If you’re feeling overwhelmed by desktop clutter and you’re looking for a quick and easy method to tidy up your desktop and keep your digital environment tidy and organized, here’s a technique to get organized once and for all.

Maria João Valente has been using Workflow Desktop Icons to structure her digital workflow with a minimum of effort, for more than a year.

“Basically it allows me to keep files organized and an uncluttered desktop (both essential to my sanity).”

Workflow Desktop Icons

Everything revolves around three main folders, “Doing”, “To-do” and “Archive”. These can be accessed directly via the Dock on a Mac, and are regularly checked or re-organized according to the workflow. All other folders are out of sight and serve as permanent storage for further use.

Here’s a flow chart of Maria’s digital workflow.

• The Work Zone contains all the files or folders that are being used now (i.e. this week).
• The To-Do Zone has stuff to be reviewed as soon as I have the time. (Hint: most of the downloaded files get here, to be organized later. Another Hint: I use Hazel to keep this place organized by file type.)
• The Out Zone folder is where I place all files or folders that are going to be exported and stored off my computer, either on an external HD, a DVD or online.

Maintaining a peaceful and productive desktop is easy when you follow your workflow.

By sharing her process, Maria hopes to help you get you going organizing your digital stuff. (Or share with us the process you’re already using.)

Maria João Valente is an archaeologist, university professor and a passionate Mac user. She lives in Portugal and blogs about her interests at Mac ao Quadrado. You can read my interview with Maria here or follow her on Twitter.

Tags: customer story, desktop customization, digital environment, getting organized, how-to, inspiration, interface, organized, overwhelm, productivity, simplicity, tutorials, workflow

Magnolia

I’m reinventing my digital life. Again. It always seems to creep up on me, the increasing time I spend in my digital environment. The number of web sites on my RSS-feed and the jumble of e-mail in my inbox. Time with social media.

Today I saw a hedgehog outside the studio and took this photo of magnolia with my iPhone. And as I write this blog post, the evening breeze touches me with the scents of spring. This elusive time of year when each day the leaves on the trees open more. Shades of green, from lime to deep green. Blossoms…

It’s time to do some pruning and tiding up. Both in my balcony garden and in my digital life. The stream of information has become a flood. I need to take a step back to find some peace and quiet and to enjoy the summer. It’s time to spend more time out of doors than in my digital life.

This summer you’ll see less of me on Twitter and Facebook. I won’t be spending so much time visiting and commenting on blogs.

However, I’ll still be blogging regularly and Marmalade Moon will be updated each Tuesday, with an additional post later in the week if I have any extra news. I’ll soon be sending out the Spring Edition of Club Marmalade Moon and I’m putting the finishing touches to some desktop art soon to be released. So there’ll be lots going on. But I’ll also be making space for having some magnolia moments.

What are your plans for your digital life this summer? Will you be taking a vacation from your desktop environment or will it be a time when you perhaps enjoy spending a little more time on your computer projects?

Tags: creativity, digital environment, evolving, fresh start, growth, overwhelm, reevaluating, reinventing digital life, social media, spring

Increasing Your Productivity Using Computer Icons

Resources. Leather bound book with green apple.

Your productivity when you use your computer, is directly influenced by the ease with which you are able to find and launch your favourite applications, find the projects you are working on, your important files and folders and find, organize and retrieve your internet downloads.

This is why software developers spend a lot of time and money designing icons for their applications.

Doesn’t that indicate that we who use computers, can benefit from spending a few minutes customising our own projects?

Many of us spend more and more time working in a digital environment. A cluttered desktop environment will make you feel overwhelmed. Taking a few minutes to sort it out, make it personal and more functional will pay off by making work more fun and easy, so you can finish your work sooner and spend more time doing something else.

As en extra bonus, you get an overview of your projects when you customize your desktop icons which also helps and motivates in keeping your desktop uncluttered and tidy. Here are three different approaches to using icons as a productivity tool.

Color Coding Your Projects

Green Folder Icon

A simple way to create a more productive digital environment is to use Luminous Folder Icons to colour code your projects.

This is a technique that’s easy to personalize and adapt to different types of projects and files.

Besides, you can pick your favourite colours and bring a splash of color to your desktop into the bargain.

Using Icons To Support Your Workflow

To Do Icon

A quick and easy approach is to create a desktop environment that follows your workflow organically.

This example with an icon of a vintage clipboard from the Workflow Collection would make an excellent choice for a folder with projects to-do. The symbol is easy to understand and the icon stands out on the desktop making it easy to find.

The Workflow Collection brings an action-oriented, harmonious structure to your desktop with a minimum of effort or need for maintenance. Find out more about how to organize your desktop by naturally following your workflow.

Using Icons For Your Projects

Finances Icon

Using icons for the projects you’re working on will help you find and organize your files.

If your work consists of recurring projects, you could make a template project folder based on what’s needed, and simply copy the project when starting a fresh project.

Here’s an icon with a leather wallet and some coins from the Organizer Collection. This would make a great choice for a folder with documents related to money. Invoices, finances, the budget for a project, there are many possibilities.

Next an icon with a cotton reel with green thread from the Creative Collection that could be used for needlework, crafting, colour swatches, sewing, textiles, quilting, handmade, again these are just a few ideas.

These symbols can be used and redefined by the user in many different ways. Check out the Productive Icons and see how you can make use of them.

Creating a desktop you love to spend time in, will help you enjoy your computer time and focus on your projects rather than feel overwhelmed by desktop clutter. And you’ll be able to finish your work earlier too.

