My desktop was a mess. In trying to regain some control I decided I needed a more visual approach to the problem. I’m a very visual person and I hate having to use the menu system to find the applications that I need.

I got the idea of using a mind map for my desktop from the Mind Map Inspiration blog. The author of that blog Paul Foreman uses them on his desktop as well. I decided to give it a try my desktop was a mess anyway. What’s the worse that could happen?

So how does it work? First, you change your desktop image to be image of a mind map. I got mine from Paul’s blog.  Then I put the most often used applications in the center. I have to mention I also use Folder Marker so that I can change the icons on folders to know their importance. I put utilities on the black branch, blue is mostly imaging software, purple and green I’m still figuring out but the brown and gray branches are applications I don’t use that often. I’ve been using this desktop map experiment for a few days and I’m liking it a lot. I will probably need to customize the map more but I figured why do that until I knew if it would be a valuable tool for me.

Download the maps for free at the Mind Map Inspiration blog.