Be Prepared!

1.6K followers

Updated 4 years ago

This is a cautionary tale about being prepared. I am mid-way through my first work-cation of the year - the Philippines, if you are interested. Volcanoes, bali-belly and infrastructural issues aside, I hope this helps you keep your failsafes up to date!

OOPS!

I packed my trusty laptop, jumped on a plane, stopped for a day to catch up on work in Manila, then took a 12 hour ride to a remote village in the mountains. Had my Phillipines data plan all set up so I could stay connected, had my charger hooked up to a SE Asia adapter,missed the volcanic eruption, and got to relaxing and working in Mountain Paradise.

The next day, my laptop completely fritzed.

Using my phone, I tried EVERY workaround and solution I could find online. 2 days later it was clear I was going to need a repair. Problem was, this village is hundreds of KMs away from a repair centre

The Issue

Actually, the issue doesn't matter. The real problem was, I wasn't properly prepared. Here's what I did wrong:

Failed to carry a USB with backup disk images (in other words, did not protect my business from tech failure)
Failed to cary backup files so I could use remote access computers (internet cafe or similar)
Failed to keep on top of my login details across email and software platforms (so I could have worked from an internet cafe)

Fixed

I headed back to Manila and got the laptop fixed in under an hour. However, I'd missed a week of work, missed bills my company had to pay and other important deadlines for clients.

The upside is, I had an accidental holiday instead of a work-cation. I'm now in a resort south of Manila, facing the sea and running a 4-hour work day, back on work-cation.

Be Prepared!

Whether you are running your online business full-time or still a hopeful "one-day" digital nomad, make sure you have safeguards. Simple things can disrupt your income suddenly!

Have I missed anything else I could have done to prepare, or do you have a similar experience? Please share!