Make sure you look after your tools

Your tools are there to look after you as part of your system.

So it is only right that you look after them to. I mean a chef would always make sure his favourite knife is sharp. And look how much effort racing teams put into looking after their cars. I mean without them, what would happen to our systems?

So, bearing that in mind, I now put aside a bit of time each Sunday to give my tools the love and attention they need.

MacBook Pro

As part of my maintenance schedule, I make sure that I clear some space on my hard disc. I recently bought a WD Passport to store my videos on. So, I make sure any fully edited videos are stored on here releasing any space. I’ve also recently bought Clean My Mac, and go through a full scan each Sunday just to ensure that I’m good for the week ahead.

IPad/iPhone

I carry out a similar task here and make sure that I have got rid of any screen recordings or screenshots that I may have used during the week. I would also just make sure that I close any open browsers that are not longer needed and save anything that does. I finally give them both a restart just to make sure they feel ok.

Camera

I have a quick look through my SD card and make that all of the videos of pictures are saved to my mac or external HDD, and then delete them off the card. I would then give the lens and camera a quick brush over to keep them all clean and dust free. Everything is then put away properly in my bag, and goes away until I need it again.

Desk

I give my desk a once over and make sure that everything is put away as it needs to be. I like the feeling of starting the day with a clean desk, so this is generally fine, but Sunday just makes sure I’m good for the week.

Systems

I make sure that my To Do List and any other systems are up to date for the start of the new week. I’ll give my emails a quick once over, and check my calendar for anything pressing to be aware of. I also just make sure that the inbox for my life (currently Notebook) is organised and everything has been properly filed as necessary.

Batteries

I make sure that everything is full charged for the week. This means my MacBook, iPad, Apple Pencil, iPhone, keyboards, mouse, camera, headphones. Obviously my phone, iPad and MacBook will need charging throughout the week, but it’s good to know that I don’t need to think about it on a Monday…

Goals

I’ll use this as a quick chance to look back at my habit tracker and To Do Lists to see if I have missed anything. I’ll also look at my journal and see if anything sticks out. These will all form part of my goals for the week, that are generally based around my identity. For instance, a quick look back at my journal shows I’ve been tired for the last 8 days. So I really need to priorities sleep this week.

Once I have got all of this done, I try to switch off on a Sunday evening and make the most of time with my family before work & school starts again for us all.

As usual, the systems we employ are far more important than the tools we use.

But, the tools are there to help us, and make our lives a bit more productive. In some instances, a tool being unavailable can have a real detrimental impact to our workflow.

For instance, a couple of weeks ago, my mouse died. Not a big one really, I just had to use the trackpad on my MacBook. But this meant that some of the cables didn’t reach, so I couldn’t use my external monitor. This mean that I had to keep switching between windows rather than having them side by side. All in all, my task took me an extra 30 mins. All because my mouse died….

So, this system now ensures that I won’t get in this situation again, and I would definitely recommend giving your tools a little TLC every now and then.