The calendar is full of these cool days such as world cheese day (July 20) or national pizza day (February 9) and one of my favorites - World Poetry Day (March 21). International backup day may not be familiar to you and is definitely less exciting than April Fools’ Day but I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you how important backing up your digital life is.
International backup day is March 31 and it is on our calendars to remind us to backup our digital life. A backup is a copy of all your important files — for example, your family photos, home videos, documents and emails. Only one out of four people have a backup of their digital life and action is needed. More and more of our life is managed in the digital world and there are many ways that this digital existence can be compromised. Computers break down, accounts can be hacked and more than 160,000 phones get stolen every year in the US.
I have lost so many things that sometimes I believe that losing objects is a specialty of mine. In fact, frequently losing things is one of the ADHD symptoms listed in the DSM. I am terrified of losing my laptop computer or my phone and so thankful for the “find my iPhone” feature. Backing up my digital life can reduce this anxiety and help me if I do lose my devices or access to my technology.
When thinking about backing up, most times I think of my phone which is the default, easy to backup device, but our technological life is beyond the phone and there’s more components that need to be backed up. For example, I have a website www.ADHDtime.com (shameless plug) and it is important to back it up because it was hard work to design. In addition, if you use apps like WhatsApp you may need to perform an extra backup in addition to your regular phone backup. Also, let’s not forget backing up computer files and photos on an external device or the cloud. I personally have a SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable External SSD that I use to backup my computer.
Like many others, I know backing up is important but many times I say I will do it tomorrow and then another tomorrow and then another tomorrow. Therefore, I am taking a pledge to backup my digital life “I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and precious memories on March 31”. Also, I blocked time on my calendar to devote to this task because saying, wanting and hoping are not enough. Time needs to be assigned to the specific task to increase the chances I will keep my pledge. Let me know in the comments below if you are taking the pledge and share your backup success stories with others!
If you want to learn more about international backup day and about steps you can take to backup your digital life you can visit https://worldbackupday.com.
“I solemnly swear to backup my important documents
and precious memories on March 31st.”