A Minimalist Computer Setup
I love a clean desktop and simple tools that help me focus on what I really need to get done.
Learn my exact process to create book summaries. Click here to learn more.
#1 Uncluttered Desktop
No icons on your computer desktop (have a beautiful pic instead)
Put all icons on your desktop into a folder. Create two folders: “Working” and “Archives”.
On Mac, remove the hard drive icon by selecting “Preferences” (Cmd-,) and under the “General” tab, deselect “Hard disks” under “Show these items on the Desktop”. On PC, you can right-click on the desktop and under the “View” submenu, deselect “Show desktop icons”.
On Mac, set the Dock to auto-hide in the Dock preferences and remove everything that isn’t necessary
#2 Simple Interface
Use the keyboard to open programs and documents
For Mac, use the free and awesome Quicksilver. On PC use AutoHotKey or Launchy. They all work similarly: you can launch programs and documents with the keyboard
#3 Simple Filing
Set up only four folders in your Documents folder:
Inbox: for things you’re downloading. Empty it daily
Working: for things you’re working on now. Empty it weekly
Read: for stuff to read. Empty weekly.
Archive: for everything else. When I empty the above three folders, I just dump the files in here
#4 Search and Online Files
Use search to find everything
Use Google Docs and Spreadsheets so you don‘t have to file anything, just search