Update Your Versioned Backup

One important component of the backup strategy I recommend (refer back to Set Up a Backup System) is versioned backups. This means that after your first full backup, each successive backup copies only those files (or portions thereof) that are new, or have changed, since the previous time. And it keeps the previous copies of the files, so you can go back to an earlier version if you accidentally modify a file you shouldn’t have changed (plus, files you delete on your regular disk remain in the backup).

At a minimum, be sure your backup app updates your versioned backups once a day (and more often is even better). Although I recommend backing up all your files, if you have to be selective, at least be sure you make a daily copy of any files you could not recreate in a matter of minutes, such as your saved email, photographs, and any documents you’ve spent hours working on during the day.

If you’re using Time Machine, Backblaze, or any of the numerous other backup apps that work continuously in the background—or if you configured your backup software to run on a schedule—this happens automatically and you need not take any explicit action. And if you aren’t using automated backups of some sort, please reconsider. In my experience, Murphy’s Law tends to apply here: the day you forget to back up your files manually is the day you lose data!

Once you’ve confirmed that backups are occurring at least daily, you no longer have to worry about manually performing this daily task. But even if your backup software runs automatically, you should verify that the backup worked and your files can be restored. I classify that as a monthly task; see Test Your Backups.

Check for Software Updates

In Turn On Automatic App Store and macOS Updates, I suggested setting the App Store to check for, and download, any new updates from Apple (and optionally third parties) daily. If you followed that advice, any available updates download in the background, and an alert informs you when they’re ready to install. (As I mentioned earlier, if you selected the “Install system data files and security updates” checkbox, then those types of updates will be installed without prompting.)

So your daily task is more of a don’t than a do: on the days when that inevitable alert appears, asking if you want to install the latest Apple software updates, read about the updates but consider postponing installation for a few days—in other words, don’t click Install, but rather Later, and choose Try Tonight or Remind Me Tomorrow from the pop-up menu. I say this for two reasons:

• Software updates take some time, and you may not have the time available at the instant the App Store says new software is ready. At home, Saturday mornings might work well for updating software; at the office, a weekday morning could be better (see Install App Store Software Updates, a suggested weekly task).

• In the unlikely event that an update has problems, waiting gives you a buffer. On sites like iMore, TidBITS, and MacInTouch, you can get a sense of whether an update has any serious issues. However, take isolated problem reports with a grain of salt. Updates can fail—or appear to fail—for many reasons, including user error. If one or two people cry wolf, that shouldn’t dissuade you from updating.

Exception: If an update fixes a problem that’s been interfering with your work, by all means install it right away—especially if the update doesn’t require a restart.

Empty Your Inbox

Next to the desktop (or in some cases even ahead of it), the email inbox is where Mac users tend to accumulate the most clutter. My own habit, for many years, has been to keep my inbox as close as possible to empty, as much of the time as I can. Right now, I’m embarrassed to say it’s positively bursting at the seams with seven messages, but in my defense, I’ve been unusually busy these past few days. It’ll be back down to zero in another day or two, because that is the only state compatible with my sanity!

I recognize that advice to empty your inbox every day is highly controversial. I know people who regularly have tens of thousands of messages in their inboxes. Of those, some feel utterly overwhelmed, while others are perfectly content because their organizational strategy doesn’t rely on the inbox to indicate which messages need attention.

My point is not to dictate a particular strategy for managing email, but rather to urge you to adopt some strategy. Whether you want to literally empty your inbox or use some other approach that fits your personality better, what I’m really suggesting here is to make sure, every day, that you keep up with your email. If you add this to your (very brief) list of daily maintenance activities, it may become a habit.

If you’re starting from scratch, I’d like to recommend my (award-winning!) five-part Macworld series Empty your Inbox, in which I lay out a somewhat simplified version of my own approach. A few of my key principles are:

• Eliminate spam—at the server if possible, or if not, then using software on your Mac such as SpamSieve.

• Unsubscribe from mailing lists.

• Encourage friends and colleagues to contact you using Messages, Slack, Skype, FaceTime, or another mechanism for brief messages, especially if they require prompt attention.

• Don’t use your inbox as a to do list. Put to do items on your actual to do list (for example, in Reminders) and get the messages out of your inbox.

• Take immediate action on every message when possible; for example, delete, reply, archive, or move to a mailbox you’ll clear out at the end of the day.

• Use rules to filter messages that don’t require immediate action into mailboxes for later review.

I use Apple Mail with a handful of third-party plugins, and that setup suits me fine. Other than server-side spam filtering and sorting rules, I don’t use any special services or apps.

As I say, though, you don’t have to do things my way. There are alternative organizational systems, such as Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero approach and David Allen’s Getting Things Done. There are cloud-based email management services like AwayFind and SaneBox. And there are Mac apps with fancy features for taming your email, such as Airmail, Postbox, and Unibox.

Pick a winner—but don’t let your email get out of control.