I'm going to be upfront, I wrote this one for me. I have thousands of screenshots & pictures I've taken while out & about or on vacation that I've saved as inspiration. I saw something & it sparked an idea. I frequently get alerts on my phone that I'm nearing my maximum space and my computer starts to run hot when I'm running over 100 tabs and Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, & Bridge all at the same time. Fun fact: Did you know that 82 is the number of tabs that you can see at one time (at least inside the Brave browser)? I know this because daily, no really, daily, I open up a tab to look something up real quick and I can't close it because it's past the 82 tab limit.
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” – A. A. Milne
I have two sides to my organization style that are important to note. The first is that as an Enneagram 9w1, I crave peace and order and love things simple & organized. So when my house is out of order or unclean, it creates unrest in my brain and the same with my digital spaces. And the other side is the creative side. How can I describe this unkempt mess of more ideas than I can remember in any given moment? It is also the side that brings me joy & happiness that I don't really want to tone down. I just want to bring some order to it, so that when I'm ready to work on a project, I know how to find what I'm looking for.
Fun little sidebar insight into my world. My son wrote me this card when he was learning to write. In case you can't decipher, it says "You are a good [mom] just sometimes you go crazy about clean[ing.]"
This made me laugh out loud when he gave it to me & it's still one of my favorite treasures. :)
A good system shortens the road to the goal. -Orison Swett Marden
So how does one go about corralling all the digital clutter? I start with a quick sort. I review images or documents one at a time and do a quick move either to the recycling bin or to a folder where I can decide more about it later. There is no getting around this. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
When I'm in periods where I am waiting on something and can't get into bigger work, I will pick a folder and just start reviewing. If it's a document, I will also assess if I need to rename it before moving it. Adobe Bridge is a phenomenal tool for making this easier; it will show you the image of the pdf so you don't have to fully open it to make a quick assessment.
But I also do this on my phone. If I'm waiting somewhere, instead of scrolling Instagram, I will work through my photos one at a time and either delete or move to a folder. That makes it way easier when transferring them onto my computer.
Organization is one of those things that is a journey not a destination. No matter how organized you get, new stuff will always be coming in. So you just have to make sure you account for that in your workflow & have a system in place that handles it well.
"Keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away." -Dinah Craik
Warmest regards,
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