𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐖𝐞 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐩

This morning’s Patio Pondering is a little late. I got caught up rebuilding a spreadsheet I did not save correctly. Thankfully, the details were still fresh in my mind, so I managed to recreate it—without even asking ChatGPT for help!

As I worked through it, I kept circling back to one thought: this whole mess could have been avoided if I’d just backed up my hard drive. A simple task. One I’d postponed.

We rely on OneDrive now for automatic backups of key folders, and I regularly save critical files to an external hard drive. But that wasn’t always the case—and this morning was a reminder of how easy it is to overlook the simple things until they become big problems.

Whether it’s backing up a file, greasing a bearing, or checking a loose connection, the little tasks we skip often do not feel urgent—until they suddenly are. And then we’re left cleaning up a mess that could have been avoided in five minutes.

Maybe it’s worth asking: What “simple thing” have you been putting off that might save you from a bigger problem later?