smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Jeff Atwood has recently written a little on how your desktop is not a destination:

“The desktop background, as I see it, is completely superfluous. My desktop “background” right now is plain black. And that doesn’t bother me in the least, because none of it is visible.”

I agree with Jeff on this point. The background shouldn’t define how we get things done.

Perhaps a little show-and-tell is in order, to illustrate. This is my current home-based workspace. I don’t have too many applications actively running right now and the desktop is pretty much devoid of all but the drive icons — it was taken during the creation of this article.

For the more curious among you, the two Kanji characters represent Ninja. From time to time I enjoy cycling out desktop imagery that doesn’t have English typography. It reminds me to think outside the square and not continuously seek the comfortable, or the known, to take risks and try new things.

Back to the subject at hand. The desktop shouldn’t be a scrap yard, where tens of dozens of icons, folders and random cruft congregate waiting for something to happen, be it recycling or eventual destruction. In such a chaotic environment resources can easily be lost, or accidentally purged.

Any gains in the ’single basket’ approach to storage are lost if the basket goes missing. Rather, the desktop should act like a lobby, providing the launch point to your next destination. Jeff observes the following:

“The desktop is like an aesthetically pleasing airport we must occasionally pass through before arriving at our real destinations: a web browser, a word processor, an IDE, a graphics editor, etcetera.”

Which neatly dovetails into a piece I wrote recently, regarding experimenting with minimalism and plain colour backgrounds. Although Jeff mentions that he has “browser windows and programs — the things I’m actually doing — covering all three monitors..” I find that keeping applications minimised when not in use frees up resources for those applications that you are using, improving the response times and resulting efficiencies.

Given Jeff has three monitors in action, the numbers of open applications that he can run concurrently without overcrowding is obviously greater than if one uses one, or even two monitors. In my case, I have a wide-screen display at home and use two at work.

When you take a break¹ save your work² and minimise any focused applications. Those two actions help improve the break quality as you won’t be tempted to worry about any current activity to the same degree. It’s saved and stowed away safely.

When you return, you’ll be greeted with a tidy workspace and a system ready to respond to your needs, not as a user forced to bend to the will of the system. I have written more in the last three days alone than in the last two weeks. Much of that can be attributed to a renewed sense of achievement that a better work space can provide.

I’ve found increased enthusiasm in using the tools I presently have and, well, I feel as though I’m getting more done, without any additional stress. And there really is nothing quite like sitting down to a system just as refreshed as it’s user, that isn’t overburdened with several applications all vying for attention and is ready to spring into action.

1. a regular stretch or beverage run should be a regular activity (↩)
2. don’t be tempted to think “just one more sentence..” (↩)