One often overlooked aspect of using your computer productively is the desktop. Instead of having a pretty picture of the beach, try using one of these wallpapers.
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GTD
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Layered Desktop
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EZ Access Desktops
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Panels
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Google Calendar
If you’re a fan of the GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology, this is the wallpaper for you. Grab it (or one of the others) from here.
Available in both light and dark, the Layered Desktop wallpapers allow you to group your icons by categories.
Though the colors may not suit your taste (there are 6 to choose from) - with a little work using your favorite image editing software (like the GIMP) and you can create your own.
Similar to the EZ Access Desktops, the panel method outlined here allows you to group icons according to category.
Lifehacker explains how to use Google Calendar as your Desktop Wallpaper in Windows.
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Ohmygod I love this idea! So much better than the useless image I have now.
Yeah, great ideas. I implemented this months ago and find it very useful for boosting productivity. It’s important if you’re using one of the panel type layouts to have an icon layout saver otherwise they can all get reset when you mess with screen settings in different applications, for instance.
Definitely an awesome tweak I never thought about. I don’t store things on my desktop so the GTD flow-chart is great. In XP, I just hit Win+D to view the desktop and remind myself to get back to work
great stuff…i’m sticking to my fancy graphics though.
… and here I thought I was the only one with this idea. I took it a step further.
I took some of those “pretty pictures” and Photoshopped them putting in grouping areas for icons. That way I get both, the pretty pic and organization.
I’ve done it to several pics, and occasionally will add.
I’ve never considered a background for anything other than looking cool.
What would be nice, would be to have a dynamic background that actually locked icons into specific labeled/colored areas with each panel resizing depending on how many icons it has to accommodate…or I guess I could just use Microsoft’s new program launcher and avoid the issue altogether.
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