How do I keep my Mac or Windows computer desktop clean and organized?

One of the advantages of working at cafes all the time (my local haunts here in Boulder, Colorado are Amante and The Cup, if you're curious) is that I can see a lot of different computer desktops on the laptops around me, and I will say candidly that you're not alone in having an extraordinarily cluttered desktop.

First off, at the risk of starting a huge debate, I have to say that Windows computers have a greater problem with desktop sprawl than Mac systems. The big reason? Because just about every Windows application you install automatically leaves a shortcut on your desktop, even if you don't want it. Install something like Microsoft Office and you've just added Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint to your clutter. It's something that people who switch from Windows to Macs often find weird, that after you install an application on a Mac its icon isn't then staring you in the face for the rest of time.

If you've ever explored the START menu on your Windows computer, however, you already know that it's darn easy to find and launch any application that's installed on your computer. Simply move down to All Programs on the menu and you're just a mouse drag away from everything on the system. Heck, this is one area where Windows is actually easier than the Mac, where apps are found by going to the Finder, opening up the Applications folder and then rummaging around for the desired utility or program.

The first thing you can do to clean up your computer desktop, a step that I think will dramatically improve your interaction with the system, is to delete every application shortcut on your desktop. As a reminder, a shortcut is a tiny little "redirect" file that has no content of its own, but simply points to the actual application or data file located elsewhere on the disk or in the file system. Windows will warn you that you're deleting shortcuts, but it's okay. Delete them. You can always find your applications with START -> All Programs anyway.

This step also applies to Macintosh systems too. I have seen a surprising number of Macs where people have shortcuts (Mac users call them aliases, though) for common apps right on their desktop. That's unneeded and while the Mac Dock doesn't have a handy START button, you can emulate that feature quite easily by dragging your Applications folder from a Finder window onto the Dock itself. Now you forevermore have a quite handy shortcut menu that lets you quickly find and launch any app on the computer. Then drag your Documents folder onto the Dock too and you'll be amazed at how much easier it makes using Mac OS X. Dragging these folders onto the Dock is one of the very first things I do with any Mac I use, actually.

Now that we've gotten rid of the program icons, the next step is to start learning how to corral and organize your data files. Here's my trick for that: create mnemonically named folders as you develop projects. If you're currently working on the project, drag all the related files into the appropriate folder and only allow project-related files to reside in that particular folder. Once you're done with the project, move that folder into your My Documents (or, Mac users, Documents) folder. Nice and neat!

That's it. All that'll be left on your desktop should be the data files for the projects you're actively working on and nothing else. My desktop on my main computer, a Macbook Air, contains a Word file related to a book I'm proposing to my publisher, a folder of video captures from a recent meeting I attended, two PDF documents from my kids school I want to read, and a folder for an ongoing project I'm involved with. That's it.

Nice, empty, and calming, in a zen way.

Try these techniques for yourself and hopefully you'll attain human:1 and clutter:0.