Early Spring Cleaning for Your Technology
While we aren’t yet in meteorological spring, on the next chilly, rainy day while you are waiting for the last frost before you start your garden or outdoor activities, take some time do some technology “spring cleaning”. Whether optimizing your devices, adding some automation, or finally unsubscribing from all the unread emails, there are lots of things to do to prepare for the warm months ahead. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Delete Items in the Downloads Folder
Over time you have likely downloaded files from the Internet – white papers, images, music, documents and more – and they may still live in your computer’s Downloads folder. Take a moment to go take a look at the folder (in Mac or in Windows 10 in File Explorer – This PC – Downloads) and either move the file to a more appropriate location or delete it!
Add Some Automation
There are many tools to help you reduce repetitive tasks and streamline your work. From tools like Zapier that can do things like send information collected from JotForm to Clio, or PowerAutomate (f/k/a Flow) in Microsoft 365 to copy attachments from emails to a OneDrive folder, to TextExpander to insert clauses into emails and documents or ActiveWords to trigger actions, pick a few processes in the firm that slow you down and see how you can improve them. You may already have the tools you need to improve document generation. Take the time to pick one or two to reap the benefits. Here are few simple things you can do to get started.
Tune Up Your PC
Windows 10 has a lot of built in tools to tune up your machine. For example, you can set the disc defragmenter to run automatically so you never have to remember to optimize your hard drive again. However, if you have a solid-state drive (SSD) you don’t need to defragment it. You can also turn on Storage Sense to automatically get rid of temporary files and items in your Recycle Bin. You can also manage which apps start when you boot your computer. When you install software, the default is to run at startup so after a while if you notice startup is sluggish you can clean that list up. This PCMag article has all the instructions.
Review Your Contacts
You have contacts stored in a variety of places, some intentional and some not so much. Review contacts in your Outlook or Google contacts, a contacts manager or CRM, your law practice management application, and if you send out email newsletters check the bounce logs. And, what about the contacts you store on your smartphone. Why? Some contacts may be deceased. Others may have duplicate records. Still more have outdated information. A quick scan can help you delete or update the information you know or at least move you toward dealing with it. You do not want to inadvertently email someone at their old firm or company. A lesser-known source of contacts is the auto-complete in MS Outlook and Gmail. Consider reviewing those as well to make sure you don’t inadvertently email the wrong person.
Change All of Your Passwords
If you use the same passwords repeatedly, use short passwords, or were using LastPass password manager, you probably should change your passwords. You can also check to see if your email address has been involved in a data breach or exposed on the Dark Web by checking HaveIBeenPwnd. You need not create a login for HaveiBeenPwnd. While you are digging around changing your passwords, go ahead and enable two factor authentication (using an authenticator when you can). You should probably do some checking to see what devices have logged into your account and remove them if you don’t recognize them. You can also see what apps have access to your account and remove them if you no longer need them.
Unsubscribe from Email
If you want to reduce the number of email newsletters you receive, but still get the information, you can getting them into your Feedly or InoReader (Feed Readers) instead of your inbox.
Otherwise, to unsubscribe to emails you might need to do it the slow way. There were great tools like Unroll.me to help you bulk unsubscribe to emails. Unfortunately, Unroll.me also scraped data to sell to advertisers. Fortunately, there are other ways to unsubscribe to bulk emails, including searching across your email for “unsubscribe” and then one by one unsubscribing from newsletters, promotional email, and other items you no long want to get. There are apps like Unsubscriber from Clean Email that will help organize your email and assist with bulk unsubscribes, but to preserve your privacy you must pay $30 a year.
Keep in mind that we are talking about legitimate email that complies with CAN-SPAM. There are plenty of phishers who will send spam to you and the unsubscribe link at the least confirms there is a live fish on the hook. If you have doubts about the legitimacy of an email don’t click the unsubscribe button. Instead mark it as spam and if you are really feeling miffed you can report it to the FTC.
Offload Unused Apps
On your iPhone or iPad you have likely downloaded many apps, some of which you rarely use. The iOS has an “Offload Unused App” feature that will help identify which apps you don’t use often. If you use this feature, it will remove the app, but not any data associated with the app so you can reinstall it if necessary and not have lost any information. If you want to get rid of the app and its data you can manually uninstall the app. Want to see what is taking up precious space? Head over to Settings and in General View tap “Usage” then “Manage Storage”. You can see what it is taking up space and remove old files and apps you may not use. Downloaded files, like PDFs, can also take up space so you can delete those too.
Clean Up Your Browser(s)
If you use a web browser – Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari, etc. – they store history, logins, cookies, and more. Go into your browser settings and periodically remove the browsing history, download history, cookies, and cached images and files. Be aware that if you clear cookies it will log you out of websites so you need to know your passwords (a good reminder to not rely on your browser as a password manager). Some sites may load more slowly after this. However, all this stored information is a privacy erosion. Also, look through your browser extensions. If you are not using them then just uninstall them. You can always get them re-installed.
Upgrade and Update
Is the clock ticking on support for your Office suite? Your version of Adobe Acrobat? Any other installed products? It is best to start planning for upgrade or replacement now, rather than have something bad happen that can often end up being very costly. Review the apps on your phone. Are some too old to get updated? What about your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone? Too old to install a supported operating system or get security patches? You get to go shopping!
Review Your Backup Strategy
You may have moved to more cloud applications during the pandemic. Are they being backed up? Are more folks doing work on laptops and saving documents locally or to external drives? Are those being backed up? Are your primary systems like installed QuickBooks or TimeMatters adequately backed up? Can they be backed up? Review your backups and make sure that you are backing up everything that you can, including cloud storage, to avert disaster. Once you have done so periodically do a test restore.
Review your Security
Whether you hire a company to do test your systems as ethical hackers, or DIY, make sure that you have implemented basic best practices for security and trained your team to recognize phishing threats. Are your smartphones protected? It is a lot to think about, but it is arguably your ethical duty under Rule 1.1 (Competency) to understand the benefits and risks of relevant technology and protect your client’s (and your firms) information as best you can.