The first week of January I upgraded to Windows 10. I originally intended to blog about that upgrade today, but the universe had other plans. I was forced into recovery mode.
After the painstaking install of Windows 10, my trusty Dell computer stopped working. I don’t use it everyday, so I simply set it aside until I had time to deal with it. Again, the universe had other plans.
Within 48 hours of setting aside my Dell, I ran updates on my MacBook Pro laptop. I run updates all the time without issues, but suddenly rendering it useless, I could not even log in. On Wednesday January 6th, I was ‘without technology’ and was cursing Mercury Retrograde.
Thank goodness for my iPhone, the apps I have installed on it, and the fact that I have every client’s email installed there as well. I was able to “deal”. And, while upper level technical support at Apple Care had my Mac back up by the next morning, it took a week to unravel the reasons behind the disruption. I lost 12 hours of time to work with clients, and on my own business, while I dealt with the issues.
Fortunately my Dell was back up and running first, and allowed me to work on client work while I navigated the challenges with the Mac… but the damage to the schedule I hold so dear was done.
I LOVE STRUCTURE.
[tweetthis]Computer issues are the enemy of structure.[/tweetthis]
And, to make matters ultimately worse… I am embarrassed and ashamed to say that I had not run a local back-up to Time Machine in 8 days. I had a Carbonite back-up out there, but it would have taken longer to deal with that than the local time machine, so I opted for the time machine knowing that I might be taking a step backwards with my files saved to my desktop (which I had limited to one, but it was going to be gone).
Why was my Time Machine back-up so old??
Well, if you have a laptop you know that having that little external drive hanging out the side is less than desirable. It can fall out, or fall completely (when mobile) making it a challenge. If you have ever dropped one, you can relate.
I learned my lesson, though. Not wanting to drop it is not an excuse to not have it attached. I hopped on Amazon for some heavy duty Velcro. I already keep my Mac in a protective shell, so I simply added the Velcro to my case, and then to the external drive, and immediately made my back-up Time Machine drive secure to my mobile laptop.
No more excuses.
It’s about more closely guarding my time and eliminating ways to fail. Always backing up is one way to do that, and always having my Time Machine connected is one way to increase the odds of that happening.
Access, navigate, punt, realign, and pick up the pieces.
It took a few longer nights and a little weekend time to recover, but recover I did. I came out with a better plan for tackling my back-ups, and, relieved-ly, managed the entire ordeal without the mental and emotional breakdowns I have had when this has happened in the past.
Stronger because of it, better prepared because of it, and feeling pretty good about my DIY solution. It’s never easy to unload a day of scheduled work and clear the decks for an issue… but I have found that the better I plan my time and the more clearly I have my plans outlined, the easier it is for me to make the shift to handle the unexpected. And no, universe, that was not an invitation. Thank you for what you taught me but I am ready for ease and grace during the rest of the year.
Being flexible with our planning can be challenging to say the least. When we are forced to recover from a set-back, it takes patience, grace, and even courage. Have you found that after you have taken the time to forecast out your time you are better able to adjust when the inevitable surprise shows up?