My computer broke. Nine months ago it fell off the coffee table during a magnitude 6.3 earthquake; one week ago the hard drive finally packed in. If I hadn’t backed up my work, it would have been a disaster on multiple levels. Because I had, though, all it meant was that I had to pop down to Dick Smith to buy something newer, faster and prettier.

Back up your work. Now. Even if your computer has never experienced any kind of seismic activity, there’s a strong likelihood that it will break in the next week. Forgo backing up your work, and you can pretty much bet your student loan on it.  If it doesn’t get a virus or develop some kind of cancer of the hard drive, it will get stolen from your flat. 

As you’re working on your assignments, make sure to back them up every few hours. Attach them to an email to yourself and chuck them onto a pen drive. If you’ve never really done a large-scale back-up, buy a portable hard drive and chuck it all on there. Then hide the hard drive away somewhere and update your files every month or so. Back up now, or you’ll lose it – it’s Murphy’s Law now that I’ve made you think about it.