Abstract
- App and file icons are visible distractions that draw consideration away from the duty at hand.
- Desktop icons and taskbars invite me to aim, usually unsuccessfully, to multitask.
- I desire utilizing keyboard shortcuts and voice assistants to launch apps somewhat than clicking desktop icons.
If an app icon seems on my desktop—ZAP! Gone. I now even cover my taskbar in order that nothing greets me however a pristine wallpaper and my open apps. I do not plan to be much less vigilant any time quickly.
I am Simply Distracted
There’s something I’ve come to simply accept about myself: I get distracted simply. I do not simply imply that I’m derailed when somebody comes by to ask me a query, nor do I imply that I have to allow Do Not Disturb mode to silence all notifications. I imply that if my eyes relaxation on something on-screen that’s unrelated to what I am engaged on, my thoughts wanders off.
After I consider methods to extend productiveness, that additionally means determining how a lot litter I can take away from my display screen. The 2 are one and the identical.
I do know some folks work greatest with difficult software program that makes as many options as doable accessible with the least quantity of mouse motion. I work greatest with minimalist software program that shows as little as obligatory to perform the duty at hand.
App Icons Make Me Wish to Swap Apps
Desktop icons of every kind are designed to be pressed. That is the entire purpose they’re there. Functions particularly have icons that are supposed to seize your consideration and entice you to click on them as a substitute of the poor, undeserving apps they’re subsequent to. It is good advertising. It is good graphic design. It is good psychological manipulation.
I discover a desktop to be essentially the most distracting place to presumably put these icons. Since I do not work with home windows maximized, particularly not on my 4K monitor, my desktop and what’s on it are all the time seen. It is onerous for me to think about getting a lot finished when all I wish to do is tidy up all of the litter piling up simply exterior my app window.
I’ve removed desktop icons from my background for my total grownup life. Extra not too long ago, I’ve began to auto-hide the taskbar as effectively. Now that any distracted time more and more eats into my revenue, it isn’t doing me any favors to see NVIDIA GeForce NOW or YouTube in my taskbar. Even apps associated to productiveness, like my calendar or reminder apps, aren’t price conserving seen. I can open these apps after I consciously bear in mind to sit down down and handle them, somewhat than as a result of glancing over the taskbar made the thought pop into my thoughts.
I Desire Trying to find App Names
To a sure extent, desktop icons might make sense in the event that they had been my most popular solution to open apps. They are not. I might somewhat click on an app launcher, however even that is not one thing I do usually after I’m sitting at my PC. I default to keyboard shortcuts as a substitute.
I use Samsung DeX instead of Windows, however the keyboard shortcut and habits I converse of is similar. Faucet the Home windows key, sort the primary few characters of an app’s title, and hit Enter. I’ve developed this muscle reminiscence for effectively over a decade. The mere considered clicking a desktop icon feels a lot slower, which suggests the desktop icon does not serve any perform for me apart from being a visible distraction. That is additionally the case with recordsdata, that are simply as searchable in a file supervisor.
I’ve Even Began Utilizing Voice Assistants
Utilizing keyboard shortcuts is a behavior I’ve lengthy had, however extra not too long ago I’ve began to develop a brand new means of utilizing my pc. Reasonably than shifting my focus away from typing to be able to activate a keyboard shortcut, I’ve began speaking to my pc as a substitute.
This is without doubt one of the methods voice assistants are useful. I ask Bixby to open an app utilizing a phrase like, “Hello Bixby, open Slack” or use even much less exact steerage like “Hello Bixby, present me footage” to open my gallery app. Cortana and Copilot used to offer comparable performance on Home windows, earlier than Cortana bit the mud and Microsoft downgraded Copilot in 2024.
Voice assistants have additionally stepped in to handle my music playback. It is easy to inform them to pause or unpause what’s at present taking part in, serving to me keep away from the pitfalls of opening the music app and feeling tempted to play a brand new track or shifting my mouse to the system tray, the place I’d see an onslaught of latest notifications.
Equally, voice assistants function my Pomodoro app. I inform Bixby to set a timer for 25 minutes, and when it goes off, I inform Bixby to set one other one for five minutes. This protects me from having to find the best Pomodoro app that works the way in which I like. Each time I attempt, I have a tendency to return again to utilizing my built-in clock and timer app anyway.
There isn’t any a technique to make use of a pc that works for everybody. I do know that what I’ve described appears like a whole nightmare for some. I additionally know that my use of a voice assistant can also be a luxurious obtainable to somebody who works remotely from residence that is not viable in a shared workplace.
But a part of the enjoyable of utilizing computer systems or any software is determining methods to make them work greatest for us. And for me, which means no icon is ever to occupy a everlasting spot on my display screen, be that on the desktop or the taskbar.