Strategies to minimize clutter on the computer and to create a system for fast retrieval of your information.

Our lives may see a slight decline in paper clutter but our computer clutter increased astronomically. Emails, letters and much more are sitting on our computer waiting to be used. Much of the information sits taking up space and reducing the speed of our computer.

Email Clutter

• Delete all emails that have no relevance. (i.e. The email confirming Saturday night.) Put the time and place in your day planner.

• Put the electronic newsletters in a sub-folder to have easy access to at a later date.

• Make folders for all business contacts...proposals for future perusal.

• Put contact information about people and businesses in the address book.

• Delete the jokes or if they are a must have place them in a sub-folder.

• Burn photos on a CD or on a hard drive. Delete the unusable photos.

• Delete emails from past employers. If the information is still required, rename the folder.

• Remove the emails in your sent, out and delete box daily or weekly.

Document Folders

• Delete photos saved for a presentation.

• Place all information into appropriate folders for easy reference.

• Only keep the most recent updated resume.

• Delete first drafts of assignments, papers. Keep the most recent.

• Delete information that has not been looked at in 1-2 years except for reference material.

• Delete friends and family documents from 6 months ago. Email them the document for them to store on their computer.

• Keep games to a limit. Unload games you have not used in a year.

• Keep the front page with minimum number of shortcut icons.

Your desktop page should be free of clutter. After the clutter is cleaned from your system, add a few Feng Shui solutions to balance your computer for your personal use.

Feng Shui Tips

Have a screen-saver for your type of studies. If you are in the arts, your screen-saver should be creative while a geography student may have a picture of Australia.

Font style and font size are important. Small print is difficult to read and makes it a chore to read a paragraph or two. Large print is overwhelming and you are continually scrolling down. Medium print is the best option in most cases. Font style is personal. Use a style that captivates you to read.

Choose the color of your screens and fonts carefully. Yellow is difficult to read even on a black screen. Red print on a black screen seems to agitate me and I stop reading the article. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Computer clutter is often overlooked until the computer is downloading at a snails pace. Clearing the clutter will help in removing blockages from you and make your computer more efficient.