Keeping Your Tech Right
A new year gives you a new chance to improve your life, but it’s time to start including your technology in those new year’s resolutions. It’s that time of year again. Perhaps you want to get fit and work out more or maybe you’re aiming for a new relationship or a new job.
It’s all about self-care, isn’t it? Well, self-care isn’t just about pampering your body. Self-care has evolved to include your physical, mental and emotional health. There’s a big connection between your wellbeing and how you interact with technology. So, if you’re making plans for the new year, you’d be wise to include your relationship to all things tech in your life.
1. Home Office Upgrades
With so many people now working remotely, the stresses of work have left us with nowhere to hide. Your home office should be a zen launchpad for productivity and creativity. Yet, a tangle of black cables, wires, and random devices can cause a mental breakdown if you let it get too far out of hand. There’s no shortage of cable management gadgets and gimmicks that you can buy, but most people don’t implement them properly. They just get tossed in a drawer and add to the clutter.
You could try something different this year. One way to upgrade your home office for the new year is by adding some stylish and functional furniture pieces. Maybe you’d like a book stop that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker or a desk that has integrates storage cubbies. Tame your tech by installing some furniture pieces that integrate with your computers.
For example, there’s a nifty piece of furniture from 4Dimension® that can hold multiple laptops, wrangle cables, and organize physical files. The “Zed” is made of birch plywood manipulated by 3D cutting and molding. The surface is coated with eco-friendly and non-toxic paints. The metal panel marked with radial holes found on the side can be used functionally with hooks. The zed Multi-Purpose Furniture serves as a side table, stool, or home storage, easily manipulated for various usage patterns. It’s unique and stylish, and only costs around $200.
2. Clean Your Laptop, Desktop, and Smartphone
You know what they say – cleanliness is next to godliness. Well, if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to promote self-care for your technology, then you should consider giving your laptop, desktop computer, and smartphone a good cleaning.
Research conducted by CBT Nuggets in 2016 found that your computer or laptop keyboard is 20,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat. Your smartphone didn’t fare much better. It was found to be 9,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat. It comes as little surprise when you think about how many times you touch it throughout the day.
It’s not difficult to keep your tech clean if you keep some supplies on hand. You can buy a pack of disposable cleaning wipes for under $5 dollars and keep them near your desk. Make it part of your routine to give your laptop or desktop computer a wipedown at the end of the day. You can also keep a pack of cleaning wipes in your laptop bag. If you really want to max out your tech self-care, then check out this portable cleaning kit from Amazon that costs less than $10.
3. The Zero Inbox Method
The new year is a great time to start fresh. People start new diets, new workout routines, and new relationships. So, why not start fresh with your imbox. An email account nearing its more-than-generous data limit can create anxiety and a loss of productivity as you ignore just about everything that piles up in your inbox.
You might want to consider trying the zero inbox method. It was created by Merlin Mann, a productivity expert who came up with the crazy idea of operating from an empty email inbox. That’s right; your email inbox can be completely empty, and the world will not end. Just imagine getting an email notification in 2023 and you don’t have to worry about losing it in the sea of clutter in your inbox.
Well, it’s easier than you think. You can just delete everything that’s currently in your inbox. After all, it’s the start of a new year. Unsubscribe from all those useless, spammy newsletters. Delete those old promotional offers. Cut and slash with reckless abandon and you just might be on your way to a stress-free new year.
Still on the fence about the zero inbox method? Well, here’s the creator of the technique speaking about it below.
4. Treat Your Smartphone Better
So many self-care rituals involve our physical bodies, but our smartphones have become extensions of ourselves. If you want to improve your quality of life in the new year, then you should consider treating your smartphone better. You’re going to spend a lot of time with it so why not do what you can to improve the quality of that time in the new year.
You can start by upgrading your smartphone accessories. You’d be surprised at how a new phone case can brighten up your day. Don’t just go for something scratch-resistant and water-repellent. Go beyond the mere functionality of your smartphone case in the new year and get yourself a case that reflects your personality. Bunny ears, bling, Burger King, anything goes when it comes to smartphone cases.
If your car doubles as your office for impromptu monologues in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, then you might want to upgrade to a new car mount for your smartphone. Don’t just prop it up against the air conditioning vents. You can grab an adjustable one from Amazon for around $20 dollars. It’ll make your life easier and help keep your smartphone in good condition.
5. Organize and Optimize Your Smartphone
While you’re at it, there are lots of things you can do to make your smartphone work better for you in the new year. Don’t avoid your smartphone’s settings because you think it’s just too complicated. Those settings are there to make your time with tech easier. If you think about it, there’s probably so many things that your smartphone does automatically that totally annoy you, but you haven’t taken the time to fix.
One thing you can do is adjust the amount of time before your screen times out. It can be thirty seconds or ten minutes, depending on how you use your phone. This can save battery life and avoid having to put your password in a million times a day.
You can take this time to optimize your home screen icons and folders. Put apps that you use most on the first page and push everything else to the back so that you find what you want to see much faster. You can also group certain apps and functions together like everything from Google in a single folder or all social media apps on the same page.
Another thing you can do to save battery life is put your phone on power saving mode while you’re traveling in the car. You’re not going to use your phone as much while you’re driving (hopefully) so why allow it to waste your battery life. Just make a quick adjustment to the settings when you’re getting in your car, and you’ll extend the battery life of your smartphone when you really need it the most.
Level Up Your Tech
If you’re making big plans for the new year, you can improve your life by optimizing your relationship with technology. Working from home, living out of our inboxes, and cradling our smartphones to sleep at night isn’t going anywhere. Believe it or not, self-care can include your smartphone. So, think about how you can improve that relationship in 2023. Good luck and happy new year.
