Do yourself a favour

The indoor trees are gone, the decorations have been boxed and stowed in that corner of the basement, most people have gotten used to writing “2009” on their cheques, and a few are hurriedly addressing & sending cards before postal rates go up again. Christmas is undoubtedly over, and the snowbound among us have settled into a plodding and deliberate routine of putting up with the weather and anticipating the arrival of spring or March Break, whichever comes first.

That’s why now’s the perfect time for me to suggest an addition to that routine: backing up your files.

It’s simple: grab a USB stick or buy a hard drive (bigger is better) and copy your documents to it. Find & use backup software if you want. (Mac users: use Apple’s Time Machine if your Mac has it, or ArrSync if it doesn’t.) The more frequent your backups and the more copies you make the better, as long as you do SOMETHING.

Do this so that when something happens—and something WILL eventually happen; remember, On A Long Enough Timeline The Survival Rate For Every Hard Drive Drops To Zero—you will not be left without any salvageable copies of all those documents your life happens to depend upon at the moment. Backing up is like brushing your teeth: it’s a chore, but if you do it regularly and often you’ll avoid disaster down the road.

Your future self, someday, will thank you.