How to Organize your Desktop to Boost Productivity
This was an idea I had a couple of years ago, when nothing like this was around. Since then, several solutions similar to this have been produced.
I’m a little late getting in on the Productivity Tips submission at the Instigator Blog, but better late than never. 
When I was thinking of ways to be more productive, I didn’t want to dwell on the typical “meditate and visualize” advice. I wanted to come up with and share something unique. Not only that, but I wanted to be as specific as possible. So, I decided to focus on computer work, since I love doing anything on the computer.
The Desktop
First of all, most people completely waste their desktop. There are neat little widgets and gadgets that you can put on it, and those can be helpful in some ways I suppose. I used to have the “Konfabulator Widgets” on my desktop before they were “Yahoo Widgets”. Anyway, when I’m sitting at the computer, the only time I minimize my windows and actually see the desktop is when I’m looking for something…….whether it be an application icon or a file. No matter how nice the photo I’m using, I really don’t look at it that much. This is the typical Windows XP desktop:
Why waste all that space on some picture you never really look at, and keep all your files in your Documents folder? Why not make everything more accessible? OK, maybe not everything, but the files and apps that you use most often. I’ve come up with a solution for this that makes everything much easier and quicker to get to. To my knowledge, this idea is original…….
How do you separate everything out like that? Well, I just created an image, using my favorite photo editor, for my desktop and separated it in six color-coded sections. Then I labeled each section with text. The image should be the same size as the screen resolution you use on your desktop. My screen resolution is set at 1280 x 1024, so that’s the size of my desktop image. Once the image is made and is set as your desktop background, just drag the icons and files on your desktop to the section you want them in.
So what are your best productivity tips? This is a meme that may actually give some great advice. Ben has already had well over 100 submissions on this project, so there are some great tips. Check it out at the Instigator Blog.
**Update: Here is a variation that may be a little easier on the eye. The point is to make a background image that works for you! I’m now offering several variations of these backgrounds for download if you don’t want to make your own!
What a great idea. Keep it up.
Brilliant idea. So simple but what a good point. Keep them coming!
Haha … I’ve got the same bg pic! I got it from Microsoft NZ or Australia when I was browsing around one time.
That’s a pretty smart idea for organizing your desktop with the bg image.
Thanks guys! Ben Yoskovitz from Instigator Blog really liked it too…..he submitted it to Digg for me!
How cool is that?
[...] Anthony of Antbag.com has written a wonderful piece on how to organise your desktop for productivity. [...]
[...] How To Organize Your Desktop to Boost Productivity by Anthony [...]
you should create a few of these that people could download for different resolutions for folks who can’t put this together themselves. that would be cool and probably bring you some more traffic.
AgentSully – You know, that very thought actually crossed my mind. Since you had the same thought, I think I may just do that! Thanks!
Let me know if you do!
I just love your idea of desktop arrangement, I believe there’s something in the air right now, – I’ve also described a desktop arrangement for increased productivity, over on my blog – http://www.hacktheday.com/turn-your-desktop-into-a-productivity-tool/ . Unlike you, though, my choice is towards minimalism – only having folders/shortcuts to folders, on the desktop, for easy dropping of my downloaded files.
What do you think?
Alex – very nice!
Hi there! Great idea and a fantastic topic – thanks! Just to bring some counter balance to the comments
I’d like to add that for me personally less is more, even with the desktop… the color-coded sections look really good I admit but I’m slightly taken back with this productivity hype.. Maybe it comes down to what your work is all about really? I’m much more “productive” with only the very few key files on my desktop and I prefer an interesting photo take over the space and I keep changing that photo quite often 
Cheers!
Yeah, It may not work for everybody. It just hit me that I, personally, never really spent time looking at my desktop photo, so decided to try and do something a little different…..not just for the sake of “productivity”, but just to make my stuff less clicks away. Anyway, thanks for the comment!
For someone who doesn’t know how to create this effect, how exactly does one going about doing it? It’s a great idea but I have no idea how to proceed.
Hi Jeanene,
I’ve just today put some of these backgrounds up for download right here. Just pick out the one you want and download the zip file. Once you download, just unzip it and choose the correct size that corresponds with your screen resolution, and set it as your background! It’s pretty simple.
