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If you really want to get down to business and get things done, you need to create an environment conducive to productivity. I do it by eliminating everything that might distract me from accomplishing what I want.

The goal of creating a minimalist desktop is to eliminate the distractions and focus on just the tools that you need to actually get things done. Today we'll take a look at how you can set up your PC to focus on the tools that get things done.

Clear Off Your Desktop

The first thing you need to do is get rid of all that clutter on your desktop. The easiest way to do so is by simply right-clicking on the desktop and un-checking Show Desktop Icons.

Looking at a nice clean desktop is great, but you'll still see all the files in open and save dialogs, or while you're browsing around your computer. You should make a point of cleaning up your system of all the junk files you don't need; if you aren't sure, you can always put them into a single archive folder elsewhere on our PC. We like using tools like our own Belvedere to automate your PC maintenance and keep your system clean.

One additional trick I like to do is hide any files or folders that I don't ever need to use, which is especially helpful in modern versions of Windows that won't let you delete many of the folders in your Users folder—instead you can simply hide them via the Properties dialog.

Auto-Hide Your Taskbar or Dock

Now that your desktop is nice and clean, the biggest distraction is staring you right in the face: the taskbar or dock with all your open apps. If you find yourself switching to your email inbox dozens of times while you are supposed to be working on something else because you can't resist clicking on your email's taskbar item, it's probably time to hide your taskbar. In Windows, it's easy to do from the Taskbar properties screen (right-click taskbar -> Properties), and on your Mac you can set your Dock to Hide in the preferences. If you're using a third-party dock, the setting is probably in the options panel somewhere.

If you're rocking multiple monitors, an additional trick that I use is setting your primary screen as the "Extended" one in the display setup, which puts the taskbar on a different window so you won't accidentally trigger it, and it takes more effort to check it. This even helps if you don't auto-hide the taskbar, just to get the taskbar out of your immediate field of vision.

Get Rid of Unnecessary Notifications

Hiding the taskbar doesn't help enough if all of your applications are popping up all the time trying to get your attention. Windows 7 has a new Action Center that lets you fine-tune the notifications, including allowing tray icons or popup notifications on a per-application basis, but for XP or Vista you can always take the route of disabling all notification balloons entirely.

Of course, not all applications use the native Windows notifications, but they usually allow you to tweak the notification levels in their preferences. One of the biggest offenders for wasting your time are the desktop email notifications for Microsoft Outlook, but those can be easily disabled or tweaked.

Use the Keyboard to Launch Applications and Automate Tasks

Rather than using gaudy application-launching docks that overload your system with icon clutter, it's much simpler to use the keyboard to launch applications with a few keystrokes. There's loads of great application launchers to choose from, like Launchy for Windows, Quicksilver for Macs, or Gnome-Do for Linux, but if you're using Windows 7 you may need to go no further than the built-in Start menu search engine.

You can take it a step further by using AutoHotkey to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut, like launching your email client, opening your home page, or sending keystrokes to an application. Text-replacement applications like Texter save you time by automating tasks like inserting your signature or formatting a URL, and once you get used to using them, you will be sold on the benefits.

Switch Contexts by Killing Tasks Quickly

If you really need to get something done, it's usually a good idea to close down your web browsers, instant messaging client, Twitter distractions, or even your email application. Rather than manually closing them all down, it's much easier to create an AutoHotkey script or a batch file to kill them all at once.

You can use the taskkill utility to instantly close down an application, even from an AutoHotkey script. Just create a new script similar to the following, which will instantly close Chrome, TweetDeck, and Internet Explorer when you press the Win+F12 shortcut key. Savvy AHK users will note that you can also use the WinKill function instead, or if you don't want to kill the applications and would rather simulate clicking the close button, you can use the WinClose function.

#F12:: { Run, taskkill /f /im chrome.exe Run, taskkill /f /im tweetdeck.exe Run, taskkill /f /im iexplore.exe Return }

You probably won't want to kill an application that doesn't automatically save your files, but all modern browsers have session saving and crash recovery features, so even if you kill the browser, all your tabs should show up the next time you open it.

Keep Everything Online in Dropbox

Not only is Dropbox an excellent way to backup your files, sync them across multiple PCs, or access them from anywhere—it's also a good way to force yourself to keep everything important in one place, making the PC you are sitting at a less important component to your ability to actually get things done.

You can take it a step further and install portable versions of your applications into your Dropbox folder. This way you can access the same utilities from every PC you're on, keeping everything nice and organized and in a single place.

The How-To Geek focuses on using his PC to actually get things done. His geeky posts can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, Productive Geek, and Twitter.

Pachube's free Data Logger for the iPhone looks like an interesting app for self-trackers who want to track their weight, calorie consumption, hours of sleep, mood, etc.

