MAC OSX TIPS & TRICKS
Lean, Clean, Computing Machine
Let us begin with a topic/subject/situation that I remedied many years ago and am still refining the process. CLUTTER!!!
With a nod of your head and an honest admittance, who reading this has too many emails in their Mail Application, duplicate files and such in several locations on your computer, pictures scattered all over the hard drive, NO ORGANIZATION AT ALL?
REMOVE CLUTTER
External storage device
First thing to do is get yourself a removable storage device such as a Zip drive, USB memory stick, or an external hard drive to store and back up files that you feel you need to keep. This is essential for getting clutter off of your computer.
We all feel we need to keep somethings and in most cases there are things that we need to keep, I do.
Files
Which files to keep and which ones to throw away?
A tough question, but the question one should ask is, “Do I Really Need To Keep This?”
You may think you might, and I have gone through this and still do.
Folders
On my external devices, I have many, I have created folders for Apps, Personal, Business, Shopping, websites, and so forth, and inside them for example Personal, I have created folders for specific items: Emails, notes, newsletters from various writing and video websites, and so forth.
You want to sort it out and group by subject and topic. Once this is done, finding things is a breeze.
The biggest hassle one has, and I know, is finding time to do this, as we are all busy or are just too lazy to do it. So I have created folders called Downloads, Printer Ready, and toSort (store, file, trash [I have tried many names for the folder. I also have a secondary trash folder for things that I do not want but am not sure if I need them, so I keep them for a week or so and if I have not used them, then they go in the trash]) and every week or two, I clean out these folders and sort them into their respective folders, sometimes updating older files or deleting them, basically staying up to date. Yes, this is time consuming, but it beats having clutter, and I despise clutter and so does your computer.
MAC OSX MAINTENANCE
Lean, Clean, Computing Machine
Let us begin with a topic/subject/situation that I remedied many years ago and am still refining the process. CLUTTER!!!
With a nod of your head and an honest admittance, who reading this has too many emails in their Mail Application, duplicate files and such in several locations on your computer, pictures scattered all over the hard drive, NO ORGANIZATION AT ALL?
Be honest… This is a small sampling from my father-in-laws Mac. His desktop is like windows overflowing. His hard drive is partitioned into several smaller partitions and I find the same files on each partition, unfinished documents from years ago, pictures scattered with no organization at all, such as, naming conventions for the files and folders. His email application has over 1000 emails in over 100 different folders, and when he asks me to help him with some small trouble or how to do something, I cringe when I sit down in front of it. He now, takes everything off the desktop and puts it into one folder, which is good, but there are 12 folders like that on his computer with his junk in it that has never been sorted through.
In all my years on the Mac, the Mac wants to be lean and clean to be a powerful computing machine. having your Hard Drive 90 percent full with crud is one way to slow it down and cause problems.
My System
Since day one, I have been involved with devising a system and routine that works for me to keep my Mac's running smoothly and to keep myself organized for when I really want to find something I need. This is what works for me.
I run several websites, both business and personal, so I have access to unlimited email accounts, plus I use several webmail accounts as well. I have 30 email addresses I check on a weekly, daily, and some, on an hourly basis. Emails from freinds I delete after reading them, those from so-called-freinds that send jokes, fwd's, and other crap, I tell them not to and do not give them my personal email address; they get to use the web-based ones. if you cannot send me a personal email that says hello and how you are doing, do not send me anything!
If there is something of importance in the personal emais I may keep them until I have time to deal with it, but I like dealing with it then. I do not keep any emails longer than a month.