Once you set it as your desktop background, you just arrange your desktop however you want by dragging your icons to whichever section you want them in.
Thank you – the downloads are great! However, I feel dumb because I still can’t arrange the icons in sections. Now I just have a new background but the icons still stay in a bunch over on the left hand side of the screen. If I drag them to one of the “sections” they just bounce back. How do you actually make the icons stay in the sections?
Jeanene,
What you do is “right-click” anywhere on your desktop and go to “Arrange Icons By”. This will give you a drop down menu, which will give you several options. There are two options which you want to make sure do not have a check-mark by them – “Auto Arrange” and “Lock Items”. Make sure those aren’t checked, and you should be able to drag your Icons around wherever you want them. Hope that helps. If you have any more trouble, let me know.
Learn something new every day! Thanks very much. Works like a charm.
Cool! I’m glad you got it working.
[...] How To Organize Your Desktop to Boost Productivity by Anthony [...]
[...] How To Organize Your Desktop to Boost Productivity by Anthony [...]
[...] has a different approach on How to Organize your Desktop to Boost Productivity. Ideas: simple wallpapers that identify colored “zones” according to the type of the [...]
Thank you!
This is a great idea! I’m actually looking for a program that kind of does the same thing but scrolls up out-of-sight when not called for (e.g. a tab on the page?) because then it doesn’t obstruct the view of my pretty background. So far, no luck, but this is a great alternative! 
Oh neuuu! The downloads don’t seem to be working for me >__
Hey Mosey, I’ve got my download links updated now…….so sorry!
Hi Anthony: Thank you for fixing the download links so quickly!
Yay!
Hey Anthony u are the man! Such a brilliant thought. I am proud of you, you know. And how wonderful is that u create those wallpapers for free. For free, that’s great man. Sure it was AgentSully ideas but incredible smart as you proved u are, you realized that u had the same idea in the same time with him, or even little bit earlier. I bet u can sell this idea to Microsoft® and they can create, for their next brilliant release of Windows®, some of these wallpapers and in the right-down corner it will be, with a very artistic effect, written “Anthony”. Now tell me, how cool is that?
Thanks you again for the free download and keep up the good work! I’ll keep an eye on you to see what goodies u’ll bring up in the future.
This is a great idea. You have to do a little hack in regedit to add a save and restore icon arrangement feature to make the most of it, otherwise you end up with autoarrange undoing all your hard work.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,600479,00.asp
and the actual download
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/tweaks/layout.zip
db
Thanks David. I haven’t had any problems with that so far, but thanks for the links.
Icon Restore does the same thing as well
I’m using it with XP (Home) without any problems.
http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html
[...] How To Organize Your Desktop to Boost Productivity by Anthony [...]
This is certainly worth trying. I just have to figure out what I’m willing to put out there for all to see. Lots of people visit my computer! Thanks for a great idea.
Anthony,
Thats an awesome post. Great duude !
Nice Orgainzation, Itried it out but it only works when use it. Here’s a link to a screenshot of my desktop. The reflections of my most often used icons reminds me where they belong and reminds me to put them there.
http://wcb1.com/MyDesktop.jpg
Debbie, I keep a HTML file in My Documents with local links to frequently used files I don’t wish to keep on my desktop for all the world to see.
Thanks for that tip, Bill…how do you do that?
About the desktop stuff; I paste the directory location of my files in a html file kind of like this
C:\Documents and Settings\customer\My Documents\wcb1.com\files\hidden
it is the handiest way for me to remember where I put stuff, and I can copy and paste it in the address bar of any open directory to get there. It’s a screwery way to do it but for me I’d never find anything without it.
I had this idea many years ago, and developed quite a few wallpapers experimenting with the concept. Meanwhile, I’ve been trolling the internet trying to find out if anyone else had done this too. I couldn’t believe that this wasn’t a common idea, and was thinking of coming out with a website devoted to bringing out these wallpapers.
As far as choosing between pretty pictures and organization, there really isn’t a need to choose. With photoshop, I can very quickly turned pretty pictures into Desktop organizers, and can explore geometric figures and desktop “real estate” using layer effects and filters.