Data Logger for iPhone enables you to store and graph any data of your choosing along with a timestamp and geolocation. You might use Data Logger to store electricity meter readings, to create maps of pollution or temperature sensor readings around your neighbourhood, or animal sightings around the city. You can also set up custom data feeds, with user-defined min and max values, tags, description and units.

Data Logger for iPhone (Via Seth Roberts)

Windows/Mac/Linux (AIR): Say what you will about newspapers, but the old gray ladies are laid out for quick reading. Cross-platform app (and webapp) Readefine breaks any site or feed into column-split articles and easy access jumps to other posts.

Some sites splay just far too much, well, stuff on their front page to make you want to dig into any particular article, and some articles are laid out in text that's too wide or too intruded upon by other elements. Readefine takes the current article you're looking at and gives it the center slot, and lays out the other articles, ordered by feed location, around your article on the edges. You can change the font, size, and other layout aspects if you don't like the default, but it reads pretty well right from the get-go.

The app takes in RSS feeds, HTML or plain text sites URLs, as well as copy-and-paste text. The neat side feature is being able to log into Google Reader through Readefine and read your feeds inside it, moving from article to article with familiar n/p and spacebar shortcuts.

Don't dig having to run AIR on your system? You can try out Readefine in its web form. Otherwise, Readefine is a free download, requires the Adobe Air platform to run.

Big ticket purchases may seem like good ideas at the time, but when you break down how many hours a week you have to work to make your monthly payment on that flat screen, you may see it in a different light.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

Finance blogger Matt created a graphical representation of how the things you own actually own you until they're paid off in full. Using data from his own "over-leveraged" youth, he demonstrates just how hard he had to work to keep his head above water. After accounting for his home mortgage, car payment, and other bills, Matt was working 17 out of every 20 days just to break even.

Setting up your own visual representation is easy—all you need to know is your base salary and the amounts of your monthly bills. Then:

Calculate your daily post tax bring home pay. Take a look at your pay stub or direct deposit receipts, and convert this number to your annual, post tax bring home salary. Then, divide this number by the number of days you work each year. For example, assuming you work a standard 9 to 5, five day a week job, let's say your biweekly direct deposit total is $1500 post taxes, retirement contributions, etc. Simply multiply $1500 by 26 paychecks, then divide this number by 260 work days. In this example, the total will equal $150 per day.

Once you've got that figured out, take a look at each bill and determine how many days each month you have to work to accumulate the money you need to pay it. For instance, if your car payment is $600 a month, you'll need to work four days a month to pay it off. That might not sound like much, but when you factor in rent or mortgage, utilities, and more, you might discover you're working most of the month just to cover the basics.

In the end, Matt used the information to dial back his spending and finding ways to get out of debt quickly. Check out the post for some tips that worked for him. Have you ever used a similar method for getting a handle on your spending and debt? What works for you to keep your cash flow under control? Let us know in the comments.

If you don't like your bags being out of your sight and it makes you uncomfortable to think that airline workers are rifling through your stuff, you can take advantage of the TSA's own security rules by—eek—packing a gun.

Photo by Vince Alongi.

Most of the time, travelers are on the short-end of TSA regulations. In this instance, however, you can use travel rules to your advantage. If you're traveling with equipment you would prefer locked up and watched more closely than your run of the mill luggage, you can pack a firearm with the equipment or luggage. Whether or not you own an actual firearm isn't important—the TSA considers a starter pistol a firearm, and it must be checked in and secured properly. Bruce Shneier, on his security and privacy centered blog, highlights how some creative professional photographers have been using this rule to their advantage. One of the photographers writes:

A "weapons" is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter pistols - those little guns that fire blanks at track and swim meets - are considered weapons...and do NOT have to be registered in any state in the United States.

I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare...I'm given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.

That's the procedure. The case is extra-tracked...TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

It's a great way to travel with camera gear...I've been doing this since Dec 2001 and have had no problems whatsoever.

You can pick up a super basic starter pistol for around $16-20—really nice starter pistols can easily cost $100-200, but you're not concerned about the quality—a rather small sum to ensure that your case of photography equipment or personal effects will be watched more carefully and only opened in your presence.

Have your own off-beat way of keeping your stuff safe while traveling? Let's hear about it in the comments.

If you want to buy fresh, locally-grown produce but aren't sure what's ripe or in season, an interactive ingredient map at foodie web site Epicurious can help you figure it out.

Sorry for the duplicate post.

The Flash-based map lets you search by state or month to see when fruits and vegetables are fresh in your area. You'll get a full run-down including a description of what each food is, its nutritional value, and suggested recipes for how to prepare it.

Some of the states are in the middle of a dormant growing season right now, but the tool reminds you to "opt for items from storage, such as apples, pears, and root vegetables." The map is particularly handy for getting a look at future growing seasons so you plan ahead if you like to can or have your heart set on being first in line for Iowa corn.

Are you making an effort to shop for locally-grown food this year? How do you stay on top of what's fresh and available in your area? Let us know in the comments.