The Back-Up Drive Is Organized!

Well, it’s taken a few weeks but I finally took all the files, dumped the duplicates and other files I didn’t need, and put them all in an order where I can find them. Along the way I figured out an directory system I can use in the actual backing up (which I probably won’t waste your time with) that works for me and I can find stuff in. I used techniques I learned from physical record and media organizing, and some things I learned here will work in future stages of those projects.

Now I just need to do the same with my project drive, but that’s for the future. Additionally I managed to get myself to work on something that may not be the most interesting articles, and I apologize for that, but decluttering isn’t just about doing the pretty projects, or the parts of your home/office that you can see. While you don’t have to drive yourself mad with compulsive organizing, which also ruins any spontaneity and would be hard for the less rigid-minded types, a good system is a good thing to have. Just know that as times change and things are both acquired and unacquired, as the paths of your life take a new course, a new system may have to be created. My problem was lacking a good starting point to build off of. Now I have that so if anything changes in the future, hopefully I’m ready to change with it.

Next time I may be ready to do a more interesting project to discuss, but this was something that needed doing. If you stuck it out with me then thank you and I hope you learned something from this project like I did.

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Quick Report> Still Learning From The Back-Up Clean-Up Project

I know, it’s still not exciting but this is about me getting the projects done and this is something long overdue. Today I tackled the images and downloads folders. I also did a bit of an archive of one of my older computers that was also on this drive. This is where I feel like using the program that came with this drive to back-up files was not as helpful as they intended. For example:

• When you change your directory set up on the actual computer the back-up drive program doesn’t know that. I ended up with a bunch of multiples from this alone.
• Also creating multiples was one of the programs itself, that seemed to create new images with every advertisement or install. I had like five or more folders just for the same set of images because they were under different numbers. It makes me wonder how many duplicates are on this computer now.
• Some of these were programs I don’t use anymore, or in the downloads they were older versions of new programs I can just get off the internet currently. In only a handful of cases are they programs that may or may not have a new version, while some I already have a newer version of on this computer.

I spent hours deleting the same pictures because they were duplicates of ones I have. In a way I’m lucky the program doesn’t work with Windows 10 because it did more harm than good and used up a lot of space. Lucky for me this is a huge drive so I had the room for it, but how much of that space was clogging up my hard drive space when it was on one of my older computers–and how many duplicates are doing that to this one–I can’t really say, and in the latter case I wouldn’t even be sure which ones I can delete, like all those images for software I’m using. I still have a bunch of folders left and remember this is only the first pass of organizing my old back-up files. If I can somehow squeeze in time during the week I’m going to see if I can speed this along but it’s not the only active project for me right now so we’ll have to see if I can get away with that plan or if it’s just going to be the usual Saturday project.

Quick Report> Back-Up Drive Documents

Not a whole lot new to add. This time I worked on my documents folder, possibly my biggest file set. There were a lot of links I moved to my links to try folder on my computer. I want to start going through those and deleting what I don’t want while just re-bookmarking them in the browser. Thanks to syncing I can have my bookmark list accessible on any computer provided they were included in the last sync up. So in the future I hopefully won’t have to save all my bookmarks and lose a site. I’m curious to see what sites I haven’t visited in years are still around.

Meanwhile the documents were sorted, some files were actually moved to a different folder I’ll be further sorting later on, and I got rid of a few duplicates, but I did keep some I want to double check later on. This one was a trip through the past, which was kind of fun. Except for some of the more saddening memories in hindsight, memories you cherish but remind you those people aren’t in  your life, or in some cases THIS life, anymore. You miss them but we have photos, videos, and writings that keep them with you forever, even if somewhere down the line they won’t mean anything to someone. They mean something to you and there’s nothing wrong with keeping them. You just have to organize them better so they aren’t as clutterful. Stuff you don’t need to remember can be done away with however.

Old documents, old images, old videos, stuff I kept from previous computers that I plan to eventually resort into the new system, manuals for things I use and some I don’t anymore…when I’m done it will be a lot cleaner system and I should be able to find stuff I want while having the extra room not cluttered by clutter. This is going to be a longer project that I thought but it’s one I really want to do before the inevitable computer issues and just stuff I didn’t get into the computer or “artputer” in the past. I’m glad I’m finally doing this.

Quick Report: The Back-Up Hard Drive Organizing’s Bonus Benefits

Nobody’s commented on the gag folders. Either I’m that uninteresting or nobody caught them. Or maybe the image is too small. I don’t know.

In this week’s chapter in the back-up drive reorganizing project I came up with a good idea. Every unorganized folder is marked with a plus, meaning I still need to do those. I only have to do this on the main list of my computer’s backups so I know which folder to do next. The plan with each project is to do at least one of these main folders a week, more if possible. The ones already organized were left without the plus sign and the ones I do from here out will have it removed. This makes it easier for me to remember what I’ve done and how much further I have to go.

