My longest career was in the computer software industry, so I’m very familiar with this scenario: I worked on that project for SUCH a long time, and the machine just crashed. My work has vanished. Totally gone.

Egor Komarov on Unsplash

I’ve learned to not get overly stressed by this. It happens, but recovering goes much faster than I would have expected. Why is that?

Well, the current state of my work is stored … in my brain. All of those paths I experimented with and then changed? I don’t have to go down those paths again.

And if it is fresh in my mind, all the better. I just have to get it out of my head and into the computer again.

Strangely, this often works for non-computer projects as well. If I just found out that I mis-cut all those 2ֱֶx4s, well, I now know how I need to fix it. Probably another annoying trip to the store, but my mind is a lot clearer about how to do it right.

Maybe I need to measure THREE times!

But first I’ll grab a cup of coffee and calm down. That helps.