pdwyer

/Patricia Dwyer

About Patricia Dwyer

My experience with both computers and management makes me uniquely qualified to help you manage your digital life. We’ll start with a free one-hour phone consultation so that I can understand your systems and your needs, and then we’ll agree on a plan to address those needs. At the completion of our plan, you’ll be well on the way to understanding and managing your digital life.

Which Password Manager is Right for My Devices and Digital Lifestyle?

In my blog post here: How to Manage Your Passwords, I recommend using a password manager and I give a few suggestions for programs based on what my clients are using.
Which password manager is best for you and what is the difference between them?
I use LastPass because I have multiple types of device – Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Since LastPass is a browser plugin for Windows & Mac and an app for Android & […]

By |June 1st, 2016|Password Management|Comments Off on Which Password Manager is Right for My Devices and Digital Lifestyle?

Don’t Take My Post-it Notes Away

Are you someone who still uses post-it notes for to-dos?
You’re not alone. For a visual person, it can be helpful to glance at those colorful notes to see what’s next in the queue. If you’ve read my post on task management here: How to Stay on Target with Your Goals, then you know that there are some visual task management systems. There are also project management systems that have returned to using post-it notes.
One […]

By |May 31st, 2016|Digital Chaos Control, Task Management|Comments Off on Don’t Take My Post-it Notes Away

3 Reasons to Stop Using Email as a To-do List

Staying on top of email chaos is not easy.
Even after you’ve followed the steps to manage your email inbox (see my blog post here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive), you still need to deal with those emails that need a follow-up task. How do you make sure that you get those done, and that they don’t get lost in the daily shuffle?

There may be event invitations that you leave in your Inbox to remember […]

By |May 27th, 2016|Digital Chaos Control, Email Management, Task Management|Comments Off on 3 Reasons to Stop Using Email as a To-do List

How to Stay on Target with Your Goals

What is productivity?
Productivity means performing on target according to your goals and deadlines. Let’s say your goal is to create a social media presence and have twenty followers. You’ll need to set a deadline to achieve that goal, break it down into achievable tasks, and assign a due date for each task.

If you’re working unproductively, you won’t meet your goals by the deadline. This results in missed opportunities, loss of income, and perhaps a drop […]

By |May 23rd, 2016|Cloud Services, Digital Chaos Control, Task Management|Comments Off on How to Stay on Target with Your Goals

How to Manage Your Passwords

We have online accounts for so many things these days – email, social networking, cloud services, financial services, medical accounts, even the local library. Security experts tell us that passwords should be long, cryptic, and unique for each account, but if you follow their guidelines, how can you possibly remember all of your passwords?
You’re trading security for convenience and saying hello to digital frustration.
I recommend handing over control to those security experts by signing up for […]

By |May 19th, 2016|Digital Chaos Control|Comments Off on How to Manage Your Passwords

Be Sure That Your Memories are Safe

In the above still from an episode of the TV show “The Middle”, Sue Heck had accidently deleted all the family photos. No one had taken on the responsibility of backing up the computer and keeping those memories safe. (The Hecks probably could have taken the computer to a data recovery tech, but who wants to have to do that?)

In this article in the Guardian, Amy Malloy wrote about losing the photographic record of her 20s, […]

By |May 17th, 2016|Back-Ups, Digital Chaos Control|1 Comment

4 Ways to Add More Computer Storage Space

One way that laptops are getting thinner and lighter is by replacing the hard disk drive with a solid-state drive (SSD). An SSD has no mechanical moving parts so it’s faster, lighter, and more robust. Sounds ideal for a portable device, right?

Yes and no. SSDs are ideal functionally but they cost more per byte than hard drives. To keep the overall cost of the laptop down, you get less storage space. (Here’s a detailed article […]

By |May 13th, 2016|Computer Management, Digital Chaos Control, Storage Management|Comments Off on 4 Ways to Add More Computer Storage Space

3 Ways to Keep Your Digital Life Organized

Have you ever found yourself wasting time and getting frustrated because you can’t find something on your computer?
And what if you don’t have your computer with you? Can you pull up that photo on your mobile device that you’d like to show off?
Wouldn’t it be nice if you were so efficient and organized that you don’t even have to think about how to find something?
You may not be able to get to the level […]

By |May 11th, 2016|Cloud Services, Digital Chaos Control, File Management, Storage Management|Comments Off on 3 Ways to Keep Your Digital Life Organized

How to Backup Multiple Computers

We’ve got five computers in our household. We’re almost like a small business – we need regular maintenance and backup. Rather than set up a separate backup device for each computer, I elected to go with a network-attached storage (NAS) device.
You connect the NAS device to your internet router. Your computer sees it as a network device that it can use for backup.
It’s a great way to add storage for backup and also for shared […]

By |May 9th, 2016|Back-Ups, Computer Management, Digital Chaos Control|Comments Off on How to Backup Multiple Computers

How to Remain Productive

If you’re using the GTD (“Getting Things Done”) method to stay productive, as outlined in my Evernote blog here: How to Implement “GTD” in Evernote (or even if you’re not, but you do have task lists), you may find yourself with an ever-growing “Next Actions” list, and/or “Someday/Maybe” list. Having a to-do list that just keeps growing can feel discouraging and can affect your “perceived” productivity.
There are many factors that can keep you from being […]

By |May 6th, 2016|Digital Chaos Control, Evernote, Task Management|Comments Off on How to Remain Productive