When I get my broken web page up and running, I’ll start posting examples. For now, if you would like to post one or two, get back to me and I could email them.
One thing missing from this solution is that if you plug into a projector, external monitor, home HD tv etc that has a different resolution, Windows will autoarrange and blow the layout away (sounds like the links to the layout savers and reg hacks above address this, but before people spend 30 mins arranging and categorizing, have a solution ready for this). I’ve been doing something like this with Stick-It notes as movable section headers, arranging the icons in groups below those, which are a little more flexible than the hard wired jpeg background (and let you still choose your custom background).
Ha! This is so simple and easy! I thought it would be some long process of installing something that you’ll never use in a week. Thanks for the tip!
I also wrote a program that does a similar thing, but shows the wallpaper at the same time, check it out here : http://www.twangware.com
Greate idea! In fact I do the same type of thing using my linux desktop. Well I use KDE, Xfce, and GNOME. Linux boosts creativity–lets you think outside the box.
Desktops are for some people. I tend to just use the the program menu(not the Windows one). The desktop is just for wallpapers. Plus I think it get too cluttered.
Great post, thanks!!!:)
Why have a section for your apps when you have them open in the quick launch bar? Time to get rid of the app section have dual monitors and move your quick launch bar to the other screen
Also autohiding the bar is a good way of managing real estate on your screen…
There are plenty of tools out there that alow you to create custom right click menus – put all your stuff in there and get rid of the ugly icons! have a nice clear screen…
Hi Anthony, the idea is brilliant, just got a question: how do I label the sections as you did in the samples? like “images”, “docs”etc?
Thanks man!
Esther, I just open the background in an image editing program, and write the headings in that way.
Yes, itäs a good idea!
So good that I wrote about it about ten years ago
That page is since long gone, so it’s good it’s out there to be seen again
And also, if you happen to like background images, you can also use an image and divide that upp in the same way, alternatively merge six-eight photos together get the same result.
Good Idea , but you should only keep shortcuts to the files on the desktop. That way your system will load much faster when you log on. It is especially important if you use roaming profiles.
[...] I found a great post on setting up your desktop so you can be more productive. It’s on the blog Antbag. I discovered it through Carrie Wilkerson’s blog. Here’s the link check it out. http://antbag.com/how-to-use-your-desktop-and-boost-productivity/ [...]
I love all these ideas. No one has mentioned a hybrid solution that I use though: I love a clean desktop but like most people I like to use it as a central workspace as well. My solution is to hide the icons on the desktop and have a shortcut to the desktop folder in my Quicklaunch toolbar. That way I can use the handy shell commands (right-click Send to Desktop etc) and still have a saved view for all of my regular items
I like your idea very much and had implemented it effectively. It really does boost productivity besides being organised.
However, there is an even better software already created out there now. Same concept but with wonderful design. Best of all, it’s easy to use and there’s a free version too.
Check it out here at: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
I understand what you’re saying. Fact is, when I wrote this post almost 2 years ago, I searched around the internet trying to find if anyone was doing this. I couldn’t find anything. The stardock.com software looks nice. The only disadvantage I see is that it is software which like widgets, will use memory and other system resources. But I agree, it looks super nice.
True, it does consume memory as with all software programs. 2.7MB that is, but with today advance core processor and DDR2/DDR , it matters little unless it’s a very old computer. You are right, 2 years ago nobody was doing it, perhaps your idea was original.
[...] you don’t have photoshop, don’t stress – here’s a simple tutorial on making your own backgrounds from antbag.com. It’s from 2007, and the information is still [...]
Great tips there, my desktop always has files folders all over the place i can barely make out my wallpaper. Gonna try and follow this post to clear it up hopefully
What a great idea, I always used black background to see the shortcuts better and grouped them close to each other. Now I will create a similar colored image to group them. Thanks for the tip!
[...] Originally Posted by dhicks Darned if I can figure out the attraction of having great big pictures on your desktop – doesn't it get in the way of your work? — David Hicks Not if you cleverly use the background image to organise your desktop. Layered Desktop with a Wallpaper – Stepcase Lifehack How to Organize your Desktop to Boost Productivity | Antbag.com [...]