It’s been a rough week, productivity wise. I’ve spent most of my working hours under my desk. At least it’s a big, spacious desk.

You see, Monday evening I shut down the computer. Tuesday it didn’t start up. It didn’t even hiccup. I crawled under the desk and started jiggling wires and looking for loose components. I tried removing non-essential components. I moved a jumper to reset the bios. Many times. Nothing worked.

I was spending so much time under the desk I had to improve the environment. I installed a light, and a pillow. Tools, and a dustbuster. A can of compressed air. I’m sure you’re wondering why I didn’t move the machine out onto a table… well, it weighs in excess of 70 lbs, and my lower back has been spasming some, so it seemed best to work on it in place.

When my thoughts turned to technological violence, I took naps.

I dug out my old laptop, updated it, and found the motherboard manual and actually read the instructions. I searched my problem online and read about other people’s experiences (which is where I finally found a hint that worked).

Two Take-Aways and a Do-It-Now

1. ) Make sure you have appointments in the real world every week. I’m grateful to Ben of CMYK Solutions, who joined me for Dim Sum and to talk marketing, and for my Friday Rotary Club of Burnaby meeting. They were a good break from the frustration, and the company of dust-bunnies.

2. ) Have a plan “B”. My primary business email is accessible through the “cloud”. My laptop provided an alternative for my Skype meetings. While I wasn’t equipped to do all of my work, not everything ground to a halt.

Do-It-Now – go back up anything you really can’t afford to lose. Most people can fit it all on an 8 or 16 GB flash memory stick, which are under $20 if you look for a sale. Knowing your critical files are backed up takes away a significant amount of the stress when your technology flakes out for no particular reason. This is elementary emergency preparedness for any small business.  Do it now.

About the author

Karilee

I'm a big fan of entrepreneurship. Most of my learning, teaching and business is focused on effectively creating "freedom businesses" that allow you to focus on your strengths, and bring what you're really good at to the world - profitably. My clients are looking for more of the right customers - and I show them how to make that happen. I help them develop their web presence through their website, SEO, social media and other marketing tactics.