Not sure how to customize your icons? Here’s a tutorial for using icons on a Mac and here’s a tutorial for how to change the icons in Windows.

Tags: color code, desktop customization, digital environment, ease, focus, fresh start, getting organized, how-to, overwhelm, productivity, simplicity, tutorials

I spend a lot of time in in a digital environment, creating and designing using my computer as a tool, and so it becomes an extremely important space that I try to make both functional and beautiful so that it supports my creativity. Today I’d like to share two tools that I’ve found boost creativity as well as One Small Change for a greener digital life.

Concentrate

Concentrate

Concentrate is a simple and intuitive application that helps you eliminate distractions so that you can focus.

Concentrate lets you create Activities, which are groups of actions that help you focus on a task. For example, you may want to create an Art activity that quits social networks, launches your favourite software for creating art and changes your desktop to an image that makes you feel creative. If you like you can set a time for the activity.

Activities in Concentrate

Here you can see the different activities I’ve created with Concentrate.

There are activities for blogging, writing, art, economy, general focus, but also an activity that turns on social networks and my RSS-feed.

For a visually oriented person it’s wonderful to automatically switch desktop wallpaper to indicate that you’re moving into a different space. I love how it makes me feel like there are several spaces in the same digital environment, and as though I’m moving from one space to another when I switch between activities.

Below you can see my desktop dressed up with its regular wallpaper as well as the solid black I like to use when I focus on art and design.

This is software for the Mac. There’s a free demo of Concentrate and the application sells for $29 with a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied.

Desktop for play and desktop for focus.

ColorSchemer Studio 2

ColorSchemer Studio 2

When you create art using digital tools, you use the colour wheel with its endless possibilities for selecting colours. I like to limit my palette when I start working on a piece and pick a group of colours as a starting-point. This is where ColorSchemer Studio 2 enters the scene.

ColorSchemer Studio 2 is a professional colour-matching application that helps you build beautiful colour schemes with speed and ease. It can help you identify colour harmonies, create unique palettes based on photos or images, find related colours, mix colours to create a gradient blend and work with RGB and CMYK colours in a colour-managed environment. But it doesn’t stop there.

With ColorSchemer Studio 2 you can preview colours on a variety of layouts, view colours through colourblind eyes and analyze contrast, readability, and accessibility!

This is an incredible tool for handling colour, again this is software for the Mac there is both a version for the Mac and for Windows and although the price-tag might be steep for a hobby I think it’s well worth it for professional art and design work. ColorSchemer Studio 2 costs $49.99 and there’s a free trial available.

One Small Change

Lastly, in February I’ll be making One Small Change to make my digital life more sustainable. I’ve already got my laptop set to be optimised for high energy savings, but I tend to leave it on and charging over night, so I can just flip the lid open in the morning and read my e-mail over my morning coffee. Of course it’s ridiculous to leave it on charging at night! So, no more of that.

Seashell, stones and a plug

Tags: art, colour, creativity, design, ease, eco, focus, green living, inspiration, Mac, overwhelm, reinventing digital life, review, simplicity, software, sustainable, Windows

When I got my first computer, it was my personal digital space. After a day at work, I would finally get home to my computer, my operating system – a digital space that could be anything I wanted it to be.

For me, it was wonderful to not have to have Excel installed at home. Or Windows. Or Solitaire. Oh and WordPerfect!

My computer was a place where I learned new things. A playground. A digital canvas. A wonderful world of writing and painting and connecting with people.

A few years on I began freelancing and soon I started my own company, Marmalade Moon. All of a sudden both my work and many of my hobbies were on the same computer. In the same environment.

And gradually, my once so creative and peaceful digital canvas became a stressful environment flooded with e-mail, instant messaging, social media, the distractions of the internet and unread RSS feed items… Who thought of that idea anyway? “Unread items”? As though reading articles you’re interested in, is a list of obligations and not a pleasure? And yes of course it spills over into how you feel about it!

So here I was, in a wonderfully convenient and portable digital space that blended work with leisure, but finding myself feeling overwhelmed, unenthusiastic and stressed out.

And I knew that it wasn’t the tool itself, my computer, it was how I was using it.

There is a reason why we travel during our holidays! A change of scenery and having new experiences induces new perspectives and stirs the creative spirits. And here I was stuck in a stressful routine, spending too much time in the same digital environment. I needed to reinvent my digital life.

So I decided to create some new habits for my digital life. To make changes to how and when I browse the web, to clean up my RSS-feeds, my mail and to turn things on and off. To reduce the stream of information. To log off to find the time, inspiration and attention for the things I value most. To focus on being creative and connecting. To find my flow. And to return to my laptop to express myself.

The next thing I did was to get an iPhone. This Christmas I found the time to explore it and to create a delightful, personal digital space on my iPhone. This really got me excited and renewed my interest in my laptop too! It turned out to be a really fabulous move for me, to have a digital space that had absolutely no work on it!

Sometimes, it’s good to take a step back from everything. To get some perspective and re-focus. If you spend a lot of time in a digital environment, I think it’s important to now and then take a look at how it’s working for you. Reinventing my digital life has been so refreshing for me, that it’ll be one of the topics for my blog. With writings about creating a personal digital space, I hope to bring some inspiration to your digital life.

Tags: creativity, digital environment, ease, evolving, focus, fresh start, growth, overwhelm, reevaluating, reinventing digital life, social media