We don't think about it much these days, but the "desktop" on our computers is meant as a metaphor for a literal desktop. When the first computers were being developed, developers reached for easy metaphors - desktop, files, folders - to make the computer more accessible to the average person.

I'm easily distracted and terrible at organization. I like having a clean desktop when I start a new task, but I don't always have the mindspace to keep everything organized. If this were a real desktop, I'd probably just stuff everything in a drawer and deal with it later.

Completing the Desktop Metaphor by Adding a Drawer

We can repdroduce that "workflow" by creating a "Drawer" folder on our Mac. Creating a folder to hide away clutter might not seem like much of a revolutionary idea, however there are some things we can do to make it more intentional and fit in with the rest of the existing Mac ecosystem.

• Create the "Drawer" in your your Documents folder so it syncs to iCloud: mkdir ~/Documents/Drawer
• In the terminal, run ln -s ~/Documents/Drawer ~/Drawer That will create a symbolic link and make it so that the Drawer folder appears as if it were in your home folder. Services like Google Drive follow this same paradigm
• Add the Drawer to your finder sidebar

Managing Screenshots

Another tip is to relocate the screenshots folder. On Mac when you take a screenshot, it automatically saves it to the desktop. Can you imagine if we scattered polaroids all over our work desktops? You can easily create a dedicated screenshots folder and have them saved there instead. Just execute the following commands in the terminal:

mkdir ~/Screenshots
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Screenshots
killall SystemUIServer

Which immediately eliminates a lot of desktop clutter. You can also add this to your Finder sidebar as well. I learned about this thanks to Sarah Drasner on Bluesky.

When All Else Fails

And the ultimate tool for hiding clutter for the easily distracted and disorganized: Force "Desktop" items to disappear altogether with this terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
killall Finder

If you don't like that, you can easily revert it

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true
killall Finder

Using the Workflows That Work for You

The concept of a "desire path" is a well-known concept in urban planning. It's the idea that people will naturally take the shortest path between two points, regardless of whether there is a sidewalk or not. Smart urban planners will observe these paths and pave them, rather than trying to force people to use the "official" routes. If you're naturally disorganized or easily distracted, it's best to come up with a workflow that you naturally trend towards, rather than trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

The "Drawer" is a great way to do that. It's a place where you can easily stash things without having to make immediate decisions about their final home. It isn't about creating the perfect organization system but rather acknowledging how you naturally work and building something around that.