During the holidays we rush around to do our shopping, attending holiday parties or decorating our homes that some attention on starting 2020 off on the right note might get swept under the rug. There are just two short weeks left in 2019 which means that anyone who uses a computer for business has spent roughly 260 days on their work and even home PCs this year. That means there are close to 365 days of old emails, old files, files waiting to be deleted and general desktop clutter from 2019 on your PC. So, before your brain hits full holiday mode, let’s talk about a few ways that you can clean up your PC for a smoother start to 2020!
Purchase a flash drive or external hard drive. Depending on how frequently that you use some pictures or files, if it permitted by your company, transfer them off your PC and onto one of these devices. You will still be able to access all your files whenever you may need them and have more space on your PC for the new year.
Delete any unused or unneeded files. Go through your files and get rid of any old or unused files on your PC. It is not uncommon that we download files and forget about them, this is the perfect opportunity to purge! It is good to get into the habit of emptying the recycle bin on your PC weekly throughout the year.
Clean our your emails. Just because you click delete doesn’t mean that it’s gone! Empty the trash bin in your email and go through your inbox to delete any junk emails. This is also a great time to unsubscribe from any emails that are no longer useful for you to be receiving.
Create folders. A great way to declutter your PC and Inbox is to do some organizing. Create a good filing system that works for you and go through your files and emails categorizing them into folders. This will help to save you time when you are trying to locate documents and emails.
Send it to the cloud. An off-site cloud backup is the best way for you to store your files with peace of mind. No matter how organized your desktop is or how many flash drives you have, that won’t matter if your computer is compromised. Using a service like Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox are great, but they are not backup services and will likely be corrupted or encrypted as well if your computer is compromised. Get a service like IDrive, Acronis or SOS Online Backup for your personal files, or talk to us here at tech42 about your business data. A good backup solution allows you to go back in time before corruption or encryption takes place and will also protect you against accidental deletion!
Now that you have a clean slate to keep your PC organization going throughout the year. You can even make it a goal in 2020 to practice this organization more often doing monthly or even weekly. We know how difficult it can be to decide on which products are best for your PC so please remember that we are always here to help!
Happy Holidays Everyone & Cheers to 2020 and a more organized life!
