Intro:

While searching for a desktop wallpaper to help organise too many icons over my desktop, I realised there was an over abundance of "girly" themed organised wallpapers - not much on there for blokes. And the ones that were on there for males, you guessed it - were created by females to help get us guys organised. Now I don't know about you, but my shed is organised by me and me alone. There ain't gonna be no girly lacy curtains here!

So I thought up a super easy way of creating a customised desktop wallpaper that literally takes about 10 minutes (it took me longer to write this instructable than it did to make the wallpaper and change it). It's not so much of an instructable, but a general idea and principle you could use to create a custom wallpaper easily in no time at all. I'm all for gettin' it done and onto the next thing.

The wallpaper I created at the end for myself was based on the time proven organisational tip of "Do It", "Delegate It", "Defer It", "Delete It"

So What Do You Need??

- Some sort of background (I used my white board turned 90 deg and used the cork side. I could have just as easily used the whole board, but the post-it's would have worked out quite small. Or I could have used bigger sheets of paper.

- Post-it Notes (or sticky notes, coloured paper etc - doesn't really matter)

- Two texta's (markers for the yanks) - one thick, one thin

- Tacks or Drawing Pins

- A Camera

- A Computer (obviously)!

- Some image editing software (I used IrfanView - been using it for years - it's free, it's easy and has shortcuts)

- Optional: 2 Cans of Beer (Because it's a quick job) ;)

Disclaimer: Before reading further I would advise if your offended by some harsh language, I strongly suggest you discontinue reading. Again, I made this desktop for myself. Other's will most likely find it and the way I did it useful.

Step 1: Creating the Wallpaper Backdrop and Categories

First thing to do would be to grab a scrap of A4 paper and sketch out how you would like it to appear. Also write down some headings or topics to help you with your organising. I picked a few useful categories for myself on how I like to work and what I generally like and use commonly on the desktop for ease of access.

Now grab those post-it notes and arrange them how you've set out your sketch-up page. The beauty of post-it's is that they come in a variety of colours and sizes that make it easy to get different effects. And realistically, who doesn't have a pad of post-it's in their office drawer? The post-it's will stick on your board without too much fuss.

Now write your categories on them. Larger post-it's (like what I've used), you could also draw a line through for sub or split categories.

Grab the camera (or phone camera which is what I used) and set the picture to the highest resolution you can (consult your camera or phones instruction manual on how to do this). Align the edges as best you can and take a snapshot. Don't worry about the edges, we'll fix that.

Step 2: Cropping the Image

Because you've taken a photo, it's most likely you'll have some unwanted edges to the image. The quickest and easiest method is to use your image editor of choice (I'm using IrfanView as I've been using it for years). There's other apps available on phones that can take skewed images and straighten them out. The only one I know of that does something like this is ScanPDF where you just align the edges with the image and it straightens and fixes the image.

Select an area to crop, trying to get the most amount of background out while still retaining the majority of the image.

Now crop and save the image.

The image you took will generally be in a different ratio to your actual screen size. To work out your ratio, divide the width by the height to get a ratio (so for a laptop 1366x768 = 1.7786). These settings can be viewed under advanced display settings.

Open up resize/resample and uncheck preserve ratio.

In set new size, divide your width by your aspect ratio (for me it's 3192/1.7786 = 1803). Insert the new value in height and click OK. You've now got an image that will be the correct aspect ratio. Now save the image.

Note: IrfanView also has some standard sized aspect ratios on the right you could use if it suits your screen size.

Step 3: Set Your Background As Your Newly Created Image

Doesn't really matter what type of operating system you're using (whether it be Windows, Mac, Linux), most OS allow you to set a background or wallpaper image.

In windows 10, it's

--> System Settings --> Personalization --> Backgrounds

Select Browse and locate your image and press OK

Your new background should be ready to start organising your icons with!