If your computer has an SSD, and in case you haven't read it, here is an article with some useful tips on what to do or not to do with an SSD. Simply put, just leave it alone -- your OS knows best on how to handle an SSD. That's my interpretation of the article, anyway. While we're on SSD's, here's another article discussing fragmentation on an SSD, and whether it happens or not. Short answer: it does.

And last, here's another article discussing whether one should just shut down a computer in the evening, or perhaps use the sleep or hibernate options. For years I've turned my computer off at night, then turned it back on in the morning. Of course, this is the slowest option in the morning, when I have to reload all the programs I was using. I'm rethinking this approach.

During the day I just shut the lid to my laptop and put it to sleep. At night, and if I'm on my PC, I'll just use the hibernate function. If I'm on my Mac, I don't think hibernate is available as a standard option. Here and here are two articles discussing sleep options on a Mac.

Jim Hamm