It's That Time of Year
It’s time for digital spring cleaning for your business computers. If you use a single computer for your business, as in a home-based sole proprietorship, for example, you should regularly schedule maintenance tasks, such as clearing our your caches and de-fragging your hard disk. (Your computer stores information in various places on the hard disk, as if the information were a book taken apart, with individual chapters placed here and there. When you de-frag the computer, you optimize the use of your hard disk space and your computer’s performance.) If you have more than one computer, you will follow a different set of procedures to maintain your network more efficiently. Everyone should get rid of the digital clutter – make sure files are properly stored on network drives and not individual hard drives – and I particularly like to clean up the dizzying array of icons that finds it way on to my desk top. I also make sure my operating system is up to date, old applications that are not likely to ever again be used are removed (unless I think I will have need for them to open an archived file), and older files are properly archived. Check to make sure your e-mails are organized into named folders for prompt retrieval. Clutter does build up over time in your computer. Putting everything in apple-pie order will give you a sense of calm efficiency.