New Year's Resolutions: Clean up the computer

Part 2 of my New Year's Resolutions is to clean up the computer. I suppose I really should have done this first, before backing up, but I really wanted to get some of those files, especially on the USB backed up as soon as possible. Now I'll have to organize the backup files, too!

For me, this organization starts with my USB (again), by moving some projects that I've finished off the USB and into an Archive folder on my office computer. Then, I need to clean up my desktop, since I always download files to the desktop whenever possible. That way I remember to clean them up later! I've got a couple of installation files and some images there now, so those either get trashed or put into the appropriate project folders. I've also got some PDF's of articles I've been meaning to read, so I think I'll upload those to Refworks, as I mentioned in my original post.

Then I need to check on the other places that things get stashed. On a Windows machine like my office computer, that includes the My Documents folder, and subfolders, and some of the applications folders. On Macs, things are a little easier, since almost everything defaults to the desktop. I also need to go over my network drive and see what can be deleted from that. I use it as a catch-all space, especially when I'm logged into other campus computers.

The final part of this resolution is a real resolution: I'm going to try and be better about using project folders as I create/download files. That will make the whole organize/archive/backup thing much easier.