Last month we focused on organizing the office. Now that every paper clip is in its place, the phone is in perfect ergonomic position and the squeaky wheel on the rolling chair has been silenced, it’s time to move on to the computer.
Many of the most organized looking office workers are harboring a secret. Their computer is a mess. Look at your own computer desktop right now. Are there dozens and dozens of desktop icons vying for your attention? That’s computer clutter.
Why should you de-clutter and organize your office computer? A cluttered computer means time wasted searching for things. It can also slow down the computer. And what if you suddenly became ill and someone had to step into the job? Could an office temp find anything on your computer? Or would the company have to pay her overtime for all the minutes spent searching for or re-creating documents?
A Clean Machine
Begin with that desktop. Delete what isn’t needed and organize the rest in folders. Put all your software applications in the same folder on your hard drive so they aren’t floating around on the desktop. You should end up with fewer than five icons on your desktop; a “documents” folder icon, your hard drive icon, your Internet browser icons, maybe a mail icon and a downloads folder icon.
If you haven’t already, you should have a designated folder that e-mail downloads automatically go to so that they don’t end up on your desktop or somewhere on your system where you can’t find them. But clean out this folder often so you can find what you are looking for.
What happens is a file someone e-mailed to you gets saved to the designated downloads folder, but when you open it, work on it and then save it to its appropriate file in your documents folder, you end up with two versions of the same file in separate places. This can be confusing if someone else is searching for a file on your computer.
Macintosh computers have what’s called the “Dock” and PCs often have a “Quick Launch” toolbar for keeping icons for your most frequently used applications; therefore you don’t need these icons floating around loose on your desktop.
While the capacity of desktop computers has grown to the point where it’s not as necessary to constantly free up space as it once was, you might want to get rid of programs you never use and occasionally “defragment” your computer.
Over time, data on a hard drive gets scattered. Defragmenting puts the data back into sequential order, making it easier for the operating system to access it. The performance of your computer should improve. If you’ve never done this before, check if you have a disk defragmenter on your hard drive and follow the directions. This is also a good time to run anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your PC to protect it from bad outside influences.
Other computer-related steps you may want to take to improve your productivity:
• Remove bookmarks you never use or ones that are too much of a distraction from your Web browser. Organize the rest into categories. It will make it a lot easier to find what you are looking for.
• Shut off any Instant Messengers to avoid interruptions.
• Clean out your mailbox. Make sure you’ve answered e-mail that needed a response. Clean out the mail you’ll never need again and organize what you want to keep. Some people like to keep old e-mails as a record of their communications; others like to purge messages after a set amount of time. That’s up to you, and how much storage space you have.
And one last thing about cleaning up your system … empty the trash now and then, otherwise it’s like thoroughly cleaning the whole house but leaving all the garbage to rot in the garage.
Hardware Cleaning
The outside of your desktop computer might need some attention as well, so shut down your system and get out the canned compressed air (which isn’t really air, it’s a gas).
Check the keyboard for accumulated dirt, dust, crumbs and hair that settles between keys. This buildup can get so bad it causes problems with how the keys work or deteriorates the pads and rockers under the keys. To clean a keyboard, hold it with the keys facing the floor and give it a few blasts of canned compressed air. The debris should fly out, enabling you to then vacuum it up off the floor.
The inside of a computer can also accumulate dust and dirt. Fans collect dust on the blades. Vents clog with dust and the motherboard becomes dusty. Dust holds in heat, reduces airflow and makes the system run hotter than necessary. Processors, hard disks and memory chips work best within certain temperature ranges and higher temperatures can reduce the life of these devices. Canned air is a great way to quickly rid your computer of damaging dust. Open up the case and give the guts of the computer a few quick puffs. Never hold the spray button down for longer than a puff however, or condensation can result.
A Clean Screen
Let’s move on to that dust- and fingerprint-covered screen. If you’ve got a CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor, Windex and a rag will clean it right up. If it’s a flat LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, you need to take greater care. Ethyl alcohol and ammonia-based cleaners can yellow the screen and should be avoided. In addition, LCD screens are also susceptible to scratches. Most manufacturers provide recommendations on how to best clean their LCDs, so check the manual that came with it before doing anything. Here are some general guidelines:
If the screen is just dusty, wipe gently with a soft, cotton cloth or give it a puff with a can of compressed air. If it is grungier than that, mix a cleaning solution. Distilled water should be used to avoid white smears that minerals in tap water can leave behind. The water may be all that’s needed, but a blend of 50 percent water and 50 percent vinegar or isopropyl alcohol can also be used.
Always use a soft cotton cloth rather than tissue or paper towel to wipe the screen. Paper products can leave permanent scratches. Electrostatic cloths, like those used to clean eyeglasses, or micro-fiber cleaning cloths work well too. Apply the cleaning solution to your cloth, getting it slightly damp. Wipe the screen in one direction – from top to bottom. Never spray anything directly onto the screen.
Never touch or press on an LCD screen with your fingers. This can cause the pixels to burn out. When you’re done wiping, wait a few minutes to let your screen air dry, and then turn it back on.
If you don’t want to mess around with a distilled water mixture, many LCD cleaning products are available at office supply and electronics stores.
Now that the computer is tidy inside and out, schedule a backup of the entire system if you aren’t automatically backing up already. Once that’s done, sit back and enjoy your thoroughly clean and organized workspace — at least until some inconsiderate boss or co-worker has the audacity to pile work in it again.
