Productivity Post: Back Up Your Files
And it happened. As I was going through TSA at the Denver Airport I proceeded to take everything required to be off, off. Shoes, scarf, jacket and my laptop. Since I have been on an airplane triple times more than I have celebrated birthdays, I could say I consider myself an experienced TSA traveler. Not because I have been to many places, but because I have gone through TSA checkpoints a lot.
All that to say, I have my routine down. I wear minimal clothing but warm, a scarf and closed toe shoes. My travel backpack also has a compartment solely for my computer so when I have to get it out I only get the computer out.
Back to Denver airport, I felt this anxiety. I had arrived to the airport early (that's rare) so I thought, I'm just excited I will get to sit at my gate, check email and get some work done before taking off. Walking through the scans, I heard my inner voice say Slow Down. Hold up inner voice. I have a ton of work to catch up on and you're telling me to slow down? Nah, ignore. Grabbed my computer real quick, put my shoes on and proceeded to my gate.
I've you've ever traveled to Denver, that airport is huge. You have to take a train to your gate and if you're flying Southwest then you have to go to the last gate which means about 4 train stops. After a lot of core strength and balance I made it through my gate. I found a comfortable seat, pulled my computer out and got the message you never want to get: "The device was not ejected properly"
To backtrack a little, I had requested work to purchase me an extender drive so I could save my big files there rather than use my computer's memory. When I got it, I realized it was the wrong model and I decided to use it. I didn't want to wait. So I went ahead and dumped ALL my files onto this extender drive. Yes, I said ALL of my files. Every single one.
And there I was, eager to get some work done because I had so much time before my departure. Nope, not this time girlfriend. I went back to TSA, looked for it, reported the card as lost, and decided to let it go. Went back to my gate, and at this point the two hours I thought I had to do work had been reduced to 25 minutes.
I realized that the inner voice that was telling me to slow down was telling me that for a reason. Your body's intuition is ridiculously accurate and we need to listen more and slow down. I got to sit back and reflect that everything happens for a reason and my lesson that day was to not rush things, to embrace the process, to look for the future by enduring the present. And I let go.
Two weeks later what I never thought would happen did: I received a phone call. Hi my name is Silvia and I was at the Denver airport a couple of weeks ago, and... I found this little memory card I think belongs to you...
Could you repeat that please? Did you say you found my card??? I was grocery shopping and I'm pretty sure I looked like the best news had been given to me. I jumped and thanked her so much for her kindness. She apologized for her taking so long to figure out what it was. I said Silvia, you are giving me files that have taken me years to create. Two weeks is nothing.
A week later I received my card in the mail. Intact. With all my pictures, design files and other files I had saved it.
And you may be questioning by now, what is the productivity tip here? Well, I had not backed up my computer in 60 days. Sixty days of work that was gone. The productivity tip of the day is to back up your computer and all of your files. You never know when you might lose them.
The biggest takeaway that we need to keep in mind is that by letting go, we open possibilities. We allow more energy to flow and believe me, when you let go, unexpected things will happen.
Do you have something you're holding on to that you know it's not good for you?
