UTAB

I finally bit the bullet yesterday and picked up a new super, high horsepower, laptop.   Man, a quad-core i7 processor, 8 gigs of memory, NIVIDIA GFORCE video card, backlit keyboard, 750-gig hard drive, HD screen, and Bang & Olufson sound.  As any self- respecting propeller head, techno-geek would tell you, ya gotta UTAB first: UTAB – Update, Transfer, Archive, Backup.

Update

Even though the computer is brand new, all the software still requires updates.  You never know how long it has been from completion of production to purchase.  Lots of things in the software world, especially viruses, change each day. 

Transfer

Duh, how are you going to get to your data if you do not transfer it from the old computer to the new one?  Whether you use external drives or bounce it through the cloud storage network, your data has to move.

Archive

The archive process is pretty much a house cleaning effort.  It’s the process of determining what data needs to stay handy and what can be archived off for storage.  Archived files are like old tax returns.  You may not be ready to dispose of them, but you certainly do not need to keep them handy either.

Backup

Once everything is updated, transferred and archived, it’s time for a backup.  Things break, and without current backups, you can be SOL.  Yes, I have multiple backups.  I have an external drive that keeps a mirror image of my hard drive, and I use Carbonite to store all of my data.  Both run multiple times through the day.  I’m not paranoid, but being in the technology industry, I’ve seen too many instances of lost or unrecoverable data.

UTAB applies to life too.  We Update each day through learning.  Each day we pick up some little tidbit of knowledge or life in general that makes us smarter than the previous day.  We Transfer information from once source to another through communication or maybe translating notes from note pads to an electronic document on the computer.  The Archive process is a challenge for some, as they have difficulty letting go of things.  There is no reason to keep nonsense from the past at your fingertips.  Emotionally archive your past and move forward. 

Now we arrive at the Backup.  Our brains are one of the best backup and storage mechanisms in the world, but unfortunately, we cannot off-site store our brains; however, we can snapshot each day through journaling.  I write a little each day via my Burn Journal in Word.  The file is backed up to my Carbonite account.  At the end of each month, I delete everything in my journal and start over. 

UTAB’ing keeps you current, protected, and backed up.  Try it and watch how your performance in life improves with each day.