Getting more out of your battery life translates into more efficiency for your business. Whether you use Mac products, Android phones or a laptop, these tips will help you do so. And they will hopefully save you from the important missed call or downtime when you couldn’t find a place to plug in at the airport.
How to Extend Battery Life
Turn Screen Brightness Down
You don’t really need to have your screen so bright you need to squint to look at it. Dimming it down saves those battery bars too.
Get an Extended Life Battery
The chances are the folks that sold you that tablet or phone sell a battery with more juice. You’ll be happy with this accessory when you want to check back in at the shop when you’re away.
Turn Volumes Down
There are always a million bells and whistles on every device. You battery is losing power every time your phone beeps or whistles at you. Besides, a quiet phone doesn’t interrupt when you’re closing a sale.
Shorten Screen Timeouts
The chances are if you’re sitting in front of a monitor and not doing anything, you should be doing something else. A shorter screen timeout prevents daydreaming and lengthens battery life at the same time.
Don’t use a Screensaver
There are better ways to brand your business than with a screensaver. They do nothing but drain power and your logo looks better on your website anyway.
Change Your Power Plan
You can change your power settings to a few different profiles on your business desktops. There are some default settings you can change to save even more battery life.
Clean the Contacts
Sometimes, the simplest things work wonders. Taking the battery out and cleaning the contacts can make a big difference.
Defrag the Hard Drive
Defragmenting the hard drive cleans the system. In turn it operates more efficiently and uses less battery power.
Remove Unused Files
It might be nice to keep old client files around as a keepsake, but they’re a drain on your battery. Look in your downloads folder to find ones that have outlived their usefulness.
Add RAM
The more RAM you can add, the less data you need to store on a hard drive. Using the hard drive draws on your battery.
Clean Out the Cache
Your web browser stores data in your cache, which deletes the power in your battery. Cleaning the cache solves the problem quickly and easily.
Switch to Eco Mode
Finding the eco mode on your laptop will help with power consumption. This setting automatically adjusts power settings.
Close Multiple Open Tasks
You can really only do one thing at a time anyway. That’s why having several tasks open on your business computer doesn’t make any sense. It’s just another power drain.
Disable Bluetooth
If you’re not using this feature, disabling it will make a difference to your battery life.
Enable Low Power Mode
This setting can temporarily reduce power consumption. This turns off some power gobblers like automatic downloads and background app refresh.
Use Airplane Mode
If you don’t need to go on the web for business, enacting airplane mode levels power consumption off. If you’re in a place with a weak phone signal, use this until you’re in full bar territory again.
Check App Consumption
Most operating systems provide you with the ability to see which apps use the most power. After identifying the culprits, you can uninstall them. Some can be accessed through a mobile browser.
Power Down
Your smartphone or computer doesn’t need to be on 24/7. If you get in the habit of turning them on and off when you need them, you’ll save on battery usage.
Personalize Your Defaults
You can still get the most from a device without leaving all the default settings on.
You don’t really need to know every time a client posts on Facebook. Apps that want to know your location don’t always have a good business ROI.
Prevent Apps from Refreshing
There are features designed to update the apps you use most often automatically. If your iOS has this feature, you can disable it in your settings.
Turn WiFi Off
It’s ultra-convenient to be online all the time. However, your provider usually has you covered in most places so you can turn WiFi off to extend battery life. The chances are the coffee shop where you’re having a business meeting has 4G anyway.
Drain Your Battery
This will help it to will hold more power in the long run. Watch it doesn’t discharge completely, however.
Update the Software
Usually software updates include energy savers. Look for the latest technologies to be included.
Store Your Device Half Charged
If you’re storing a device while you take a much-needed vacation from your small business, watch the battery level. It should be at 50% so it works well when your power it back up.
Turn Off the Backlight
If this is set to “always on” on your device, you’ll find your battery life will be cut short. Best to use this only when you need it. Most business settings will be bright enough without it.
Low Battery Photo via Shutterstock
This article, “25 Creative Ways to Extend Battery Life on Your Business Devices” was first published on Small Business Trends