Best way to speed up my MacBook Air?

Post date: 2018-11-10 09:13:13

My relatively new MacBook Air is super-slow when I'm operating ... the way I usually operate. What's the best next step? Add RAM (if that's a possibility), upgrade my OS, buy a more powerful laptop?

I bought my 13" MacBook Air last November as I was getting ready to go out on my own as freelancer/consultant. Because I didn't know how my business would go, I bought the cheapest version available (even cheaper due to a Black Friday sale), with 8 gigs of RAM and a 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 processer.

It is really sluggish when I have lots of tabs open, which is usually the case (I work in digital marketing, so that's an occupational hazard) and when I'm actively working in Chrome at the same time as other apps. Some webapps like Google Hangout or the CRM one of my clients uses can make it so slow I have to restart it.

What I've tried so far:

- Looked at the Activity Monitor, and Chrome seems to use the most memory of any app I use - but it's also what I use the most - I do most of my written work in Google Docs, my data analysis in Google Sheets, my design work in Canva, my video conferencing in Hangout, wow I am really reliant on Google! I also use several CRMs which can slow things down.
- Updated Chrome, since that was the biggest culprit
- Tried limiting my tabs (honestly a fool's errand, I'm always going to have a million tabs open)

What I haven't done/am thinking about doing:
- Looked into installing more RAM, which seems ill-advised in the MacBook Air
- Updated OSX to Mojave (am currently in Sierra 10.12.16)
- Go to the Apple Store (it's become hellish, at least in my area - you always have to wait 45 minutes even if you have an appointment)

Alternatively, I'm wondering if I should just upgrade? I use this for my business, which is going pretty well, so maybe it makes sense to have a machine that supports my work better (and it would be nice to have a better display since I do some design-adjacent work) - but I'm just not sure what the problem is so I'm not sure where I should spend more money if I did this. And it seems ridiculous to buy a new computer after just one year.

Thoughts on my best next step?

Please click Here to read the full story.