Backup is not only the reserve copy of your system or any important data. A reserved possibility, a plan “B”, or any alternative for any field of your life can be called as a backup. It is when you lose access to something necessary but have something to compensate the lost good with it. Take a look on the list of must-have backups for one’s life.
Data
There is nothing to say. This is the very basis in the age of digital technologies that requires minimum of efforts from the data owner. But how many people neglect it?
It can often be heard that someone’s hard drive crashed and “it’s all gone”. This happens today, when USB flash-drives are cheap, DVD’s are even cheaper, and online cloud storage services available for any user for free are listed in tens, if not hundreds.
There is a “3-2-1” rule, according to it data should be stored like this:
- all important information is to be stored in three exemplars;
- you should store such info at least on two different storages (cloud + flash-drive, flash-drive + DVD, etc.);
- one copy of the data is to be distanced, for instance, in case your house gets hit by a meteorite (any cloud storage fits this point perfectly).
We shouldn’t say anything about the operating system as well. Both Windows and OS X have built-in instruments for creating system backups. Don’t be too lazy to use them.
Any storage, no matter if it is HDD or SSD, has its limited service time. This means that your system drive is guaranteed to crash without its planned replacement procedure. It is only a matter of time, but the moment of crash will certainly be the most unsuitable one ever.
A planned replacement does not give you any guarantees as well. New drives get crashed and broken perfectly, too. Now, tomorrow, or in 5 years, but it is 100% going to happen. Start making backups.
Money
Captain Obvious is online again! and the same thing goes on happening, as people lose their jobs and have no money for life at all.
Not having a “buffer” of financial savings can be called the greatest nonsense for anyone in our unstable and unpredictable world. Living from paycheck to paycheck is at least very short-sighted.
How much money should be stored? Even financial gurus can’t come to a common opinion here. Average people can say that they can live calmly when a sum equal to three monthly payments is on their bank account. There appears even more confidence if there are costs equal to six monthly payments, too. Just imagine, that you’ve lost a job and have six months to look for something interesting with no rush and without feeling the need to change your regular way of life.
One can lose a job, get to the hospital, need expensive medicine, get a car or any necessary home device broken. The list can be endless, and having a money backup in any of these cases will make your life easier.
Bank Card
There are two types of people:
- Who use only one card and don’t have any more of them;
- Who have a fan of cards in their wallet.
The third type includes the minority of rational people, who use one card for shopping and have a backup card for the case if the main one is lost for some reason. Banks can’t restore your card at once, and it is not always easy and fast to get money from your account without a card.
Work Tasks
Here the talk is about situations when you can’t complete your tasks in time for some reason, and the task is urgent to be done.
Let’s take this blog as an example. There always is a “buffer” with some articles scheduled for publishing later (they remain actual even if published in a week or a month). Our writers keep them for the case when there is a crisis with written materials and a lack of possibility to go on publishing the required number of articles during some hours or days.
From time to time, articles get published and replaced by other ones of the same type, but the buffer exists all the time.
Generally, this point is too abstract to show you the general instruction, but you need to think over any unexpectable situations which can happen in your job, and to create a plan for such cases. Who will help? Who will replace you? Who can finish your job?
Internet
As the cellphone internet got developed, it became much easier to supply yourself with a reserve connection. Your smartphone or tablet with the unlimited mobile internet in it can become your backup in case if your main Internet provider got system crashes in the most unsuitable moment for you again. It is enough for you to know how to use your device as the Internet access point for your computer in case of emergency situation.
When your work computer has Wi-Fi support, you need to know how to turn your smartphone into that access point. If there is no Wi-Fi, then learn how to connect a cellphone instead of a wired modem. For home emergencies, it can be enough to exchange Wi-Fi network passwords with your neighbors.
Computer
A desktop, a laptop, a tablet PC… no matter what you own, there always has to be something to replace it when any unpredicted situation happens.
A sudden blackout. Have you got a UPS device or a laptop PC with a charged battery to continue working?
An HDD crashed. Okay, you’ve backed up your data according to the first point of this article, but the task is incredibly urgent. What will you complete that burning task on? In this case, a tablet can be considered as the urgent backup device for the broken computer.
Documents
Everything is simple here. Everyone is used to keep original documents in the only exemplar but it is never useless to keep their scans in digital files saved on your backup hard drive or cloud storage.
Emergency Contacts and Numbers
It is a good idea to have a paper with your contact info in a wallet. If you lose it, the person who accidentally could find it can bring it back to you. One more paper is to be in your passport.
In case if you are unconscious or unable to speak and someone finds you, your smartphone can be helpful to that person in addition to the emergency call. You can place the emergency situation contact on the block-screen of your Android device.
Now let’s talk about other emergency numbers. How much time will you need to call for help if there is a gas leak in your house? Oh, don’t you even know the number? Write it down and keep the list in sight. Write police and fire service there, too. In certain situations “speed” becomes a synonym to “life”.
Home Supplies
You wake up in the morning and there are zombies biting people everywhere on the streets. Or there goes more real war. It is dangerous to go outside. How long can you live with supplies which are in your house? Imagine that there is no water. How many gallons of pure drinking water do you have? Will you have something to eat? What about medicines? Are there antibiotics?
Clever hoarding never hurt someone yet, so it is useful to keep:
- water;
- food that stands for long and not obligatory to be cooked (stew and condensed milk are top products here);
- medicine and other things in case if you are isolated from stores;
- and of course, a flashlight.
Future Plan
People get so inspired with storied about someone who risked betting everything he or she had and now has own successful business. Yet not every idea gets a high flight, and it won’t be pleasant for you to read about people who lost after betting everything. It is reckless to go all in. You always need to have a backup, an alternative way to go if things go wrong.
Look at women: according to the research by Daily Mail, 50% of them have a “backup husband”. Which means a man to marry with fast if the current life breaks up for some reason.
Prudence is one of the most useful qualities for a human. It allows doing quite brave actions but having a backup plan, a way to fall back, a way to go in case of emergency and complete failure. It gives you an opportunity to get out of routine circle and to try making your life become better. In that case, for every “What if I won’t make it?” you can say “It’s okay, I’ve got a backup”.