Quick fixes for your PC, phone and tablet that take less time than making a cup of coffee.
We all have that list of things we’re going to do when we have some spare time.
Clean out the garage. Organize the closet. Sort 11 years of digital photos. Figure out why the printer says it’s offline when it’s sitting RIGHT THERE.
We’re not doing any of that today.
These are 60-second fixes — little things you can do to your PC, phone or tablet right now that can free up storage, save battery life, improve performance or simply make your technology less annoying.
You don’t need to be a computer expert. You don’t need to buy anything. And we’re definitely not spending Saturday afternoon reorganizing 38,000 photos into folders labeled by year.
Pick one. Spend a minute. Make something a little better.
Feeling ambitious? Do two.
Look at you, overachiever.
1. RESTART THE DARN THING
SPEED IT UP
Let’s begin with the oldest trick in the tech-support book.
If your PC, phone or tablet is acting weird, restart it.
Not turn off the screen.
Not close the laptop lid.
Not put it down for an hour and hope it uses that time to think about what it’s done.
Actually restart it.
A restart clears out temporary processes, can finish pending updates and gives the operating system a fresh start.
Does it fix everything?
No.
Does it fix a ridiculous number of things?
Yes.
Your 60-second fix: Find the power controls and choose Restart.
2. CLOSE SOME OF THOSE 47 BROWSER TABS
FREE UP MEMORY
Look at the top of your browser.
How many tabs are open?
Five? Fine.
Twelve? Understandable.
Forty-seven? We need to talk.
Open tabs can consume memory, and some websites continue doing things in the background even when you’re not looking at them.
Your 60-second fix: Close every tab you don’t actually need.
And that article you’ve kept open for three weeks because you’re definitely going to read it?
You’re not.
Close it.
3. DELETE ONE GIANT VIDEO
FREE UP SPACE
Videos are storage hogs.
That 14-minute video you accidentally recorded from inside your purse may be consuming a surprising amount of space.
Open your Photos or Gallery app and look through your videos.
Your 60-second fix: Find one large video you definitely don’t need and delete it.
Bonus points if it’s 11 minutes of the floor because you didn’t realize the camera was running.
4. EMPTY THE TRASH
ACTUALLY FREE UP SPACE
You deleted the files.
Great.
Unfortunately, many devices don’t immediately get rid of them.
Windows puts deleted files in the Recycle Bin. Phones and tablets often have Trash or Recently Deleted folders.
Until those are emptied, your unwanted files may still be taking up space.
Your 60-second fix: Empty the Recycle Bin or check your Photos/Gallery app for Recently Deleted.
Just make sure there’s nothing in there you actually want first.
Once it’s really gone, it’s really gone.
5. FIRE ONE STARTUP APP
SPEED UP YOUR PC
Turn on your Windows PC and half the programs you’ve ever installed may immediately report for duty.
Spotify is ready.
Teams is ready.
Some printer utility from 2019 is VERY ready.
You didn’t ask for any of them.
On Windows, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, then choose Startup apps.
Your 60-second fix: Find one program you recognize that doesn’t need to start every time Windows does and disable its automatic startup.
You’re not uninstalling it.
You’re just telling it, “I’ll call you when I need you.”
Don’t recognize something? Leave it alone.
6. DELETE ONE APP YOU NEVER USE
DITCH THE DEAD WEIGHT
We all have them.
The game you played twice.
The restaurant app from a vacation three states away.
The photo editor you downloaded, hated and immediately replaced.
They’re still there.
Your 60-second fix: Find one app or program you’re absolutely certain you no longer use and uninstall it.
One down.
Only 63 questionable life choices to go.
7. FIND OUT HOW FULL YOUR DEVICE REALLY IS
CHECK YOUR STORAGE
A nearly full device can become a cranky device.
On Windows, go to:
Settings > System > Storage
On a phone or tablet, open Settings and search for Storage.
Your 60-second fix: Look at how much free space you actually have.
That’s it.
We’re just gathering intelligence.
If you’re nearly full, you now know where your next cleanup project needs to start.
8. TURN OFF BLUETOOTH WHEN YOU DON’T NEED IT
SAVE SOME BATTERY
Bluetooth is great when you’re using wireless headphones, a smartwatch, your car or another connected device.
If you’re not using any of those things, you may not need it running.
Your 60-second fix: Swipe down to your quick settings and turn off Bluetooth if you’re not using it.
Just remember you’ll need to turn it back on the next time you want your earbuds.
Otherwise you’ll spend five minutes wondering why technology has personally betrayed you.
9. TURN DOWN THE BRIGHTNESS
MAKE YOUR BATTERY LAST LONGER
That beautiful glowing screen requires power.
If your phone or tablet is shining with the intensity of the surface of the sun, you’re spending battery life on brightness you may not need.
Your 60-second fix: Pull down your quick settings and lower the screen brightness a little.
You don’t have to plunge yourself into darkness.
Just maybe stop using your phone as a lighthouse.
10. EVICT A BROWSER EXTENSION
CLEAN UP YOUR BROWSER
Browser extensions can be incredibly useful.
They can also accumulate until you’ve forgotten what half of them do.
In Chrome or Edge, open the browser menu and look for Extensions or Manage extensions.
Your 60-second fix: Remove one extension you recognize and no longer use.
If you see something you don’t recognize, don’t immediately delete it. Find out what it is first.
But if you installed SUPER AMAZING COUPON MASTER 3000 in 2022 and haven’t used it since, perhaps its time has come.
