So, I’ve been messing around with this “crown jewel” thing, trying to figure out the best way to protect my most valuable digital assets. It’s been a bit of a journey, let me tell you.
First, I identified what my “crown jewels” actually were. For me, it’s my photos, my writing, and some important financial documents. Took me a while to really sit down and think about what I’d be truly devastated to lose.
The Backup Process
Next, I backed everything up. And I mean everything. I used an external hard drive. I’d heard way too many horror stories of people losing everything because they only had one copy.
- First Step: Copy everything I just drag-and-dropped all the important folders onto the external drive. Seemed easy enough.
- Second Step: Double Check Made sure I have my data.
- Third Step: Store Safely Put my external hard drive in a fireproof and waterproof.
Then, I created a simple document listing all my key accounts – bank, email, social media – along with usernames and, this is crucial, where I store the passwords. (Not the passwords themselves, obviously!). I keep this document both digitally, encrypted on a USB, and printed out in that same safe.
It’s not perfect, and I’m still tweaking things, but it’s a heck of a lot better than what I had before, which was basically nothing. Feels good to have at least some plan in place.
