Survival Kit Item 3: Saving Blog Posts
2003 Plan: “Hey look, Smashing Magazine has a great article on font usage.” – *save* – “Great article on Time management.” – *save*. Normally you’d simply bookmark the post so you get to it later. But my plan was to have access to it offline at any time without Internet or power, and the easiest way for me to do that was to save the page to my hard drive.
2010 Reality: I still save blog posts when I just don’t have the time to read it completely or I believe the post has some great tips that will come in handy at a later time. This is useful when my internet is gone for the day or once again PHCN and the generator decide to punish me.
Do Not Steal Posts Or Websites! I’ve had people save my websites with my analytics code still active so I get hits like “C://program files/rippedwebsites/next project/960Creative.com”. That tells me all I need to know of the persons intentions. Respect the owner of the post/website; don’t claim their property as yours. Use the saved post/website as inspiration for your new creation. Don’t steal.
Survival Kit Item 4: Pen and Paper
2003 Plan: “I need a way to write down all my thoughts until I’m ready to follow up on them.” Okay, at the time I didn’t realize this thought was weird. As a foreigner studying Computer Science in Chinese, I found that taking notes in Chinese on computer was easier for me since the PC usually edits minor mistakes. I didn’t, and still don’t, know any pen or paper that can do that. I was almost always near my computer and when I wasn’t I’d just send a text message of the idea to myself so I could jot it down on my pc when I got home or to work.
2010 Plan: I still use this “brilliant epiphany” idea of mine every day. Whether I’m jotting ideas, sketching logos, or mapping out the architecture of a website/application, the pen and paper has been my best tool. Plus, you don’t need PHCN or anything else to use pen and paper. Fun fact: I first wrote this article in my giant hardcover notebook before typing it up.
Closing Remarks
By following the plan above, I have managed to keep my downtime to a minimum for 2 years now. Do you have any other ways you keep your online based company running without internet or power? Please share (remembering it’s now 2012). I did leave out the obvious ones like, power savers on Laptop and tablet, Smartphones, UPS, Inverter, Generator etc. It’s almost like every Nigerian is born knowing that having a generator is a must!
