Spring clean your computer

Are you guilty of keeping every file you’ve ever created or been given?  If so, now is a good time to prepare to spring clean your computer and free up some space.

Although computers are now being made with bigger and bigger hard drives and running out of space isn’t such a problem, cleaning up will help your system run faster.  Plus, keeping old files and multiple copies only makes it harder to find something when you’re looking for it.

Here are a few handy ways you can save on disk space:

• SpaceSniffer: a good tool for figuring out which files you should delete, especially those you haven’t used in a while.
• CCleaner: another useful piece of software, which will review your files and make suggestions.
• An an old faithful of Windows is the disk defrag. This is a quarterly activity you should think about.

BUT, whichever option you consider using, it is important to save or close all your current work and the applications you are using, and do a back-up beforehand.

If you feel even slightly unsure about doing any of these, have a chat to your IT tech person first.

Emergency procedures – your back-up plan

Pilots have emergency plans. They don’t set out needing to use them and we all hope they never have to. But they’ve got them in the event of an emergency, so they know what they have to do.

In the same way you and your business should have a back-up plan.

I know this flies in the face of all the advice you receive from business coaches, self-help and positive thinking gurus. But I believe an important part of anyone’s business plan is a back-up plan – what will you do if the whole thing doesn’t work out?

You certainly should not spend every waking moment worrying about what you will do if your business fails. That’s a waste of time and a real distraction from what you need to be doing which is focusing and working to make your business a success. That’s exactly why I think it’s necessary to have a back-up plan prepared before you start out. Otherwise, you can end up wasting a lot of time and energy worrying about it in the midst of a crisis.

Just like the pilots with their emergency procedures you need to have a considered and workable solution if the worst happens.

So, my advice for anyone considering starting up a business is to give a little thought to what you would do in the unfortunate event that your business does not work out. Don’t write a huge document, but do have a real plan, then put it away and don’t think about it further.

Then, if in a month or a year, your actual and projected cash flows are miles apart and you start to panic, you can remind yourself that you have a plan just in case things go really awry. That’s comforting, and should allow you to get straight back to the things that matter – making that next sales call, thinking clearly about your next strategic move or whatever.

Having run my own business for more than 20 years now, I have been fortunate not to have needed to implement my “emergency procedures” but I do have a back-up plan of action if I ever need it. It’s one less thing to worry about while trying to run a successful business.

Work faster on Facebook

You may find it a little easier to run your business Facebook page from your computer (rather than your mobile device). If so, you might like some of these shortcut keys to make it a little quicker:

• Open up a search box: Alt+”?”
• Open the home page: Alt+1
• Your profile: Alt+2
• Open the friend requests: Alt+3
• Open the Messages box: Alt+4
• Notifications: Alt+5
• Write a new message: Alt+M

These shortcuts work with Google Chrome. They also work if you use Firefox as your browser but you need to use the Shift key before each one (so opening your home page is Alt+Shift+1).

Windows 10 update

From midnight tonight, the new Windows 10 operating system is supposed to be available. We will have to wait and see if they are on time and whether there are any issues with it, but for now here are a few key points scanned and summarised from various sources:

• Starting to roll out from 29 July
• Will roll out progressively to those who have pre-ordered
• Designed to simply upgrade your existing operating system (Windows 7 or 8)
• As with any major upgrade or change to your software, backup first! You never know what problems might occur so it pays to make sure your existing data is safe.
• If you haven’t taken up the automatic free upgrade that has been on offer for the last few months, there’s no need to worry. The free upgrade will be available for at least the next year.
• As mentioned in the last article on this topic, it seems Windows 10 will be quite a different interface from what you’re used to. There will be new functionality, a new look, and one or two things that will no longer be available.
• If you do choose to download it, it’s likely to be a large file size so make sure you’ve got good internet connection and time.

There are still many questions. Will it launch on time? Will it have bugs and issues? How will you adapt if you do download and install it?

I still have the same advice – don’t rush. Wait till the early adopters have taken it on board and identified issues, which Microsoft will hopefully fix, then when the dust has settled, and you are prepared, go for it.

 

Driven mad by auto-complete?

If you use Microsoft Outlook you’ve probably been frustrated more than once by the auto-complete address function. As soon as you start typing an email address it cleverly tries to anticipate who you are emailing. Sometimes the electronic anticipation is not so clever or you hit enter in a hurry on the wrong address. This can result in the wrong person getting a bizarre email from you on a subject that’s of no relevance to them, or worse that contains personal information meant for someone else.

There is a way to get rid of these email addresses and it’s quite simple once you know how.

When in a new email message, in the TO: prompt, start typing the name of the person that you have an incorrect (or old) email address for.  When you start to see this email address use the arrow up or down keys to select the address then simply press the [Delete] key. It’s that easy!  If the [Delete] key doesn’t work in your version, Right Mouse button on the address then select Delete.

You can also turn the auto-complete option off if you wish. It could be tempting to save mistakes, but leaving it on as long as you are careful, saves a lot of time typing email addresses or selecting contacts.

To turn it off in Outlook, (depending up on your version) go to Tools > Options > Preferences > Email Options > Advanced Email Options, then towards the bottom of the list, uncheck the box “Suggest names while completing To, CC, and BCC fields” and selecting OK. It’s a simple matter to turn it back on again by checking the same box.