As a freelancer, laptop maintenance is absolutely vital. You’re going to want to keep your laptop performing at its optimum, and in top shape for as long as possible. In this post, I’ll share some of the laptop maintenance tips I have picked up so far.
I’ll start by sharing what happened to me before I took laptop maintenance seriously before sharing 5 laptop maintenance tips.
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In my time, I’ve had two MAJOR laptop disasters!
The first one resulted from me attempting to carry my laptop down the stairs whilst it was open…
As you may have guessed already, I managed to drop it down the stairs, damaging the hinges.
The moral of the story is to always close your laptop when carrying it down the stairs. Or even better, don’t drop it down the stairs.
After dropping it, it was never the same again. I had to place a stack of books behind the screen to keep it upright. Not ideal.
The second disaster was just bizarre.
At the time, I only had my new laptop for a few months. I was using it and went to bring the screen closer to me.
Somehow, my thumb went straight through the screen!
The colour quickly drained from the screen and wouldn’t turn on.
Luckily, I was able to get the screen replaced free of charge. However, it did really slow me down as I had to use my super slow old laptop whilst getting it fixed.
Moral of the story, it’s probably best to avoid touching the screen (unless it’s a touch screen of course)
Now I take my laptop maintenance very seriously. Even though I save most of my work on the cloud, I simply can’t afford anything happening to my laptop!
Ok so with that said, let’s talk about the ways you can protect your laptop, with these laptop maintenance tips!
Get a hardshell case
Asides from looking cool, hardshell cases will protect the exterior of your laptop free from scratches, dents and general wear and tear.
It will also provide some support if you happen to drop your laptop.
Keeping your laptop scratch-free and in an excellent condition will be great if you decide to trade in your laptop to get money towards a new one in the future.
I purchased a purple, inexpensive hardshell case from Amazon. Once it arrived, I simply clipped both parts of the plastic case onto my laptop.
Protect your keyboard
Once you’ve got yourself a hardshell case in your favourite colour, the next thing to do is to get a keyboard cover.
Tip – don’t do what I did and purchase a Spanish keyboard cover (unless you type in Spanish) for the completely wrong laptop. I think I got distracted by the fact that it was this cool ombre purple colour.
The keyboard cover will prevent crumbs, dust and anything else getting stuck in between the keys. There’s nothing worse than having a random sticky key.
Keep your laptop safe whilst travelling (key laptop maintenance tip!)
If you’re like me, you love going to a co-working space or coffee shop once in a while to get out of the house and mingle with other freelancers.
Before I started taking laptop maintenance seriously, I would just bundle my laptop into my handbag and be on my way.
Now I’ve got myself a laptop cover, that I use when travelling. And yes… it’s a purple one!
Look after your charger
Chargers can be extremely costly to replace.
Ideally, you want to preserve the one that comes with your laptop in pristine condition for as long as possible.
I consciously try to make sure that my charger doesn’t get tangled, and that the cord right by the port that connects into the laptop doesn’t bend as this can cause the outer casing to get damaged.
When I purchased my travel case, it came with a small pouch for the charger. When travelling I wrap the cord around the plug and keep it in the little pouch.
Get an anti-scratch screen protector
Ok, if you want to go the extra mile in protecting your laptop, get an anti-scratch screen cover.
You can pick up a cheap one on Amazon. Make sure you get the right size!
Look out for one that is:
-anti-scratch
-anti-glare
-anti-fingerprint
Implementing these laptop maintenance tips
So there we have it, 5 tips to protect your laptop hardware from damaged.
You know the saying – it’s better to be safe than sorry!
This is certainly true when it comes to your laptop, especially when you are a freelancer.
If your laptop gets damaged, it can have a drastic impact on your ability to get work done whilst potentially being costly to get repaired.
Adina Pascall
