Tips on managing Activity Monitor?

I'm getting a new MacBook Pro next week. Until then, I'm running my current machine off an external hard drive. However, it's very hard keeping it going. It sometimes works fine for a while, but it always freezes eventually, apparently a victim of insufficient memory.
I just wondered if anyone has any tips on key processes I can close in Activity Monitor to keep it going? I've freed up some memory by using Safari and TextWrangler instead of Chrome and Dreamweaver. In fact, the only programs I have open at the moment are Safari, TextWrangler, MAMP PRO, Activity Monitor and Finder.
Surprisingly, Finder appears to be another major memory hog; it freezes all the time (though not at the moment).
Thanks.

I have a 1 TB hard drive, and it's just half full. Here are the results of the EtreCheck scan...
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
          1 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2 cores
          4 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.2 (13C1021) - Uptime: 0 days 0:3:10
Disk Information:
          TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF disk0 : (750.16 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /Volumes/Macintosh HD: 749.3 GB (173.47 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H 
USB Information:
          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Seagate Backup+ Mac SL 1 TB
                    EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Seagate Backup Plus Drive (disk1s2) / [Startup]: 999.35 GB (500.02 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk1s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Configuration files:
          /etc/hosts - Count: 41
Gatekeeper:
          Mac App Store and identified developers
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
          [loaded] com.barebones.textwrangler.plist Support
          [loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist Support
Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
          [running] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
User Login Items:
          iTunesHelper
          Google Chrome
Internet Plug-ins:
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.201 - SDK 10.6 Support
          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.201 - SDK 10.6 Support
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
          AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 2.0.0.0 - SDK 10.7 Support
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Flash Player  Support
Time Machine:
          Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
               6%          mds
               5%          Creative Cloud
               3%          WindowServer
               2%          Activity Monitor
               1%          mds_stores
Top Processes by Memory:
          172 MB          com.apple.IconServicesAgent
          98 MB          mds_stores
          74 MB          Creative Cloud
          49 MB          Finder
          45 MB          WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.61 GB          Free RAM
          1.15 GB          Active RAM
          273 MB          Inactive RAM
          994 MB          Wired RAM
          302 MB          Page-ins
          0 B          Page-outs

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