diff --git a/R/geom_recessions.R b/R/geom_recessions.R
index 20d6220..d843115 100644
--- a/R/geom_recessions.R
+++ b/R/geom_recessions.R
@@ -750,8 +750,8 @@ GeomPandemicsText <- ggproto(
 #' # package maintainers can update the internal dataset from within
 #' # package by running the following code:
 #' \dontrun{
-#'   recessions <- update_recessions()
-#'   save(recessions, file = "R/recessions.rda")
+#'  recessions <- update_recessions()
+#'  usethis::use_data(recessions, pandemics, internal = TRUE, overwrite = TRUE)
 #' }
 #'
 #'@export
@@ -833,5 +833,5 @@ update_recessions <- function(url = NULL, quietly = FALSE){
 #'   mutate(start_date = as.Date(start_date, format = "%m/%d/%Y"),
 #'          end_date = as.Date(end_date, format = "%m/%d/%Y"))
 #'
-#' save(pandemics, file = "R/pandemics.rda")
+#'  usethis::use_data(recessions, pandemics, internal = TRUE, overwrite = TRUE)
 #' }
diff --git a/R/pandemics.rda b/R/pandemics.rda
deleted file mode 100644
index b929600..0000000
Binary files a/R/pandemics.rda and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/R/recessions.rda b/R/recessions.rda
deleted file mode 100644
index 0c88556..0000000
Binary files a/R/recessions.rda and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/R/sysdata.rda b/R/sysdata.rda
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d61f91d
Binary files /dev/null and b/R/sysdata.rda differ
diff --git a/man/update_recessions.Rd b/man/update_recessions.Rd
index bbf197b..71c0370 100644
--- a/man/update_recessions.Rd
+++ b/man/update_recessions.Rd
@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@ recessions <- update_recessions()
 # package maintainers can update the internal dataset from within
 # package by running the following code:
 \dontrun{
-  recessions <- update_recessions()
-  save(recessions, file = "R/recessions.rda")
+ recessions <- update_recessions()
+ usethis::use_data(recessions, pandemics, internal = TRUE, overwrite = TRUE)
 }
 
 }
diff --git a/pandemics.rda b/pandemics.rda
deleted file mode 100644
index 1bdcdb7..0000000
Binary files a/pandemics.rda and /dev/null differ