Friday July 28th is System Administrator Appreciation Day. In honor of our fellow left-brain professionals, we’ve put together a couple tips that may be helpful to those of us tasked with the challenging job of keeping creative teams stable, happy and productive.

First up: A Mac Maintenance Checklist. This is something we’ve been playing with at Creativetechs — for our clients who’ve scheduled a regular monthly maintenance visit to keep their computers fit and healthy.

Mac Maintenance Checklist (PDF)

The checklist is a simple, low-tech way for clients to make sure their computer issues get addressed. Plus it helps the tech avoid missing sporadic maintenance details.

How to use: Hand out a packet of these forms the week before your scheduled maintenance visit. Ask your clients (or co-workers) to jot down a list of the issues they want addressed on the left side of the form. As you do your rounds, check off the items one at a time. It helps keep you organized, and it will make your clients feel better in the process.

Got a better idea? This maintenance checklist is a work-in-progress. We continue to build consensus within our own team on what maintenance steps are appropriate, and how frequently different tasks are needed. Leave us a comment below with suggestions on how you’d improve this form. We’ll incorporate ideas into future updates of this checklist.

Source: This form is offered freely to anyone providing Mac support to creative teams — or for creative studios to use with their own computer consultants. The form itself was designed by Chris Holt of Coolstone Design Works, and partially inspired by a collection of lighthearted information pads at KnockKnock.com. At Creativetechs, we’re always looking for ways to avoid showing up on one of Knock Knock’s blamestorming pads!