Mac OS X only: Reschedule your Time Machine backup intervals from the default (which backs up once an hour) to a more appropriate schedule to fit your needs–anywhere from every one to twelve hours. Granted, the per-hour backup schedule means you’re that much more likely to have all your data backed up in case you run into a problem, but some people on older systems have reported performance slow-downs when Time Machine is backing up. In those cases, TimeMachineScheduler might be the perfect solution. TimeMachineScheduler is freeware, Mac OS X Leopard only.