Keep it all in order in twenty minutes
A short routine that keeps everything in order, and a clear list of the things not worth doing at all.
A digital life does not need constant maintenance. It needs a short look every few months, and then nothing.
Key points
- Four times a year, twenty minutes: backup, Downloads, storage, updates, permissions
- A backup you have never restored from is a hope — pull one file out
- Cleaner and optimiser programs are the one thing to stay away from
What to remember
- Doing them together, four times a year, is what works.
- Restore one file. Not the whole computer — one photograph, out and open on the screen.
Try this
Put a repeating entry in your calendar now — “twenty minutes: digital tidy-up” — for the first Saturday of each quarter.
Practice: Keep it all in order in twenty minutes. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.