Information Lost
What keeps you up at night? In my last blog, I posed this question, and one common theme was echoed in many responses: the fear of information loss.
Data loss comes in a variety of flavors: duplicate information, conflicting information, lack of information, and lost information.
Seeing these, what's evident is a profound sense of loss; in time, confidence, money, energy, and the actual unrecoverable data.
Think about that for a second. How has not being able to find what you need affected your confidence as a professional? Repeat that question for the others. How has not being able to find what you need affected your… time, money, energy, actual lost data…
The problem often lies in chasing after the next app and not taking the time to deal with the duplication, fragmented file structures, abandoned apps, etc. Backups aren't always the solution.
It’s easy to think I don’t have time for this. Organization can feel like a luxury, but it’s way more practical than that. The concept of sharpening your axe before cutting down a tree applies here.
It’s not just about getting something done faster, it’s about improving the experience of everyone involved and the next generation of workers is more concerned about that than they are about money.
So, how can we address these issues? Here are some pointers:
- Inventory your digital assets - what apps do you have stuff stored in and what’s there?
- Consolidate - get it all in one place and deal with the duplicate and conflicting data
- Organize your data in a more coherent and accessible structure - think about how you work, not what files should go together because they’re in the same category
- Regularly backup your important data - Backblaze for your computer, AFI.ai for your Google or Microsoft platforms are some starting places.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so we can have a conversation so it's not just me guessing what you want to hear. Message us with your insights or questions and let's learn together!
