Clearing up Baggage
Entry posted by Josh ·
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In this non-technical blog I will give you more of Josh's useful tips on how to live. In this blog I am talking about baggage, in the form of data physical possessions.
Archive and Delete
The first thing you need to do is organize. If you have all your files in dozens of different folders all over your computer, it will be very difficult to track them all down. This is why Leadwerks and most other programs store files in your Documents folder on your computer. Leadwerks projects, along with images, records, schools papers, and anything else you are working on should all be stored here. Your music is ideally stored in the cloud with iTunes, Steam, or another service.
Next, take the entire contents of your documents folder and burn it onto a Blu-Ray disk. Put this disk in a nice CD case like this, and put it in your closet somewhere.
Now, delete everything in your Documents folder you are not using right now on a daily basis. You have a copy of everything, and you can always go back and get whatever you need. All your tax records, old school papers, PDFs you never read, and everything else is all safely locked away.
Do this and your computer and mind will feel free, clear, and refreshed. Nowadays I am thinking of the hard drive less as storage for files and more as a temporary cache to place program files that get installed from Steam, the Mac App Store, etc. Not only am I immune from hard drive failures and can easily migrate to a new machine at a moment's notice, but my computers always feel new and uncluttered. Here's my very Zen desktop:
Prune Your Bookmarks
How often do you visit all those hundreds of bookmarks in your web browser? Go through and visit each one. if it's not worth coming back to, delete it. If it's just a random idea you might someday want to look at, archive it. If it's an article you might someday read, read it today. If it's not worth reading today, delete it.
There is presently no way I know of to sync bookmarks between browsers on Windows, Linux, and Mac, unfortunately. This is probably by design or at least by lack of motivation to be cross-platform.
Minimize the Number of Programs You Have Installed
Unless you are developing a web page, don't install more than one web browser. Don't horde programs to make your computer feel more capable. Keep the bare number of programs you need right now installed on your computer. If you're using an app store of some kind then it's easy to install and uninstall programs at a moment's notice, so don't be afraid to remove them. Having fewer programs will make you more focused when you sit down to work.
Minimize the Number of Machines You Own
For cross-platform development, I recommend owning two computers, a Mac and a PC with dual boot Windows / Linux. I am not presently following this advice because I also own an Alienware Steam Machine and a Gigabyte Brix Mini PC I take to the office with me. However, I feel better the fewer CPUs I have in my life. For this reason, I favor the Steam Link, as it only requires you to have games installed on one single PC. I am waiting for the day the DAN A4-SFX case becomes available so I can get my PC into an even smaller footprint:
Compress, Compress, Compress
Below is the smallest possible way you can get an entire home entertainment system. A Steam Link acts as a very capable console and Netflix player. A mini projector provides a ten foot tall screen that fits in your hand. Sound is provided by a Bose music player that can be streamed to from your phone or have an audio cable plugged in from the projector. And it all fits in a shoe box.
Fix it or Lose it
Do you have any broken electronics or other equipment lying around you might someday use? Maybe a bicycle with a flat tire? If you can't fix it today you never will be able to, and it's worthless. Fix it and start using it or throw it out. Unused equipment = mental baggage.
Conclusion
It has been said that "Things you own, end up owning you". This really is true. That nice expensive sofa you bought will have to be carefully transported across the country if you decide you want to live somewhere else. You'll always have to pay rent in an apartment with a living room or buy a house to provide storage for that object. One way or another, you're paying rent for an inanimate object that reduces your options.
Follow my useful tips and you will feel more focused, alert, and less stressed. Although my work requires me to keep a hefty amount of electronic equipment, I hope to live semi-nomadically in the near future. The old-style life goals of collecting a lot of stuff in a house in the suburbs need to be updated. I'd rather collect stickers on my laptop from different cities I've lived in. The internet and remote working have given us new options in life, and we need to find new perspectives to define our happiness and goals.
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