Bulletproof Author Backups

Introduction

This quiz is a 3-part self-assessment process for your backup policies:

Answer 10 simple yes or no questions about your current backup hygiene to learn what sort of policies you have or should put in place.
Answer 6 short questions about your recovery tolerance to see what you are doing right and what is working against you.
Create an Emergency Action Plan (offline) – this is a downloadable and fillable PDF you can print and save locally on your computer.

You can learn more about this quiz and follow along in real time in Training #650 — Bulletproof Author Backups.

Take Your Baseline

Answer each of these yes or no questions; if something is not applicable or you aren’t sure, then choose “No”.

Do you have at least three copies of your most important writing and publishing files?

Yes

Are those copies on at least two different types of media or systems?

Yes

Is at least one copy stored off-site?

Yes

Can you restore an *older version* of a file, not just the latest synced one?

Yes

Have you tested restoring a file from backup in the last three months?

Yes

Do you keep local, exportable copies of work created in cloud tools (Google Docs, Atticus)?

Yes

Do you back up specialized project files (Scrivener, Vellum, InDesign, Affinity)?

Yes

Are your important accounts protected with strong passwords and two-factor authentication?

Yes

If your main device were stolen today, could you keep working within a reasonable time?

Yes

If something happened to you, would a trusted person know how to access your files and accounts?

Yes

Baseline Results

Low Risk: You are in better shape than most authors. Your work in this session is mostly about testing what you already have, and closing any gaps you find.

Medium Risk: You are doing several things right, which means your remaining gaps are probably one or two specific things rather than a rebuild. Watch for the ones you answered “No” to.

High Risk: You have a lot of room for improvement. The good news is, that you can quickly implement a 98% solution today and that will get you in great shape moving forward!

If you are following along in real time with the Bulletproof Author Backups training, then pause here until prompted to continue.

Your Recovery Tolerance

Answer these two questions about how much data you can afford to lose and how quickly you need to be back up and running. Then, write down a few notes about your current practices and systems. If you don’t have an answer to one of the last 4 questions, you can answer that you don’t know.

RPO — How much work can you afford to lose?

A few minutes

A few hours

One day

A few days

One week

More than a week

Other

RTO — How fast do you need to be working again?

Within an hour

Same day

2-3 days

About a week

Longer is fine

Other

For daily convenience, I use…

For recovery after loss, I use…

If I needed last month’s version of a file, I would go to…

If I lost access to that account tomorrow, I would still have my files in…

Send my answers to OpenAI for personalized advice. (Only your answers are included; no personal information is sent to OpenAI and your data is not used for training. Leave this unchecked and you will still get access to the Emergency Action Plan.)