11. SILENCE ONE ANNOYING APP
RECLAIM YOUR SANITY
Does every app on your phone really need permission to interrupt you?
No.
The weather app? Maybe.
Messages? Probably.
The app for the pizza place you ordered from once in Cleveland?
It does not have breaking news.
Your 60-second fix: The next time an unwanted notification appears, use your phone’s notification controls to silence or disable notifications from that app.
One less beep.
One less buzz.
One tiny victory.
12. CHECK FOR UPDATES
KEEP THINGS RUNNING PROPERLY
You don’t have to install a giant operating-system update in 60 seconds.
We’re just checking whether one is waiting.
On Windows:
Settings > Windows Update
On a phone or tablet, search Settings for Software Update or System Update.
Your 60-second fix: Check for available updates.
If one is waiting, schedule a convenient time to install it.
If you’ve been clicking Remind Me Later since the Obama administration, perhaps today is the day.
13. DELETE FIVE SCREENSHOTS
ATTACK THE PHOTO CLUTTER
Screenshots reproduce when nobody is looking.
You take one to remember a confirmation number.
One to send somebody a funny Facebook post.
One because you can’t believe what somebody just said.
Three years later, they’re all still there.
Your 60-second fix: Open your screenshots and delete five you don’t need.
Don’t organize them.
Don’t analyze them.
Five.
Delete.
Done.
14. STOP AN APP FROM TRACKING YOUR LOCATION
TIGHTEN UP YOUR PRIVACY
Some apps genuinely need your location.
Maps? Obviously.
Weather? Makes sense.
Your grocery store’s coupon app?
Maybe it doesn’t need to know where you are every waking moment.
Your 60-second fix: Open your device’s privacy or location settings and look at which apps have location access.
Find one that doesn’t need constant access and change its permission.
Don’t randomly disable location for everything. We’re making sensible choices, not disappearing into the wilderness.
15. DELETE FIVE THINGS FROM DOWNLOADS
CLEAR OUT THE JUNK DRAWER
The Downloads folder is where files go to be forgotten.
Old PDFs.
Program installers.
Menus.
Receipts.
Five copies of the same document because every time you needed it, you downloaded it again.
Your 60-second fix: Open Downloads and delete five things you know you don’t need.
Just five.
Tomorrow, if you’re feeling wild, you can do five more.
16. KILL THE FROZEN APP
STOP FIGHTING WITH IT
An app freezes.
We click it again.
Nothing.
We click harder, apparently believing the mouse can sense determination.
Still nothing.
On Windows, open Task Manager with Ctrl + Shift + Esc, select the frozen program and choose End task.
On phones and tablets, open your recent apps and close the misbehaving one.
Then reopen it.
Your 60-second fix: Stop repeatedly poking the frozen program and give it a fresh start.
Anger is not currently a supported troubleshooting protocol.
17. TURN ON BATTERY SAVER
BUY YOURSELF SOME TIME
You’re at 18%.
No charger.
Three hours until you get home.
This is no time for optimism.
Windows PCs, Android devices, iPhones and iPads all have battery-saving features designed for exactly this situation.
Your 60-second fix: Open your battery or quick settings and turn on Battery Saver, Low Power Mode or your device’s equivalent.
It won’t create electricity out of thin air.
But it can help stretch what you’ve got.
18. FIND THE APP EATING YOUR BATTERY
IDENTIFY THE CULPRIT
Your battery is disappearing suspiciously fast.
Instead of blaming the battery immediately, find out who’s been eating lunch on your dime.
On your phone or tablet, open Settings > Battery and look at battery usage by app.
The exact wording varies by device.
Your 60-second fix: Look at the top battery users.
If an app you barely use is somehow consuming a huge chunk of your battery, you’ve found something worth investigating.
Congratulations.
We have a suspect.
19. FORGET ONE TERRIBLE WI-FI NETWORK
STOP THE BAD CONNECTIONS
Your phone sees a familiar Wi-Fi network and connects automatically.
Wonderful!
Except the network barely works.
Now your phone technically has Wi-Fi while absolutely nothing loads.
Your 60-second fix: Open your Wi-Fi settings, select a network you no longer want your device automatically joining and choose Forget.
This is especially handy for old hotspots and public networks your device keeps desperately trying to resurrect.
Some relationships aren’t worth saving.
20. BACK UP ONE THING YOU COULDN’T STAND TO LOSE
SAVE YOUR BACON
We’ll finish with the most important 60 seconds on this list.
Think of something on your computer, phone or tablet that would make your stomach drop if it disappeared tomorrow.
A family photo.
An important document.
Your contacts.
A manuscript.
A video of someone you love.
Now ask yourself:
Is there another copy somewhere?
If the answer is no, fix that.
Your 60-second fix: Copy one irreplaceable file to cloud storage, an external drive or another device.
Because hard drives fail.
Phones break.
Laptops get stolen.
Coffee gets spilled.
And the absolute worst time to start thinking about backups is five minutes after you needed one.
20 MINUTES. 20 SMALL IMPROVEMENTS.
You certainly don’t have to do all 20 at once.
That’s the whole point.
Waiting until you have three free hours to “deal with the computer” is an excellent way to ensure that you will never, ever deal with the computer.
Instead, steal a minute while the coffee is brewing.
Delete five screenshots.
Close ten tabs.
Check your storage.
Restart the computer.
Do one tiny thing.
Because when it comes to keeping technology running smoothly, 60 seconds of actually doing something beats six months of saying, “I really need to take care of that.”