Guest Post by Belinda Lima

Picture this: it’s late and you’re tired. So you decide to take your laptop and coffee and relocate to the living room where you can recline in comfort and give your sore shoulders a break.

Sounds good, right?

That is until you lean over to grab your cell phone effectively knocking over your coffee which of course lands all over your lap AND the laptop. The Universe stands still for a good 20 seconds which feels like 10 years while the enormity of what just happened sinks it and then complete panic takes over and you have a complete meltdown...

This happened to me a few years ago and I am still scarred by it.

After assessing the damage I ‘thought’ replacing the keyboard would fix the situation so I ordered one. Wrong. The laptop had problem after problem from that day on.

So I finally bring it to the repair shop and pray someone can back up all my files at the very least. Wrong again. After two days I stop by thinking I’m going to pick up my life in a box, only I see it sitting on the counter with a white piece of paper attached to it with big letters that say, “DON’T USE, MAY CATCH FIRE!”

That's when the five stages of grief officially started.

There were two major lessons to be learned and I should have already known both: Lesson 1 keep - the coffee away from the laptop, that’s obvious.

And Lesson 2, back up, backup and oh, back up.

Lesson learned, but apparently I missed the lesson on not dropping your laptop on the ground and destroying it. If only I was kidding. But, this lesson was far easier, I upgraded to an Ultrabook. And, the best part is, the Ultrabook has an aluminum shell therefore I feel slightly more protected and I’m definitely more careful.

Online Backup Options

My first consideration was online backup. The two sites I looked at were Carbonite and Mozy. Both are quality products and it came down to personal preference, just like anything else. When weighing both options the considerations are:

• Price and storage – Carbonite and Mozy both offer free trial of the software. How much storage you need will dictate the price.
• Accessibility and Security – encryption and ease of access are very important.
• Customer Service – During and after set up, this also includes ease of set-up and ease of use.

I ended up going with Mozy and for $5.99 for 50 GB and it affords me peace of mind. Also, that is a flat fee for all my computers.

External Drive Backup

My desktop, which I don’t use as much as my laptop and netbook, is still backed up to an external drive which runs of my USB port. I also have a handful of thumb drives (also known as flash drives) that I keep important files on.

They are cheap and easy to tote around.

Dropbox – Mobile App and Desktop

While Dropbox isn’t considered “back up,” per say, I have to admit I find it comes in handy. I can access my files from my laptop, netbook or iPhone which essentially ensures my most recent documents are all in one place if I save them there and they can be accessed from virtually anywhere. If you aren’t already using Dropbox on your phone or computer, I highly recommend giving it a try.

These tips sound so elementary in nature but I will be the first one to tell you that after all this time online I still need reminders to do my backups. With so many things to do, the most important are often the most overlooked until disaster strikes.

Lynn has a great article on using an online backup service that you should also take the time to read...

Belinda Lima is a freelance writer for andgeeks.com and bbgeeks.com. She graduated from the University of Texas with her Graduate degree in Creative Writing and now uses her word smith talents and her love of technology to write about a variety of social media, consumer electronics, and mobile accessories topics in her articles. When she’s not writing, Belinda can often be found hiking and rock-climbing the gorgeous vistas that surround her city.

Guest Post by Dr. Travis Bradberry

Today's tip for increasing your emotional intelligence is the most simple and straightforward you're ever going to get.

For many people, it has the potential to have a bigger impact upon their emotional intelligence (EQ) than any other. The catch? You have to cut down on caffeine, and as any caffeine drinker can attest, this is easier said than done...

The Good: Isn’t Really Good

Most people start drinking caffeine because it makes them feel more alert and improves their mood. Many studies suggest that caffeine actually improves cognitive task performance (memory, attention span, etc.) in the short-term.

Unfortunately, these studies fail to consider the participants’ caffeine habits. New research from Johns Hopkins Medical School shows that performance increases due to caffeine intake are the result of caffeine drinkers experiencing a short-term reversal of caffeine withdrawal.

By controlling for caffeine use in study participants, John Hopkins researchers found that caffeine-related performance improvement is nonexistent without caffeine withdrawal. In essence, coming off caffeine reduces your cognitive performance and has a negative impact on your mood. The only way to get back to normal is to drink caffeine, and when you do drink it, you feel like it’s taking you to new heights. In reality, the caffeine is just taking your performance back to normal for a short period.

The Bad: Adrenaline

Drinking caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight or flight” response, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you’re responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyper-aroused state, your emotions overrun your behavior.

Irritability and anxiety are the most commonly seen emotional effects of caffeine, but caffeine enables all of your emotions to take charge.

The negative effects of a caffeine-generated adrenaline surge are not just behavioral. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that large doses of caffeine raise blood pressure, stimulate the heart, and produce rapid shallow breathing, which readers of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 know deprives the brain of the oxygen needed to keep your thinking calm and rational.

The Ugly: Sleep

When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep.

Your brain is very fickle when it comes to sleep. For you to wake up feeling rested, your brain needs to move through an elaborate series of cycles. You can help this process along and improve the quality of your sleep by reducing your caffeine intake.

Here’s why you’ll want to: caffeine has a six-hour half-life, which means it takes a full twenty-four hours to work its way out of your system. Have a cup of joe at eight a.m., and you’ll still have 25% of the caffeine in your body at eight p.m.

Anything you drink after noon will still be at 50% strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream—with the negative effects increasing with the dose—makes it harder to fall asleep.

When you do finally fall asleep, the worst is yet to come.

Caffeine disrupts the quality of your sleep by reducing rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the deep sleep when your body recuperates and processes emotions. When caffeine disrupts your sleep, you wake up the next day with an emotional handicap. You’re naturally going to be inclined to grab a cup of coffee or an energy drink to try to make yourself feel better.

The caffeine produces surges of adrenaline, which further your emotional handicap. Caffeine and lack of sleep leave you feeling tired in the afternoon, so you drink more caffeine, which leaves even more of it in your bloodstream at bedtime. Caffeine very quickly creates a vicious cycle.

Withdrawal

Like any stimulant, caffeine is physiologically and psychologically addictive. If you do choose to lower your caffeine intake, you should do so slowly under the guidance of a qualified medical professional. The researchers at Johns Hopkins found that caffeine withdrawal causes headache, fatigue, sleepiness, and difficulty concentrating.

Some people report feeling flu-like symptoms, depression, and anxiety after reducing intake by as little as one cup a day. Slowly tapering your caffeine dosage each day can greatly reduce these withdrawal symptoms.

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About the author:

I am the author of the best-selling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and the cofounder of TalentSmart, a consultancy that serves more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies and is the world’s leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training.

My books have been translated into 28 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. I’ve written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

I’m a world-renowned expert in emotional intelligence who speaks regularly in corporate and public settings. Example engagements include Intel, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Fortune Brands, the Fortune Growth Summit, The Conference Board: Learning from Legends, and Excellence in Government.

I hold a dual Ph.D. in clinical and industrial-organizational psychology. I received my bachelor of science in clinical psychology from the University of California – San Diego.