Before I started my blog I must have read pretty much every Pinterest article out there about the art of blogging. Starting with “How to start a successful blog” over “How to get serious about blogging” to “10 mistakes new bloggers always make”. You name them, I read them. One of the most recommended tips of all was: POST REGULARLY!

Well, in the last few weeks I literally dropped the ball on that one, huh??? I am sorry guys, BUT I do have a good and valid reason:

My beloved MacBook got stolen 🙁 , I am not going to go all into detail about what happened. Partly because I have told pretty much everybody and their grandparents about it and partly because I am still really sad about it.

I know, it is just an object, but I am sure most of you guys know the feeling of losing something really valuable (moneywise and emotionally).

So that is the real reason behind me falling off the face of the earth. And I do apologize. But blogging is just not the same without all my fancy tools and pretty pictures in one place. I wish you could see me right now. Trying to type on this computer, that looks and feels like it was manufactured before Steve Jobs even had his first tooth (huge thanks to my Dad for borrowing it to me, though).

But enough whining for now. I have decided to write a blog post for you and me. Something that I hope will remind me of what I need to do the second time around and will help you not to make the same mistakes I made.

Ladies and gentleman, this is one for the books:

 

3 THINGS I WISH I WOULD HAVE DONE BEFORE I LOST MY MACBOOK

 

 

1. Backed up my f*** files

This is another one of those things that EVERYBODY told me about. And I just didn’t do it. At least not for the last six months. And I can for the life of me not tell you why. Laziness, probably. But let me be the 1.056th person to tell you: Back your files up! Because if you are like me, your computer or phone do hold your entire life on them. Pictures of wild nights and sun-filled days. Itunes downloads from your teenage years (yes, the day will come that you will want to hear that song again). Your resume. Or simply every file that lived in that folder called “Important”. Believe me, when I tell you that my life would be a hell of a lot easier right now if I had just taken the time to back all of those goodies up on a hard drive or up in this thing called a cloud. And let’s face it, it doesn’t even take half as long to back up your files as it does to watch an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. So just do it! In fact, do it now, I’ll wait :-).

 

2. Got insurance

In this day and age, we pretty much insure everything up to our buttcheeks (remember J.Lo?) and grandmothers. So let’s raid the piggy bank and insure our valuable technological friends. Just imagine, I would have done that. I assure you, I would not be typing this post on a computer with an antenna (Oh yes, it does!). And let’s be real, smartphones, tablets, and laptops are not cheap! So why not spend a few bucks a month just in case something does happen? And if you are sitting in front of your nice and perfect MacBook right now, thinking “Well, I am not going to be so stupid to get my MacBook stolen”: Just wait till the water damage, hard disk problem or desktop failure. It happens to the best of us. Let’s do ourselves and our wallets the favour and insure that baby!

 

It happens to the best of us. #techproblems Click To Tweet

 

3. Logged out

This one especially important if your device gets stolen. I don’t know about you guys, but on my Mac, I am always logged in. Everywhere. The little button that says “Remember me” has always been my friend. It’s just easier that way since you don’t have to log in again and again. Right? Yes, BUT if the wrong person gets a hold of your device they don’t have to log in either. And that can get real ugly real fast. Luckily nothing in that matter has happened after my MacBook was gone (knock on wood!), but it easily could have. And I had to go through all the trouble to reset every password I have ever needed. And that my friends, is much more of a pain than just typing in your Facebook password once a day because you were responsible and logged out the night before.

 

++ Extra tip for Mac Users ++

 

Apple has a great feature called “Find My Mac”. You can enable it through the settings. If your device logs in anywhere to the internet “Find My Mac” gives you the opportunity to track your MacBook, send a message to the screen and even remotely lock it. In my case, the thief was, unfortunately, a little too clever for me, but you might have better luck 😉 .

 

I hope you could take away some tips and butt kicks from this post (I sure hope future me will as well). I will work on having everything on here back to the normal posting schedule and quality standard. In the meantime, please bare with me.

And now I am curious: How do you secure your devices? Let’s chat in the comments.

xoxo
Nico