Getting My Digital Life Sorted – The Koppenhaver Experiment
Alright, so I gotta share what I’ve been up to. My computer, specifically my documents folder, was a complete disaster zone. Seriously, looked like a digital tornado hit it. Files everywhere, weird names, duplicates… you know the drill. Finding anything was a nightmare. I kept putting off cleaning it up, saying “I’ll do it later”. Later never came, obviously.
Then, I kinda stumbled onto this idea, maybe it was an old note I saved or something someone mentioned ages ago, tied to this name ‘koppenhaver’. Didn’t even remember where it came from exactly, but it sparked something. It wasn’t some fancy software or complex system, more like a mindset, a really basic approach I decided to try. Basically, just being super strict about structure and ruthless about archiving or deleting.
So, one Saturday morning, I took a deep breath and just dove in. First thing, I created some top-level folders. Super simple stuff:
- Work
- Personal
- Projects
- _Archive
- _TempDownload
That was the easy part. The real grind was going through the thousands of files scattered everywhere. I started dragging and dropping things into the main folders. Then, I tackled the naming. Tried to stick to a simple `YYYY-MM-DD_BriefDescription` format for things that mattered. It was slow going, I tell ya.
The ‘koppenhaver’ part, as I started calling this whole cleanup mission in my head, was mostly about the `_Archive` folder. Anything older than, say, two years, or projects I knew were dead and buried, got shoved in there. No mercy. If I hadn’t touched it in ages, into the archive it went. Same for downloads – use it or lose it (or file it properly) within a week, otherwise delete. It felt kinda brutal at first, deleting stuff I’d kept “just in case” for years.
Took me pretty much the whole weekend. Found some ancient photos, weird documents I don’t even remember creating. Had a few moments where I just stared at the screen, wondering if it was worth it. But I pushed through. Drag, drop, rename, delete. Repeat. Over and over.
Now? It’s… clean. Like, surprisingly clean. Navigating my files is actually quick now. Finding stuff doesn’t involve a deep-sea expedition. The strict archiving means my main folders aren’t cluttered with old junk. It’s not perfect, I still gotta maintain it, dump the temp folder regularly and keep up the naming thing. But man, the difference is huge. Just feels lighter, you know? Less digital weight hanging over me. Didn’t need anything fancy, just had to finally sit down and do the work. Worth it. Totally worth the weekend I lost to it.
