automate Repetitive Tasks
Managing your desktop becomes effortless when automation does the work for you. Mac OS X has simple utilities like Desktoday and Clean that automatically move clutter into a separate folder when it has been inactive for a set period. This is useful if you’re sorting by date on a Mac, but we’ve explored how you can automate the organization of your Windows or Mac desktop with Belvedere (Windows) or Hazel (Mac OS X). Both of these programs allow you to set specific criteria and trigger actions once those conditions are met. For example, if images have been on your desktop for more than a week, either app can be set to automatically move them to your To Be Archived folder. And that's just one use case—these apps can open, duplicate, delete files, and do much more. Be sure to check out our comprehensive guide on automating desktop organization for a deeper dive into the possibilities.
That’s all there is to it! With a bit of thoughtful design, organization, and automation, keeping your desktop clean and tidy will be a breeze.