This week it was the files tied to my other website, BW Media Spotlight. All of my banners, comics, and other images were resorted, duplicates or no longer needed files removed, and some other files put in completely different files that I’ll be sorting in the future. Further sorting may occur later, since I’m doing what I do with physical paperwork: larger organizing, sub category organizing, and so on until I only have what I need better sorted without a headache. Longer time but worth it in the end if I can put future stuff right into the proper sub category. It’s all about getting my files straight, and I may use the new system when reorganizing the files on my computer once this is all done and the actual new backing up begins.

I know these may not be the most interesting projects but letting these larger projects go has been a big mistake and the source of my disorganized…nearly everything. That’s why Operation: A Place For Everything exists and in a way this is an extension of that. Every file in a proper place so I can access it later and lose the files I don’t need. That clears up a lot of virtual space just as the other projects I’ve done has cleared up physical space in my living area. The battle continues, and I’m actually learning from this project how to go forward with other projects just as some of the past projects have taught me tricks for this one. So I’m cleaning AND learning. Neat!

Quick Report: Back Up Drive Organizing Continues

I didn’t have a lot of time this week but I did squeeze in a little time to do some reorganizing on the back up drive from last week. The audio files were easy because the directory I already had was easy to work with back in the first phase only some minor fixing and deleting of duplicates had to be done this week. The fonts folder is also fine the way it is though at some point I do want to make a list of all my fonts for use in other projects. I don’t need them all installed, but it’s nice to have them for other projects.

In the other folders I made up two new subfolder: old directory and new directory. In keeping with last week’s organizing all the old subfolders in the remaining categories were transferred to “old directory”. In the new one I’ll create a new directory and organize all of those items into it. Due only to my schedule I’m hoping to do at least one main directory a week. One week it’s videos, another it’s downloads…I imagine some folders will need longer days and maybe even multiple project days while others I may get through quickly and start work on other folders. The goal is to be done by the end of September but hopefully it won’t actually take me that long.

Not much to report but slow and steady wins the race. I just wish there weren’t so many races.

Cleaning Up The Back Up Drive

This week I go to work on the project I didn’t get to do last week. I don’t back up my stuff enough, and this came back to bite me a few years ago when my computer died. I’m not sure how much I really lost but I’m sure I lost something I wanted. Thankfully a lot was backed up to my back up drive. The back up program that came with the drive doesn’t work on Windows 10, but that may be a blessing in disguise.

My back up drive has a lot of stuff I don’t need anymore, either because what was backed up has advanced well past that or certain things don’t work anymore. There are even a few things that came up in multiple copies for different reasons. So this week the first step in organizing this drive so I can back up my computer was the project of choice. Lucky for me since starting this de-cluttering project I managed to develop a system for organizing files and collections that I was able to translate to this project, and one I should be using to further organize my various files in the future. Maybe this will work for you as well, because this can seem as insurmountable as organizing your records or your (insert really big collection here) as well as trying to cut them down to something more manageable. However, my organizing system may take more time but it’s less headache inducing and the small victories can pile up almost as much as the small clutters. 🙂

Quick Report: Burning Through E-Mails

Taking time off from the other site to get rid of some distractions came with mixed success this week. The goal was to get caught up on my e-mails. I managed to get my personal box cleaned out recent, which was a nice victory, but the one I use for most of my projects still had a huge build-up from my 2016 medical crises (yes, sadly more than one) that I’ve been fighting to keep out of the 1000s for a while now.

Added to the problem is that for some reason I didn’t sleep well this week because I had…well, some of you might be eating. Suffice it to say my waste disposal issues came into play. It cut the time that I had to go through the various virtual letters, newsletters, and advertisements, and there were a lot of them. Losing part of a day to a brief power outage thanks to a storm that hit the state didn’t help any. Adding to the time issue was that some of them were rather long videos, some as short as 4-8 minutes or something but others reaching almost a half hour. That’s in addition to the YouTube backlog I barely scratched the surface of, and some of them that were YouTube hosted videos I shoved into my ever expanding “watch later” list, which means the other backlog that I’ll have to burn through if I ever get the recent videos backlog dealt with. I’m still trying to catch up with May on that one. More advantageous was anything that was outdated or wasn’t something I was interested in among the other things in the newsletter I was just went away while I focused on evergreen stuff or things that I really wanted to check into. Hopefully I haven’t missed anything interesting, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss anything important.

As it stands however, as I write this, I did manage to get up to 2020 in the project-tied e-mails, so while not a complete victory it’s certainly better that I had. With luck I can polish this off after you read this and get on to the last thing I wanted to do before resuming my other website. Whether that will be both things I wanted to do or just one depends on how long those things take plus an event that probably won’t let me work on the computer at all for a day, so I already know I’m going to lose a day. Still, the most distractions I can get rid of the sooner I can stop holding ground and finally move forward. All the medical issues (save Crohn’s and allergies) are dealt with and it’s time to finally get rid of the rest of the garbage 2016 saddled me with and get on with what I really want to be doing. I’ll take the light though I’d really like to get out of this @#$# tunnel now, thank you very much.

