Save time and money by backing up your computer

I rarely make New Year’s resolutions, but this year I have and I think it is one that is easily obtainable.  My resolution this year is to back up my computer regularly!  I’ve done a very unscientific pole and found that the majority of people I asked have NOT backed up their computer.  I confess, I’ve only backed up key files and the most recent backup I did was last September!

So how will backing up your computer save you time and money?  I’ll give the example of what happened recently to a local real estate agent where I live, we’ll call him “Bill”. Bill is a successful real estate agent and relies on his computer daily to help him with prospecting, tracking client information, etc.  He also has a side business in which he relies on his computer heavily.  Bill utilizes Facebook (a social networking tool) regularly and unknowingly picked up a particularly nasty virus which totally wiped out his computer.  Unfortunately, Bill had not backed up his computer.  He had to take it to a professional and was eventually able to get MOST of his files recovered.  When it was all said and done his computer was out of service for a full week and it cost almost $2,000 to get the files he desparately needed back.  I don’t know about you, but I can think of many other ways to spend $2,000!

The reason I haven’t performed a full back-up yet is because I really didn’t understand what all the options were.  There was a great featured article in the January 2009 SmartComputing magazine that goes into great detail on the subject (I highly reccomend this magazine for anyone interested in learning more about how computers work).  I thought I would summarize the options available and if you want any more details, feel free to contact me.  It really isn’t as complicated as I thought!

• Backup Media
  • There are several options for the media in which you save your data:  1) Disks (ie. CD’s & DVD’s), 2) USB Flash Drives, 3) External Hard Drives, 4) On-line services.
  • Each media has pros & cons.  Disks are cheap, but can be easily scratched and it takes multiple disks to do a backup. USB Flash Drives have a limited storage capacity, they are great for storing a small amount of files.  External Hard Drives are great because in the event of an emergency evacuation you can just grab and go and the storage capacity is equal to your desktop (These are more costly however, running from $150 – $300).  On-line service is great because in the event of a catastrophe you can recover the files from anywhere (price ranges from $50 – $100/year).
• Backup Software – There are many options to choose from, each with pros and cons.  The price ranges from $40 – $70 for the software.  Some of the software that was featured in the SmartComputing.com article include:  Drive Backup 9.0 Personal, True Image Home 2009, PC Backup Pro 8.0, Genie Backup Manager Home 8.0, Backup Now 5 Advanced Edition, and AutoBackup Premium.  You’ll need to look at each of the software options to decide which is right for you.
  • On-line services – Instead of purchasing software, you can subscribe to an on-line service which backs up your data via the internet.  The services featured in the SmartComputing magazine include: www.carbonite.com, www.idrive.com, www.mozy.com, www.ibackup.com, and storage.vmn.net.

That is it, really! All you have to do to save time and money is purchase the software (or subscribe to a service) and decide what storage media you want to save it to.  Once you complete the full backup (which takes the longest), you can schedule shorter incremental & differential backups regularly.

The article also details software options for recovering lost data, but I won’t go into that since everyone now knows how easy it is to save hours of frustration & lots of wasted money!  So to ensure your new year is not plagued with the hassle of lost data, make the small investment in this easily preventable solution.

What multitasking really means, and why you shouldn’t do it!

I use the term “multitasking” a lot.  I used to say it with pride in interviews, “I am an excellent multi-tasker.  I can juggle several tasks at once, blah..blah…blah”.  I’m currently reading a book that is challenging my beliefs in this being a good thing.  The name of the book is “The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing it All” gets nothing done”, by Dave Crenshaw.  It’s a really easy read but has some challenging concepts in it.

