The Weekly IT Maintenance Day

A couple of months ago, I created a new weekly habit. Ever since, on every Wednesday morning, I go through a list of maintenance tasks to keep my little farm of technological devices content and healthy.

The idea for that sparked a while earlier. There was a day where I had to wait for updates on mobile apps or operating systems multiple times. This usually doesn’t happen too often, but those updates tend to always show up in the wrong moment and can cause frustration.

Another even more important reason for doing this is security. I recently started listening to some IT security-related podcasts. That made me more aware of just how often there are crazy vulnerabilities in major software. A good way of reducing the probability of being victim of an exploit, besides being mindful with software usage, is frequent updates.

Physical maintenance also plays a role, both to keep devices healthy in the long run and to keep me happy, so I don’t have to discover that my laptop battery is dead just at the moment I wanted to use it. That’s why charging devices is part of my weekly routine. Though this only applies to frequently used devices, because for long-term storage, having the battery at full load is a bad idea.

Without further ado, may I present the current list.

• Restart the router, check for router updates, and have a look across the home network.
• Charge all the Bluetooth devices, like the watch and headphones (might check for updates, but unlikely).
• Charge and restart the phone or tablet, and check for Android or iOS updates.
• On any device with an app store, update apps.
• Charge and restart laptops.
• Check PCs/laptops for OS updates.
• Check all browsers for updates.
• Check virtual OS for updates too, like Linux in WSL.

This looks like a long list, but it doesn’t actually take too long, and it makes sure everything runs smoothly for the rest of the week. It’s quite common to have a fixed routine for many maintenance tasks at home, like wiping dust, cleaning floors, and cleaning the bathroom, but when it comes to electronic devices, I have the feeling most people don’t like to keep them updated and “clean.”

There are many more things I can think of integrating into a weekly software maintenance day. Most of us have a digital life that leaves piles of data everywhere. Slowly, digital folders get filled, e-mail inboxes start spanning multiple pages, and the phone is filled with gigabytes of useless, random images. I don’t have a fixed maintenance day for that yet, but maybe some day I will. I believe cleaning up the digital space can be just as refreshing as cleaning up at home.

• IT