When your desktop starts becoming a tangle
“For every minute spent organising, an hour is earned.”
— Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
Reference:
Benjamin Franklin Biography – Encyclopaedia Britannica
Something I noticed today while restructuring my Untangle folders was how much easier things become once information has a clear place to live, a clear purpose and the fewer folders the better.
I know it’s important but still find it easy to put structure off because things still technically work. Who wakes up and says to themselves, “today is a systems day” … there’s always something more important. And then there’s a deadline or I’m in a rush and then I really see how much this stuff slows me down. But it's not too bad just yet:
files can still be found
drafts still exist
ideas are still moving
the business keeps operating
Until eventually:
I spend hours looking for document or photo
duplication starts happening and there’s three versions of the same thing
and the mental load grows in the background and I just feel stressed
By the time most people stop to reorganise things, it’s usually because it’s become impossible to ignore.
Today I simplified a lot of my own structure around actual use:
website assets and content ideas
blog drafts
socials
case studies
operations
archives
It didn’t start pretty at first but by the third day I really got the hang of it. Who has three days to organise their files (clue, I do!). Aftwards, the sense of achievement was huge. Every time I open my laptop now I feel an eerie sense of calm and an overwhelming sense of achievement. Here is what I see every morning.
My desktop with my custom made icons - marvel at the order and calm
I went from feeling inexplicably stressed to feeling in control, once everything had a proper operational home.
I think good systems often work like that because they don’t just necessarily make businesses feel “more organised” but practically easier to:
continue
maintain
find
hand over
and pick up each morning without the background dread.
Untangle is an ongoing exploration of operational clarity, continuity and reducing friction inside businesses.