END OF THE DAY UPDATE!: I am now completely caught up with my emails! Now there’s just YouTube, the DVR, the RSS feed…

Digital Backlog Scramble Before Sick Leave

I know, it’s a long title but it goes into everything that’s going to be said. In early June I’ll have to do something I was hoping not to do for a long time: go into the hospital for surgery again. This time it’s to deal with a hernia near the area I had the last surgical work done. That means I won’t be posting here for however long it takes to heal up so I can do clutter clearing except to keep you updated on healing so you know when I’ll be de-cluttering again.

Since I’m worried about yet another backlog of emails, DVR, and YouTube I want to take the few weeks I have before then to focus on getting that done. It’s horrendous enough as it is. I’ll try to do some more reviews before its time so there’s something worth reading but that’s what I’ll be doing until I go in and when I get out. Maybe I’ll be able to go on my tablet in the hospital and give me something to do when I get home to recover but I want this pile dealt with as much as possible. I’ll keep you informed, but this is just another example of how this year has been using my physical shell to keep me from getting any of my goals for 2021 met, especially my projects. It’s getting on my nerves, but hopefully this still won’t be as bad as 2016 was.

Quick Report: Learning My Smartphone

With my back still a bit tender my ability to do any heavy cleaning is suspect. There’s this one small spot in the small of my back, which is the spot it usually starts, still being restrictive. So this week I decided what I really need to do is go through my new smart phone and learn all the apps. This is something I’ve not really done in the past but long since should have done on my old phone. I even added an app or two to improve function but I don’t want to bother putting too much on. However it is still clutter clearing as any app I couldn’t use or wasn’t interested in was taken off…if it could. I also cleaned out a bit of my library and wishlist for apps I’ll never want to use.

Having apps that can’t be removed is sort of a pet peeve of mine when it comes to smartphones. I didn’t have this problem on the tablet, which has the same storage issue as my old phone, where I can’t even update the darn thing without a fight anymore. (My computer-savvy friend says that Android likes to take up a lot of space, and I’ve noticed that when I install a new update it doesn’t delete anything from the old one, which takes up even more space.) The big issue though is that smartphones have these apps you can’t get rid of even if it doesn’t affect the working of the phone. I don’t need the Facebook app on there because I’m rarely online when I’m out. (I don’t have a data plan and only use public WiFi when necessary. I don’t even have the phone on when I’m home most of the time.) I certainly don’t need Uber because I have a car and it’s already rare when I use it these days. And yet I can’t pull them off of the old phone. Heck, Google just canceled Google Play Music in favor of their YouTube Music app (I would have done it the other way around but what do I know?) I can’t use the app anymore except when downgraded to listen to the old radio shows and music I have on the SD card but for some reason it’s an app you can’t pull off, and yet Google Play Games is, despite being still active and one I probably use more. It just eats up space and it’s used for the function of the phone or basic operations. Why, Google? What makes you think this is a good idea? I just disable them so they won’t update again but it’s still clutter.

So get to know your apps and see which ones you’ll actually use. It takes up space and if you can remove it, do so. If you can’t, uninstall all the updates and disable it so it won’t waste even more space. It’s an odd sort of clutter project and I don’t know if iPhone and Windows Phone users have to suffer through this nonsense but it’s a good idea. Also, get a micro SD card and transfer all your pictures, videos, audio files, and contacts to that. If you use a media app or navigational map program that lets you download, make sure it’s set to that micro SD card. You’d be surprised how quickly space on your phone or tablet gets eaten up.

Victory On The Email Project

Well, I did it. Actually I went a bit over the current goal but still not fulfilling the complete goal. My immediate goal was to get both my “work” and “personal” emails read up to 2018. I did that with the “work” email but the personal email was actually a lot easier. While the “work” email has potential “evergreen” articles I can use for my other site (and even some for this one should I resume this project or just not have time to do a full project, which has happened, the “personal” account had mostly offers for stuff that are no longer valid and outdated news reports. So I ended up cutting out a lot of it. That one is pretty much done, though I still have more in the “work” email to go through.

Meanwhile I’ve managed to keep up to date with new articles, being a day or two behind at the most thanks to what I’ve learned doing this. That’s certainly going to make things easier. Hopefully I won’t need another email project to get all caught up but it could be a good project if I’m tired or otherwise too ill to do any of the major project or a photo shoot for reviews, which will leave me with potential filler articles for you guys in the future.

However I do want to get back to the physical projects. With luck next week will be the redo of the homemade drawer dividers. Of course my plans aren’t always successful so we’ll have to wait and see.