How to extend battery life?

As they say, diamonds last forever. I cannot say the same for laptop batteries though. After one to two hours, they start to fail you and before you know it, you need to find an outlet to charge them . When you are constantly on the go, this list of tips will help you save some precious running time.

• You have to remember that the hotter the battery, the faster it deteriorates. It is important to always keep your laptop cool. You can also buy a cooling pad to lessen the heat. Don’t know what to look for in a cooling pad? Follow this buying guide.
• Do not multitask. In our desktop computers, we are so used to running various tasks at the same time, and opening various applications and services. These consumes battery life. Close unnecessary applications that you can resume when you arrive home. Reserve your remaining battery life for the important ones.
• Learn to use simple applications. This is related to the tip above. If you plan to do something like writing a proposal. Draft it in a notepad first rather than typing in Microsoft Word. Choose a simple text editor over a RAM heavy application. Games are also RAM heavy. If you want to save your precious battery life, do the intense gaming later.
• Edit your power options. Set your power plan to energy saver or power saver. Avoid high performance plans. This favors performance, but may use more battery life. Put your computer screen to sleep or turn off display when not in use. If you are in a well lit room, there is no need to set the laptop’s brightness to its highest configuration.
• If you are not using your laptop for a long time, shut it down. Enabling standby mode will still drain the battery life. When you are ready to resume, that is when you turn your laptop on.
• Turn off any wireless connection that is not in use. This applies to your Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connection. If you do not plan to connect to the internet (or to another device), then, switch it off to avoid draining the battery.
• You can also disable unused ports. You temporarily disable certain ports like USB, VGA, Ethernet, and so on. These ports also drain battery life. For Windows users, you can check your Device Manager for more specific ports.
• Defragment your hard disk. You do not have to do this on Mac as it automatically defrags when necessary. For Windows, if your hard disk is 10% fragmented, your better defrag. (You can check this guide if you need help.) The more fragmented it is, the more your hard disk needs to work. Thus, consuming more battery life than it should.

Do not expect batteries to go on forever. Batteries are only for back up purposes. When you are on the road, and traveling, it will allow you to check some files, review a presentation, and so on. To be honest, it is more of a hassle than what it is worth. So, know your priorities because batteries will eventually wear off.