The main concept is that multitasking as we commonly use the term is actually switchtasking.  Meaning if you are working on something, say writing your blog, and a phone call comes in and you answer it (or if  a colleague comes in and asks you a quick question) you may think you are juggling two things at once but you are actually switching gears in your mind to to the other task and then switching back to work on the original task.  This switching costs valuable time!  There is a quote in the book that really brought this home for me, being the techie person I am:  “The brain is a lot like a computer.  You may have several screens open on your desktop, but you’re able to think about only one at a time. - William R. Stixrud, Ph.D.“  The book walks the main character through exercises that illustrate this exact point and shows just how much time is wasted in switchtasking.

When I really started thinking about it, many of my previous posts support this way of thinking.  This book just lays it out in a way that really “clicked” for me.  Take, for example, the time study I blogged about a couple of months ago.  If you were diligent with your tracking and wrote down every time you stopped to answer the phone or e-mail etc.  you can see what I mean.  Every time you are working on a project and then stop to answer the phone, it takes you several seconds (or minutes) to switch back to where you were when you were interrupted.  A one-time interruption may not seem like a big deal, but add it up over dozens of times over the course of the day!  Not to mention when you are not giving one thing your full attention those around you can tell.

The ramifications of switchtasking go beyond just time management.  If you work in a team environment or have direct reports, those around you can get the feeling that you are not really listening to them.  I had this exact experience when I was a supervisor.  At the time, the feedback was that I really didn’t care about my direct reports.  In actuality, I was just trying to get everything done!  I honestly thought I could finish typing my e-mail and listen to what my employee was saying and answer their question at the same time.  Usually that is exactly what I did, but I found my team’s morale dropped because they didn’t think I cared about them.  Of course I cared about them! That was why I was working so hard to get everything done!  I had to make a concerted effort to physically stop what I was doing and pay attention to each individual as needed.  Morale greatly improved when I started doing that.  One example this book gives to help manage your time is setting up regular meetings with each of your key employees so they have one designated time to get their questions answered.  This will reduce the amount of interruptions and improve the relationship between you and your employees.

This concept translates to your personal life too, ensuring you are spending quality time with family and friends.  I highly reccomend this little gem of a book.  It will really get you thinking about how you work during the day and how you can better focus your time by concentrating on one thing at a time.

Hectic holiday season

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted.  This is due in part to the busy holiday season having started.  At first I was feeling guilty not to be “faithful” to my weekly blog, but that got me thinking.  During this busy time of year most people feel some sort of time management stress.  We are all groomed to have the belief that we need to get it all done and when we inevitably fall short of this the stress level goes up completely negating the joy that is supposed to come along with this time of year.

We all need to face the fact that just because it’s the holidays, there are not more than 24 hours in a day.  It all comes down to priorities.  If you have a clear idea of what is a “must do” for your business versus “nice to do” tasks, you will have a much easier time deciding on what needs to be put on the back burner for a while.  For me, this time of year I throw a big party for my friends decorating gingerbread houses that I’ve worked for a full week to make from scratch.  This is an important thing for me to be able to give to my friends.  So, something has to give because, as I stated before, there is still only 24 hours in a day.  To get everything ready for the party I had to decide what was important to do and what could be put on the back burner.  One of the things I decided was not a “must do” is writing a weekly blog, another is I’ve not watched TV in the evenings for the past week because I’ve been busy baking.

The main point I wanted to make is to give yourself a break.  You still need to do the “must do” tasks like lead generating and servicing your clients, but do you really need to spend an hour blogging, or is there something like watching television that you can do without?  This time of year should be focused on giving thanks for friends and family and spending time with loved ones.  Don’t let another holiday season go by worrying everything must be “just right” and that you have to get everything done.  I promise if the floor isn’t ‘clean enough to eat off of’, your guests will not notice.  I’ll bet that they are just happy to spend time with you.

My next post should be an interesting one.  I’m currently reading a book called “The Myth of Multitasking (How doing it all gets nothing done)”.  I’ve always taken pride in being able to multi-task, but this book is making me think twice about whether or not that is a good thing….

I hope you all have a truly happy holiday season.  Don’t sweat the small stuff!