As a continuation of last weeks post on free programs, I decided to kick off a Tour of My Mac Series starting today. This week you’ll be seeing every angle of my Mac, from folder setup to the dashboard to programs. I know not all of you reading are on an Apple and that’s o.k. This is your chance to pipe up and speak about your computer.
Today I am talking about a customized productivity tool I’ve implemented in my dock.
I have two folders that I created in my Documents. A “Temp” folder and a “To Read” folder. These are folders that help me in my daily work flow. I created the folders and they sit in my Documents, then I took custom folder icons from the Aquablend set (to add a little flavah), and then dropped into the dock to make them easily accessible.
“Temp” Folder
The Temp Folder is more like a file inbox. It acts as my catch-all for any file I don’t have a place for yet, or files that need a temporary home. It functions only a little bit differently than a ‘keep-my-desktop-clean’ folder.
Every few weeks I take a couple minutes and clean it out by archiving some files and deleting the others. If I download something or save something and don’t know what to do with it, it goes here.
“To-Read” Folder
A holder for articles, PDF Magazines, web-pages and more that I want to read but not keep. Or perhaps I do want to archive them but I want to read them first.
Often when I come across and article in my RSS reader that looks like a pillar post I will drag it onto my desktop creating a bookmarklet file and put that into my to-read folder. Then if it is good I can save it on Ma.gnolia.
These two folders help keep my day to day work flow a little more organized. And - of course - my desktop clean and tidy.
BenDShaffer said:
I like this idea. I usually start a document, have no idea where it’s going to finally end up storage-wise. The temp folder is now in place on my Tool Bar.
And the icon link! What a gold mine!!
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 9:45 am
loud said:
Very GTD. I wholeheartedly approve
And I don’t understand people who keep files on their desktop. Mine’s empty as well.
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 11:32 am
loud said:
Wow, the stock WP smilies haven’t changed since b2. They’re quite ugly.
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 11:32 am
{Shawn} said:
@ Loud: I’m glad you approve. And yeah, the stock smilies are pretty ugly. I’ve looked around for some others but haven’t found any that are that much better.
Posted on April 16, 2007 at 11:44 am
Marvin Sum said:
Great article, I already use a temp folder, but the to-read folder sounds like a great idea. Will try it soon.
Posted on April 17, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Marek Macak said:
I took your process with RSS articles a bit further! I’ve got special folder action through automator set up which filters internet location files on desktop and moves them to “to read” folder so when I drag some article’s link from RSS reader to my desktop it automatically appears in my “to read” folder.
You can be even more crazy about it! For instance you can let your browser to open all those links in “to read” folder at certain period of time in a day. Then you only need to click through tabs in browser to read all the stuff that needs more attention there just wasn’t enough time during busy day:)
Posted on May 7, 2007 at 6:43 pm
{Shawn} said:
@ Marek: I like the idea of having the automator action going, but that eats up CPU and memory that I could save by simply dropping them into my ‘to read’ folder on my own. I’m frugal with my CPU usage.
Posted on May 7, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Yohannes Wijaya said:
@Shawn, nice idea! you can also automate these steps using hazel http://urltea.com/kcw
Posted on May 16, 2007 at 2:03 pm