Yeah, right: metaphors, images, similes… I am talking about poetry here, about making your personal computer really personal. The using of original names for your computer folders and control lists can do a lot to stimulate your creativity and improve your focus.
Of course this cannot be done in teamwork, or other situations where imagination is restricted/punished. But in nicer environments like your personal projects, where you are the king in your castle, it is a good thing to step away from the flock and personalize things a little.
As usual in brain matters, the key issue here is interrelation. The more varied brain areas we get involved, the more original and groundbreaking ideas we will have.
Every action in our life that we do in “automatic pilot” mode results in a loss of some kind, a loss for which there is no backwards step. In the case of naming folders or files in our “alive” system, what we have is a loss of relevant information. The comfort of using customized names is deceiving, because a computer folder called “Backups” will not by any mean have the same relevance to you than one you have called, for example, “Basement”.
This example is only illustrative, and maybe makes no sense to you, because that’s the point here, too: it is you, who will see that folder maybe one thousand times every day, who should find a name more significant to you than the dull commercial standards. Again: any lack of attention means a loss, so make sure that your personal computer is really personal. By doing that, besides:
- You put your always despised right brain to work: imagination, creativity, a playful stance… won’t precisely hurt your work, will they? The same as with planning, it is a good thing to loosen things a little.
- You make things more appealing to yourself. It is a sort of “self marketing”. I sometimes have reached the extent of renaming a folder after months of using it (when replacement was easy) because the new word simply made me… more excited and motivated! There is a strong difference between “revising your pending database” (zzz) and “paying a visiting to the lost objects department”.
- You practice your synthesizing skills. When it comes down to naming folders, there is no “right” and no “wrong”. It works more like a continuum, with the “purist” Backups folder on one side, and that kind of names that you are unable to understand one week later on the other. Please avoid this latest extent :), but, apart from that, whatever works is alright. For example, I like organic metaphors (my computer has an “orchard”, “nursery plants”, “winning horses”), and stealths from the world of business and technology (one of my current projects has a “selection committee”, I also used to have a “spider” list, with a series of old documents I wanted to find.)
- You get more focused on your objectives. Finding the right comparison can clarify a lot what you really intend. In a way, this is quite an oriental technique: Western culture is used to define things, while East likes comparisons better. A good name can be a punch declaration of intentions.
- …and last but by no means least, it is funny!!!
Like I said before, it is a little embarrassing for me to show my own examples, because you surely would have chosen very different names. Well, that’s the point, go do it. Maybe it is not a technique for all occasions, but it is definitely useful due to the way in which our brain processes information. Only an old prejudice about what is “serious” and what is not can make us not to take profit of some of our mind’s features.
P.S. - on conventional icons
Another option is using conventional graphical icons to personalize this or that crucial folder; there are tons of them in the Internet. Just type “watering can”, “engine”, or “pencil sharpener” in Google images, press the “icons” option, and pick your choice. I have used that system sometimes too, eye candy is always nice, but I’m more of the verbal kind and find the choice more time-consuming (specially when you want all your icons to look minimally alike). I still use it sometimes, but it is not that customized because, after all, those icons have been designed by someone else. By honoring the power of words instead, you are in full control, all the time. As usual, the simpler the better.
Any original name contribution? What’s the most personal thing in your computer?
Related posts:
The GTD First Aid Kit (and 4)
Productivity the Spartan way
Keep your brain at hand (part 2)
How to become optimistic with very little effort
The magic of journaling