At some point, I noticed my laptop battery wasn’t lasting nearly as long as it used to. Even on days when I was just browsing or writing, it would drop faster than expected. My first thought was that the battery might be wearing out.
Before replacing anything, I decided to check what was actually causing the drain.
I opened Activity Monitor and saw that a few apps were constantly running in the background. Some of them weren’t apps I actively used anymore, but they were still launching automatically every time I turned on my laptop.
I removed unnecessary startup apps and closed background processes I didn’t need. The difference was noticeable almost immediately.
I also took a look at my browser habits. Keeping too many tabs open — especially ones with videos or live content — was using more power than I realized. Closing unused tabs helped more than I expected.
After that, I made a few small adjustments like lowering screen brightness slightly and turning off Bluetooth when I wasn’t using it.
I didn’t replace the battery in the end. Once I stopped unnecessary background activity, the battery life became stable again and stopped feeling unpredictable.
