It’s 8:49 PM after our son’s school concert, and I’m typing this post on my phone with one finger.
For the second time in a week, my laptop has fritzed out when trying to boot up. It partially loads some things and some buttons don’t work. It’s a mess.
And it screws up publishing the post I had mostly written for tomorrow (in Byword) on my laptop.
There are lessons here for you and me.
No excuses. So many of us are guilty of trying to find just the right word processing program or productivity software. Stop it. Use what you have today. Be for what is. Get the work done.
Back up your data. I use Time Machine, SugarSync, Dropbox, and Basecamp to be redundantly redundant about backing up important client files and family photos. It’s not a matter of if your hard drive will crash, it’s a matter of when.
Passwords. I use 1Password to store all my passwords securely both on and off my laptop. I highly recommend it or a similar application.
Margin. Oftentimes, I have several posts in the can that I can pull out in times like these. Regrettably, I emptied that well during three straight weeks of travel. I must schedule time to write another half-dozen.
Deep breaths. Accidents happen. I can save the post I was excited to finish. It’ll still be good tomorrow or next week.
Black holes are doorknobs. That’s my son’s reminder. Tonight’s mishap led to the opportunity to write this post.
Technology rocks. I can functionally run our company from one screen of apps on my phone. That’s ray-gun-Star-Trek-type cool. I’m using Poster to write this. It’s not ideal, but so what. It gets the job done.
So, I hope to tell you why Abercrombie sucks on Thursday (along with why it’s probably a good strategy for them to suck as well as one company that doesn’t suck).
In the meantime, just remember: Black holes are doorknobs to another universe.
Amen to backing up. We learned that lesson at our household the hard way and it well and truly sucked. We now use Backblaze for my wife and Time Machine for me, but I’m thinking I should add sugarsync for my set-up as well… Thanks for the reminder.
Also, I couldn’t help noticing the mailchimp app on your phone — did you stop using MyEmma?
Lastly, sorry to hear about your laptop. I’m an Apple fan, but I’ll also be the first to tell you that their “It Just Works” slogan is BS. I’ve had plenty of problems with Apple computers over the years. Granted I’ve had LESS of them with Apple than Windows, but, everything has not always “just worked.” In fact I recently migrated from Mail to Postbox because of continual problems with mail on my new-as-of-Christmas Apple laptop. Anyway, computer problems are a pain — hope yours are resolved quickly and in the way of getting a nice, shiny new toy to play with : )