Photograph Credit: iStockphoto
Knowing that a successful year will not materialize on its own, we must plan and prepare for a prosperous 2013.
Throughout the 31 days of January, I will choose one topic each day to prepare or schedule for this year.
Without preparation, I know I will forget, miss, or overlook certain items. If you desire an organized year, then join me in this adventure of Planning for Success for a prosperous 2013.
To receive a daily e-mail around 11:00 a.m. with the new posts of each day, subscribe to my free daily newsletter. In case you miss a post in this series, I will provide the link to each day as the month progresses. 
- Day 1: Select a Planning Tool
- Day 2: Add Your Priorities
- Day 3: Print and Display Your Menu Planner – with free printable
- Day 4: Record Membership Expiration Dates
- Day 5: Mark Due Dates for Monthly Bills
- Day 6: Insert Credit Report Schedule
- Day 7: Schedule Your Annual Home Maintenance
- Day 8: Set Your School and Work Activities
- Day 9: Highlight Contract and Subscription Expiration Dates
- Day 10: Download a Savings Tracker
- Day 11: Note Daily Deals Expiration Dates
- Day 12: Setup Bill Pay
- Day 13: Secure Doctor Appointments
- Day 14: Purchase Batteries
- Day 15: Include Holidays
- Day 16: Jot down Library Return Dates
- Day 17: Track Your Family’s Favorite Meals
- Day 18: Reserve Time for Your Priorities
- Day 19: Post Your Payday Schedule – with free printable
- Day 20: Prepare Your Medical Spending Record – with free printable
- Day 21: Check Light Bulbs and Air Filters
- Day 22: Choose Event Dates
- Day 23: Enter Reward Deadlines
- Day 24: Design a Quick Meals List
- Day 25: Document Family Holidays
- Day 26: Verify Paycheck Deductions
- Day 27: Establish Automatic Transfers
Day 28: Address Technology
In a world of smart phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops, we stay well connected. At our home, Paul rarely gets a welcome as the initial sound of the garage opening brings three active children to the door requesting to play with the iPad. Though we are working on greeting Daddy first, the motivation is the electronic device.
Realizing that technology is a part of our lifestyle, I schedule times on my calendar to address technology by performing backups, cleanups, and updates. With a quarterly reminder, I work on one or more of these tasks to protect my files.
Backups
Viruses corrupt and ruin electronics daily, hard drives fail, and computer software crashes, so keeping a backup is beneficial. Using an external hard drive, I backup my system at least once a year. (I really ought to perform this task more often.)
Thankfully, Paul takes care of backing up our pictures, and he is looking into uploading them to the Cloud for safe keeping.
Cleanups
Creating folders and moving files into the appropriate folder allows for easy retrieval later. In using time wisely, I try to keep my folders organized, but I do miss a few. Taking time to cleanup and organize my files and label pictures clears my desktop and creates a clean system.
Updates
Keeping software and applications updated allows the computer to run more efficiently. With virus protections and upgrades, updating electronic devices takes a few minutes. However, if you get behind on the updates, then you might need to run them at the end of your day rather than waiting them out during the day.
Embracing this era of technology and adding devices within our home, we address technology throughout the year. From backups to updates, maintaining these devices keeps them running efficiently. In planning for success, I aim to address technology quarterly while using time wisely. Happy maintaining!
Question: Which of these tasks seems the most daunting: backup, cleanup, or update?
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I find cleaning up files to be the most time consuming as I don’t do this very often. It gets so overwhelming. I guess if I did this on a regular basis it wouldn’t be so bad. I obsess over backups now because I lost everything (that wasn’t backed up) last year – Twice. Ugh
I back up on a separate hard drive as well as on disc. I should hand over the cash to have the backup on another location like the cloud but haven’t done it yet.
Updating software is something I tend to stay up on but am afraid of because it has the potential to ‘mess’ everything up. i.e. wordpress and themes
Sara, I’m so sorry to hear about your losses last year. Thankfully, my husband is a computer technician. He works on problems all day long and comes home to work all night playing games and helping others with their computer issues.
I totally understand your reservations regarding updating your blog/website. Even with a full backup prior to running a WordPress or theme update, I get a knot in my stomach. I’ve had to call Bluehost more than once over a botched update. Having the blog hosted has been worth every cent spent. They have restored my blog and fixed rerouting errors in the updates.
To be honest, I let my WordPress and theme updates sit for about a week before I run them. My reasoning is that patches will be made during those times to fix any errors. Without having my site running properly, I can install the update and any patches needed at once.
Hang in there, Sara. Take it in sections and try to roll with the punches. Hugs!
I tend to be really bad about backing up files. I haven’t looked into the “cloud” yet, but maybe I should.
Shannon, I’m with you. If I don’t schedule it, then it won’t happen. Not sure if we are going with the Cloud, but it is a possibility. Thanks for sharing, Shannon! I appreciate your comments.