3 Great Reasons to Keep an Organised Desktop

Here are three reasons why keeping an organised desktop is good for and how you can get yours organised today!

Does this sound familiar? You sit down and turn on your laptop. Once it boots up and the screen turns on, you’re faced with a sea of file images scattered randomly over the screen. As you wait for your computer to (finally) finish booting up, you have a moment where you think, ‘what was I doing here again?’.

This scenario isn’t uncommon. So many of us have lots of random files on our desktops that have collected over weeks and months of downloading email attachments or interesting ‘read later’ files. And it affects our productivity whether we know it or not.

Laptops and computers have become the new “office space”. So let me ask you a question. Does your office space help or hinder you?

Today we’re looking at three reasons why keeping an organised desktop is good for you and how you can get yours organised today!

3 reasons to keep an organised desktop

1. An uncluttered desktop is calming

Mess is stress. Whether or not you consciously acknowledge this, it’s true. The existence of mess – wherever the mess is – has an affect on our brains.

It adds to the noise of information that our brains have to deal with every given moment of the day.

Our brains are quite good at filtering out information. But when that information comes in the form of piles of clutter (digital or physical), our brains have to work even harder to filter, filter, filter.

So when we have a messy desktop, we’re actually giving our brains more work to do. And this has a knock-on effect of causing us to feel more tired, more tense or more confused.

Give your brain a break and release it from having to filter through the extra noise of random desktop files by keeping an organised desktop.

You’ll have more clarity when you sit down at your computer and your work will benefit greatly!

2. You know where things are

If you do have to keep items on your desktop, and you’ve organised it, you’ll at least know where things are.

You could do this by arranging the view on your desktop so that everything is in alphabetical order. Or you could arrange items together in groups.

Arranging items in groups is useful when, for example, you’re not really sure what a file is called. When you have ‘work files’ all in one place, it’s easier to go and open what you want.

This helps you to be more efficient than if you were to scan through the file icons trying to remember what something is called. And it can be more effective than doing a computer search and trying to remember some words in the document hoping that your search would bring up the file – which it will do…. along with 100 other documents containing the same words! ?

So, keeping an organised desktop helps you to work faster because let’s face it, don’t you want to cut down the time you’re in front of your computer screen anyway?

3. An organised desktop is pretty!

Apart from being more calming, an organised desktop can also be pretty. Especially when you have a nice desktop picture to look at!

I like to change out my desktop wallpaper. I find that it helps me to do two things:

1. routinely declutter my desktop – when I change out my wallpaper, I make sure I file, delete or organise any items that have begun to pile up on my desktop. Think of it kind of like changing the bedsheets. It gives it a nice little reset. This is useful especially if you do a lot of work on your computer. Files build up over time!
2. breathes new life into my computer work. When my desktop wallpaper changes, it gives me a new surge of energy and motivation. My wallpaper is inspiring either because it contains a quote which is motivational or because the image itself is inspiring.

Organise your desktop today!

If you’re reading this on your phone or tablet, then I’ll give you a pass… for now. But if you’re reading this on your laptop or desktop computer, then take a minute right now to organise your desktop. It won’t take long and you’ll feel great afterwards!

Did you know that our monthly digital stationery membership includes a new desktop, tablet and phone wallpaper each month? They’re always motivational and pretty. Check out our membership here: