I own more computers than I have hands. I like it that way. I spend a great deal of my time engaged on the computer, and it has definitely made the writer’s life much easier. There was a time when every revision to an article meant that you had to retype the whole thing. And typing had to be done perfectly–a typo meant having to dab on that white paint on the paper or erasing a hole through it. I remember things like that, and it makes me appreciate computers more.

But computers bring with them another set of problems…they can get bogged down, go on the fritz, or crash and burn when you’re in a big hurry.

So here are my tips today for writers who have to live with computers:

• Invest in a removable hard drive for your backup. They’re very cheap these days and you can backup your whole computer onto this thing in a few minutes. (OK, it may be more like 20 minutes, but it still duplicates all of your files.)
• Don’t keep the removable hard drive with your computer. Take it home with you (if you write in an office) or store it somewhere else (if you work at home). That way, if you have a fire or other disaster, there’s a good chance either your computer or the backup will survive.
• Get a Gmail account (or other hotmail account) and use it for all of your “dump” stuff. I have a lot of websites and I set up an email account for each (info@jadereporter.com, for example) but I then forward them all to one account for my miscellaneous email. That way, you can check everything in one place.
• Periodically clean up your computer. If you’re on Windows, go to Accessories, System Tools, and then Disk Cleanup or Disk Defragmenter. But don’t do this if you’re in a hurry, sometimes these take a good long while to work … but they’re good for your system.
• Invest in a good keyboard. I type constantly and was starting to get a lot of aches and pains in my hands till I switched to one of those convoluted-looking keyboards that are split in half and kind of raised up. It looks weird and it took days to get used to, but it has definitely helped my hand pain. I’m not saying you should get why I have, but find something that works for you, even if you have to invest a bit in it.
• Is there something you need automated on your computer? For instance, if you have a lot of websites, do you want a way to automatically check the links every day? Think of what you might want or need automated–if you can describe it, try to get somebody on RentACoder.com to design it for you. I’ve heard of guys getting very useful (no-frills) software for very minor money ($20-$50) custom designed. It pays to automate, if you do it sensibly.
• Turn off your email. Yes, you can. Schedule time to spend on email but then leave it off otherwise–this is more of a productivity tip than a computer tip.

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