Cut out the Computer Clutter to Reduce Your Stress in College
College is a messy time in a person’s life. The dorm room is messy, the bank account is messy, the car is messy, and of course, the computer is messy. All of this mess can make simple tasks take much longer than they should simply because there is a lack of organization in place. We can’t make you clean your room or the floorboard of your car, but we can help you clean up your computer while in college. Here are some tips that are sure to make you more efficient in the coming months.
Folders, Folders, Folders
We can’t say this enough…folders. Having a clean set of folders on your computer will make finding files so much easier. This is like having a box of papers versus a filing cabinet where everything is neatly placed. Which one would you rather search through? Try to create folders for different classes, different semesters, different software programs, and more. When you look at your desktop, you should see very little clutter there whatsoever.
Get Rid of Old Files
If you have files on your computer that you know you will never need, just get rid of them. They take up extra space for no reason, and they can prevent you from finding the things you actually need to find. After you delete the files, make sure to clean out the recycling bin. This is something that people often miss, so the files still eat up valuable space. You can simply right click on the bin and clear it, or you can use a free program like CCleaner to do it for you. That will clean up other random files on your computer left by programs you’ve installed or uninstalled.
If you aren’t sure if you’re going to use a certain file you want to delete, put it on the cloud or in an external hard drive. That way it’s at least accessible, even if it’s not on your computer. If you happen to need it in the future, you have a way to find it.
Clean up Your Programs
Every semester, you should go through your computer and perform a “spring cleaning” of sorts. Uninstall programs you no longer use, and clear out any files you don’t see yourself needing. Essentially you need to make sure you have a clean slate to work on next semester. If things get messy somewhere along the way, at least you don’t have semester after semester worth of junk lying around. You’ll feel better about yourself if you have a clean computer to work on. We guarantee it.
The next time you find yourself procrastinating with your computer organization, think about what happened the last time you needed a file you couldn’t find. It was probably an hour before a deadline, where you barely made it to class on time to turn in a big paper. Do you want that to happen again? If not, follow the tips above and you’ll be ready to go at any time.
