Steve Smith explains how to rein in control on your emails, applications, games and ultimately, your backups.
Episode #5-09 released on November 6, 2014
Let's face it, technology is all over the place, and with the massive amount of storage we have we can hardly think of any reason to delete anything, but it is necessary. Much like our brains delete useless information, we should delete useless things, and organize the rest of our digital lives to maintain order. In this endeavor, we will all walk as one, learning tips and tricks on how to keep on files on our devices to a minimum, avoid losing files, correct email inbox usage, and how to deal with multiple device usage scenarios.
First, emails stack up, a lot. In fact, unless I keep on top of it, I can end up storing thousands of emails of which most I read, many I reply when necessary and some are even spam. Now, what ends up happening is, when I do have a message I intend to keep, and I need to look back at it, searching for it becomes next to impossible. Even if I can search for it using built in search methods, I may have dozens, maybe hundreds of messages to go through. The solution is quite simple, delete all messages you do not intend to keep, archive those you need, and if you should need to keep messages, keeping entire conversations of email replies are not usually necessary as the constant replying usually embeds the previous messages.
Second, let us all talk about the saving of useless files. Like emails, we tend to save a lot of useless files, but what is a useless file? Well, something is not useful to keep, if we can reacquire it at any time. All those downloaded software files that come with accounts we can download from over and over again, useless. Saving drivers, useless, you should always download the latest. Now, ultimately, some of your may save these files anyway, the consequence is not going to be immediately apparent until you take into account that you will back up these files over and over again, multiplying the amount of space required to actually maintain these, technically, useless to save files.
Third, and this applies to all mobile devices and computers, unused applications and games. As a personal rule, I remove any game from my computers that I haven't played in 3 or more months. Having Steam, Origin, and Uplay means I can install them later on, if ever I want to come back to them. Having the game not installed in my computer, means that backups will be smaller. I, also, use another program to sync to the cloud my save games, just in case. Now, if I haven't played in a few weeks a game on my tablets or mobile phone, I, also, remove those. Space is limited on these devices, and having too many applications and games that aren't used may lead to less available space for photos and videos, as well as, more notifications that is worth having. In the case of computers, the fewer unused applications and games installed, the smaller backups will be. It is, also, easier to find stuff.
What does this mean for any of you? In short, delete emails you don't need, or already read, don't keep useless install files, and drivers, and uninstall any games or applications you don't use on your computer, and mobile devices. This will ultimately make your life easier, and your backups smaller and easier to do.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions