9 Ideas for Living Portable and Disaster Proof

Posted by Jacques - February 25, 2009

Bird Flying Not only can it be a pain to setup everything in your life from your address book to your filing system, but moving or changing that setup can be a nightmare. Sometimes a process is so dependent on all the right conditions, that if a little thing changes, such as your computer catching fire, you have no way of being able to function. And it isn’t just limited to technology, it can be as simple as needing a change of clothes.

The solution to this is to design your life to be completely fluid. I’m almost there, and when I’m done I will be able to relocate anywhere in the US and survive various small disasters and still get things done. For example, a computer breaking down is something that will probably happen to everyone. If that happened to you right now, could you deal with it? Would you lose something precious?

Here are some concepts for how you can streamline your life to be completely portable, disaster-proof, and easy.

1. Use online applications.
Word documents, spreadsheets, calendars and e-mail, as well as most all productivity software has online equivalents. I use Google for almost all of the previously mentioned. The advantages here are being able to work with the same set of documents no matter where you are or what kind of system you are using. If my internet breaks or my PC breaks, or my laptop breaks or my power goes out, I can walk into any public library and continue working as if nothing happened. Make sure to use secure connections and log out religiously when using a public connection. Google Docs has the added bonus of autosaving many different versions of your file, something that is not even a standard feature of traditional word processing packages. Also, the fact that most websites will behave similarly on PC or MAC is the icing on the cake. It makes no difference to me if I have to use my wife’s MacBook to work.

2. Wear a thumb/jump/usb drive.
Not everything can be kept online and for security reasons, shouldn’t be kept online. Keeping a thumb drive with you at all times will fill the gap for content that needs to be stored online. You can also use it to backup online data, or run portable apps. Running Firefox off your thumb drive for example, will give you the ability to carry your favorites with you wherever you go. Most smartphones can be used a jump drive. My friend wears his drive as a piece of jewelry.

3. Go paperless.
Paper is a huge drag on getting things done. If information is on paper it is literally unsearchable, and can be damaged, lost, and contribute to your disorganization. If you only need a piece of the information, type it out in a document, and if you need the whole thing, scan it to a pdf file.

4. Keep a backup backpack in the car.
Physical items need backup too! I always keep an extra change of clothes including shoes, shirt, belt, pants, socks, etc. in my car and additional items for the beach (i.e. sandals) or for work (i.e. a necktie). You never know when you’re going to spill coffee on yourself, or decide to take off to go somewhere fun on a moment’s whim. The freedom to be able to do those things and be prepared for the minor setbacks in life is well worth the effort.

5. Get rid of your landline.
Rather than having to check two voicemails, give out two phone #s, and pay two phone bills, focus your efforts on buying a strong mobile phone. A good mobile phone will allow you to backup your address book, have a long battery life, good reception, and if you can afford it, come with extras such as mobile web. Having all of these features will complement #1 and #2. You can also push emails to your phone, saving you the hassle of having to login to your email only to find that there isn’t anything important there.

6. Get a backup phone.
This is very similar to #5, but I can’t stress how important this is. Most people know to backup their files and their email, but very very few actually backup their phone, even though it is one of the most important devices in your life. Even better, sync your phone to another pre-paid phone. The second phone can be used in emergencies, but since it is on a pre-paid plan, it will not incur charges while you’re not using it.

7. Pay your bills online.
This removes the dependency of a checkbook and having to receive a bill to know when to pay something. What if you lose your checkbook? Run out of checks? What if you’re not at home to receive a bill or the mail was lost? Not only will paying your bills become easier, you’ll also save money on stamps and have a better handle on your expenses.

8. Get rid of uni-taskers.
Why have a letter opener, scissors, and utility knife, when you could just get a pocket knife that does all three? Why carry a music player, phone, and camera, when you get a smartphone that does all three? Consolidate all the devices and tools in your life and they will actually become more useful because you will be able to carry them around and use them more often.

9. Get a storage unit.
I see many people falling into the trap of getting a bigger home only to store more things inside of it. This is okay if you have things like.. kids, but when you need extra space for those old high school yearbooks and trophies but you’re not displaying them for everyone to see, it’s kind of pointless. Keep long-term items that you’re not going to use, but don’t want to throw away for sentimental reasons in a small storage unit. If you move often, this saves you from moving the same items over and over again. If you’re short on time, you can use it as an interim moving truck to store things in over the course of a month, rather than having to rush your move into one day. Likewise, you’ll have an unlimited amount of time to move things into your new home, and may discover there are a lot of things you don’t need.

Anything you like? Please share!

Living Without a Job - The Unemployed Slacker Life So you were laid off, or maybe you were born...
Slacker Method for Getting Emails on Any Cell Phone I like to stay connected, but I don’t always like...
Slacker Method for Measuring Without a Ruler Okay so we’ve all been there, needing to measure something...
Slacker Method for a Successful New Year’s Resolution The easiest method for actually accomplishing your New Year’s resolution...
Online Slacker Income Through Monkey Jar! We all know that online businesses have the greatest potential...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

February 25, 2009 | In All Slacker Methods, Slackers and Life, Slackers and Organization |

6 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

I’ve done #4 for many years, dating back to high school. I gave up keeping a flashdrive only because my work computer won’t recognize a “foreign object”. Back in college though I kept all my files on the flash drive and emailed them to myself to have a cloud backup.

On my to-do list for 2009 is to get a flash drive large enough to boot Ubuntu from it.

I’m not big on storage units because I know I would just fill it up with junk. If it doesn’t fit in the house, you don’t need to own it.

Great list!

Comment by the weakonomist — February 25, 2009 #
@Weakonomist, Yeah it’s definitely convenient to run applications off a flash drive. I like your pseudo linux distro idea, but be careful as there is a lot of well known documentation on frequent write cycles destroying usb drives.

Comment by Jacques — February 25, 2009 #
Great ideas! Personally I’d be afraid if I depended on my phone for all that stuff, but then again, I probably wouldn’t lose my phone if I used it all the time.

Comment by izzy — February 25, 2009 #
I like tip #7 and #9 - I actually have two storage units.

Comment by FupDuckTV — February 26, 2009 #
[...] own apartment see if you can break your lease for 1 month’s rent and live someplace cheaper. Stay mobile, and keep everything portable so you can take advantage of better deals as you see them. Find out if there are live-in personal [...]

Pingback by Living Without a Job - The Unemployed Slacker Life | The Slacker Method — August 23, 2009 #
bH4g8, iqzut, thanks.

Comment by pppcz 0e6zj — September 2, 2009 #

The Slacker Method