Little DVD had a piece of her toy snap off and asked me to repair it recently. Once the part was snapped back into place she exclaimed that I was “just like Tinkerbell!” I assume she meant that I could fix things as well as that little fairy. But that got me thinking that I do tinker and tweak because I do perform a lot of maintenance on my machines. Sometimes too much.
When a new release of the Ubuntu operating system or when an Windows “upgrade”is released I do quite a bit of tinkering. Sure I could just upgrade and overwrite the obsolete files and programs but I always perform a clean install so I can determine what software is more productive and lean. I want a fast, responsive laptop.
Now is the perfect time to assess what software I want, need or to get rid of. Do I really need two image processing software or can I increase my knowledge of the best one and use it exclusively? Can I uninstall the pre-loaded media player for the one of my choice?
The same approach goes with my digital files. If I haven’t touched them in six months, then they are uploaded to my offsite server, zipped up and archived on an external hard drive. It would be even better if I can just go ahead and delete the ones I don’t need at all.
Media files make up a majority of my hard drive space…for now. My music can be purchased online and sync wirelessly to my devices. I need to take advantage of this and regain my 3GB of hard drive space. Photos are a big part of what I do and enjoy so there will always be the personal and client images there. After all this time I still do not have a workflow in place. Inexcusable.
Website content, social media, RSS feeds, bookmarks all go into one folder and distributed as needed.
Maintaining your computer’s health goes a long way to ensure you will have it a long time. There are plenty of utilities and diagnostics to run on a weekly basis.
As your digital needs evolve so will your workflow and maintenance. If you are like me and enjoy the tinkering and tweaking I think you will appreciate the benefits of a finely tuned and organized machine.