A sluggish Mac can be a headache to use. Of course, no one wants a machine that takes forever to boot up or open a mere word document. However, it is expected that your computer will slow down over time, but you can still do your best to keep it running as good as new. The good news is that you can optimize your computer’s speed at zero cost with a few hacks. You need to clean up and take steps to optimize your Mac. Here are a few ways to do so:
Get rid of old and unused apps
Cleaning up your Mac computer will involve deleting all the cruft that you have accumulated over time. Unused apps fill out space, thus slowing down your computer as your disk space fills up. Well, you need to look out for the apps that you installed but no longer use. For example, if you had several photo editing apps installed on your computer, it is time to remove them and only remain with the current apps that you use often. You will realize that the old apps may not be entirely visible on your system, but they stay hidden and consume a lot of space.
Move on and open the Applications folder and sort the apps by size, with the largest at the top. This will give you a glimpse into the apps you have installed, and you can determine which ones to uninstall and which ones to keep.
Clean out your storage space
After uninstalling and deleting the unwanted apps, it is time to dig around for those old files and junk that is slowing your machine. Again, the OS makes it easy to find and remove huge files using the built-in storage manager. Go through the large files in your computer, such as old movies, duplicated photos, and application files that you do not use. Deleting these files will help you get more space on your computer to store more relevant files. You can also use a cleaner app to keep tabs on junk build up on the Mac and let you delete them before it slows your machine. Getting rid of junk and old files will definitely increase the speed of your computer. This will increase your productivity and reduce the chances of system breakdown. It will also clean up any malicious files that might be a threat to you.
Delete browser caches
Your Mac computer stores a lot of cache files as you surf the web. The cache files make your browsing experience easier and faster, but if they build up, they may take up a lot of space on your computer, hence slowing it down. You can use a cleaning application to remove all the caches and speed up your computer. Alternatively, you can delete them manually from your browsing history. Again, you can use a cleaner tool to help you handle cache build up on the background instead of doing it the manual way.
Final remarks
A slow computer will get you waiting for long to run even the simplest of processes. This could be inconveniencing enough and may affect your productivity if you use it for work. The smartest way around this common Mac problem is to regularly clean up your computer to free up space and optimize its speed.
