I had been thinking about it for quite sometime and I just kept clinging to those yellow manila folders as a backup to my digital files on my computer. But who was I kidding? It would be easier for me to recreate a document from scratch rather than find it in that mountainous file terrain that is my filing cabinet. So now, it is absolutely official. Office Depot may hate me for this - their stock price might even drop (you never know) - but Signature Real Estate will be paperless in 2009. Any one want to buy a couple of file racks? They're on such a sale right now...

So how do I plan to keep a fried hard drive from ruining my life? Short answer: Backup!

A couple of options for that:

• Backup CDs - Most antivirus software has a backup feature. Even in the event that it doesn't, you can simply drag the folder where all your files are stored into the CD drive and burn it that way. Very low tech, weekly pain in the butt
• External Hard Drives with Automatic Backup - Long gone are the days when such a hard drive was in excess of $300 and was built like a VCR player. Depending on the model, you could find them as low as $69 and as small as a calculator. They automatically backup without you needing to initiate the process. Your precious client data stays with you and in my book, that's a good thing. The major con is the age old question: Will I have to backup the backup?
• Online Backup - Supercool online companies are everywhere - Carbonite, iDrive, iBackup just to name a few. They run about $50/year and offer more space than you could ever dream to use. The only con is that you're in a way putting your sensitive docs on the hands of another company and that may make some conspiracy theorists cringe.
  
• Do Nothing and keep hope alive - This is not an option

So, if you haven't done so already, save some trees and some precious deskspace and go paperless in 2009.