I usually find myself wondering if I’m the only person who uses my desktop as a staging area for the files and projects I’m working on. Once I’m done with them I throw them into the appropriate files, make backups where necessary, and then start all over again. It’s been a pretty handy approach, but I occasionally find myself surfing for something I accidentally deleted, because I’ve gotten carried away in my cleanup process. Well, now we can avoid the problem, and more specifically, we can automate our file cleanup from around the desktop with Hazel.
Hazel’s kind of like Automator, in the sense that it lets you set a number of criteria so you can ensure that you’re affecting the right files, then it lets you set up a series of tasks to perform on them. For instance, in my download folder I have a ton of zip files. Most of them are from application downloads, and it’s become really annoying manually deleting them, so instead, I have Hazel checking to see if the .zip files haven’t been opened in a couple days, then it moves them to the trash can if they meet my criteria.
There’s a host of options, and a ton of ways you can bend Hazel to your will. It’s a productivity godsend, and frankly, you shouldn’t have to worry about how to manage your computer. You computer should manage itself, it’s 2009 for goodness sakes, it’s about time an application exists like Hazel.
Great article! I've been using Hazel for over a year now and don't know how I lived without it. Have you tried Default Folder X and Tags? In combination with those apps Hazel in unstoppable. Tag an item by typing a word such as @graphics and Hazel can immediately add a color label, move it to the proper folder, and display a Growl notification. Pretty sweet :)
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LikeI haven't used them in conjunction with those other applications, I'll try them all together though. We'll see how it goes. :)
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