GHQ News: Saving your spine, and saving your sanity
This newsletter is a little different to most: I want to
share two of the greatest business tools I’ve ever bought.
One will save your spine, the other will save your sanity.
As long time reader’s of this newsletter know, I try and
discuss business ideals and tools that no one else really
touches on.
So firstly:
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SAVING YOUR SPINE
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For everyone that sits at a desk all day, I’m sure you’ll
know this feeling well: tight shoulders, sore neck, back
pain, odd clicking noises when you move.
I have this really bad habit of hunching over my desk to
peer closely at my screen when I’m trying to figure a
certain problem out.
I have a 24 inch wide-screen LCD, which for those who aren’t
interested in tech specs, is a decent sized monitor.
But I still found myself doing a hunchback impersonation
throughout the day.
I finally realised, after eight years, that it was because
my screen wasn’t at eye-level.
I found myself hunching low over my desk.
So I toddled myself to Officeworks, and bought myself a
monitor stand. They’re a plastic square thingy, that has
leg whatchamacallits that extend up and down.
Basically it’s a platform to raise your monitor up.
Brilliant piece of technology!
Already I’ve found myself hunching less, and it’s only been
a few days.
Mine cost about $60 AUD, which is about the same price as a
trip to the chiropractor, only less painful.
Check out your local computer store or office furniture
store - they should have a nice selection.
In most cases you’ll probably want to raise your monitor off
your desk about four inches, give or take.
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SAVING YOUR SANITY
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As the front line support for DLGuard, I hear depressingly
often from people who’s computers have crashed, and they’ve
lost their work, and they’re now trying to pick up the
broken pieces of their internet business.
While I was at Officeworks, I picked up a 750 GB external
hard drive.
It was only $200 AUD, which is a bargain for that size.
Prices are dropping, so it’s well worth checking them out.
Basically all it is, is a black box that plugs into your
computer with a USB cable. It’s pretty much the same as the
hard drive inside your computer, but it’s external so that
if your computer dies, you’ve still got a copy of
everything.
I chose the 750 GB Maxtor drive, which accepts USB and
Firewire, but best of all, it allows one-touch backups.
I’ve got a number of folders on my computer that I work out
of each day, and so in the software that came with my drive
I pointed out which folders I need backed up, and now at 7pm
each day, those folders are automatically copied to the
external drive.
I can also press a button on the front of the drive, and
it’ll automatically back up those folders instantly.
And last but not least, it creates a full copy of my current
hard drive, so that if it crashes, I can fully restore my
system exactly as it is now.
No more trying to rebuilt your computer over a week or so,
losing hundreds of dollars of work time.
It’s kind of like buying insurance - it’s money to spend up
front, but if the worst happens, you’ll be glad you have it!
I hope you enjoyed today’s slightly different newsletter!
Best wishes with your business success,
Sam Stephens
DLGuard.com
GuardHQ.com
