Wednesday Wisdom (Business): Buck Up and Back Up

In recent years, I’ve had two computer crashes. Both of them could have been disastrous had I not backed up my files. Having experienced the loss of an occasional document because of a power outage, I became extra cautious about backing up. Now I use Carbonite, a backup external hard drive, and a flash drive.

So what should you back up? Anything and everything that is important to you, particularly all the files related to your writing. Here is what I back up:

My writing files.
My photos, including photos of my house.
My financial information and business files.
My client files (I own a writing, coaching, and translation business).
My address book.
My calendar.
My important personal and household documents.

While what you back up is important, when you back up is also important. Set aside a time each day–preferably at the end of your workday–when you back up your info. Also, the more backups you have, the better. Today, with iCloud, you can even set up a place in Cyberspace to backup. After one of my computer crashes, were it not for Carbonite I would have lost all of my files, including my entire contact list.

As the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Prevent the loss of your important documents by backing them up before a computer crash.

Have you experienced a computer crash with the loss of important documents?

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