This tip covers some end of year considerations for staff organising files, managing outgoing staff mailboxes and accounting for changes to file sharing tools etc.
Back up your data
Perform an end of you back up of your data that can be stored offsite. This can be done with a portable hard drive and as explained here: Tip – Windows Backup and Restore
Directory clean up
After the backup, you can retain important documents on the local computer for productivity. But future you will thank you for tidying user folders, archiving and deleting. First check that colleagues are also ready to archive if you share a desktop or if your team’s files are synced to OneDrive, Dropbox etc.
Sort photo/video collections, review your Downloads folder for anything important to move to Documents etc.
You can create zipped archives of documentation such as completed TLDS pdfs by right-clicking on the folder and selecting “Send to->Compressed…” on PC or “Compress” on Mac.
Outlook Contacts
If you are concerned about deleting the year’s contacts, consider moving them to a different address book folder in Outlook People. This will make for a fresh start next year. This tip explains how to create extra folders for contacts.
Email Mailboxes and Aliases
For outgoing staff mail, decide if the addresses should be deleted, inherited by another staff member or forwarded.
Retired addresses can be converted to a temporary forward (alias) for a period.
Some staff or committee email addresses may be aliases that simply forward to their personal mailboxes. This can be a practical arrangement for a position that often changes hands but remember to update the alias to the incoming person. Aliases can also forward to multiple destinations if necessary.