February 8 was National Clean Out Your Computer Day. If you did not follow this well-known holiday, schedule an hour this week to tidy up your friend. If you are lucky enough to have an IT department, call them up and ask for physical on your computer.
Clean your inbox
There’s nothing worse than an overflowing inbox, especially one filled with six-month-old emails. There is no time like the present to delete unneeded coupons, Bar Association emails, and whatever else you do not need.
Defragment
Windows or Mac, both have some form of defragmentation program. The program might need hours to run, but it should increase the speed of your computer. Try running it when you leave at night, and it should be done in the morning.
Virus scan
Virus scans can run at night too. Even if you have an automatic virus scan, it never hurts to run it manually every couple of months. Be sure to update your virus software before running it to catch the new bugs.
(photo: Locator)
Randall Ryder practices consumer rights law in Minnesota and is a publisher of Elder Parent Help. Follow him @randallryder.
Lawyerist is the #1 law practice blog. We write about marketing, practice management, career development, and more.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been told that defragmenting won’t do a lot for a Mac. But there are clean up tasks you can do that may improve performance. Randy Singer has a great list and explanation of them at http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
One of the points that Randy makes is that Mac mail is basically a database program and the more data you have, the more it can slow down, which reinforces your point to get rid of unnecessary e-mail clutter.
Randy’s site has some good advice, including running the Disk Repair program in the Utilities application that comes with every Mac. That alone can make a significant difference.