Now, before we get into The Story of Leno the Laptop and how Bublup Saved the Day, I would like to briefly explain what I do to put pennies in my pockets.
I work as an online fitness coach for a company I set up four years ago called Mustard Fitness. I train people from all over the globe to become fitter, stronger, and healthier versions of themselves with the overall objective of making long-term lifestyle changes. I also work with and run several other projects on the side, all requiring me to work online.
I use Bublup to manage all of my new projects. If you haven’t heard of this app, I highly suggest you get out from that rock you’re living under and download it, especially if you’re anything like me and prefer to keep all your things neatly organized in easy-to-find little places.
File sharing and collaborations with friends, family, workmates, and partners become a walk in the park with this sophisticated, yet simple progra
I digress.
The Story of Leno the Laptop
I like to consider myself a rather easy-going individual. Sure, I have my outbursts – I like to think we all do – but overall, I wouldn’t consider myself an overly aggressive person. Running, weight training, mixed martial arts (MMA), and reading in a hot (sometimes candlelit) bath have always been my vents; my ‘go tos’ when I felt that I was getting frustrated for whatever reason.
I found that when I could perform these activities every week, I would become a calmer, more relaxed, easy-going, and all-around happier person.
Cue: a global pandemic.
One day, right smack-bang in the middle of the complete COVID-19 lockdown (have you heard of it?), my primary laptop freezes and screams at me with a sound that can only be replicated by strangling a robot. The screen then went blank, the sound faded away, and I was left in the kind of same awe one would express when being strangled by a robot.
The lockdown was already getting to me, my usual vents of running and MMA had been taken away, not to mention the fact that my new laptop, let’s call him ‘Leno’, had been giving me a hard time, performing at an incredibly slow rate; and as a result, my work was taking double the time to complete.
It was a virtual family quiz night (over three countries, my entire family got together every Sunday evening during lockdown through Facebook to have ‘Social Quiztancing’; it was my favorite night of the week).
I was fiddling with wires, trying to get ‘Leno’ connected to the TV to attend quiz night.
The port was weak, requiring me to construct a counterweight that would hold the HDMI cable in place. Just as we finally got underway, ‘Leno’ decided to shut down automatically before proceeding to an update screen (an update that would require 76 minutes to complete).
That was it. For me and for ‘Leno.’
Calmly and collectively, I took little ‘Leno’ into my hand, and in a ‘frisbee-like’ fashion, I threw him directly into the wall. The wall won (with only a minor dent), and ‘Leno’ was no more. Though, to seal the deal, I then gathered ‘Leno’ from the floor and folded him in a way tablets shouldn’t be folded. I attended the quiz on my phone and was far less competitive than usual.
In hindsight, I would have continued working with ‘Leno’ at a slower, painstaking rate, which would have prevented many projects from being finished on time. As soon as he left my hand, I knew I’d have to buy a new laptop, which was definitely necessary at this point.
My new baby arrived just three days later, and thanks to the wonders of Bublup and its luminous, Cloud, I could again resume work as usual.
How Bublup Saved the Day
After my two laptops ‘failed’ me, I have taken a brand new approach to my files.
With Bublup, I found that despite my laptop sadly passing away from unknown causes; I could still resume business on my projects. All of my projects were still there, including my social media presentations, video links, invoices, notes, PDFs, photos of my favorite cat hairstyles, and proposals. My working partners didn’t even notice that my primary laptop had evacuated the planet and joined the cosmos.
I also store client data under lock and key on my Bublup too (as opposed to previously on my computer desktop), knowing that should my laptop fail, or hit a wall with the force of around 3,000 Newtons, all of my data can be accessed immediately and securely on a back-up computer, phone, or tablet.
For potential new clients, I also introduce Bublup as one of my ‘tools of success’. I give them access to their own personalized folder, which contains examples of meal plans, workout routines, and fitness tips to show them I’m the real deal.
If I’m required to share something with a partner or client, I simply send them a link to a Bublup folder where they can access, view, and edit the file (depending on the permissions given). I feel secure knowing that if my laptop dies or I forget my charger on a trip, I can still access and share all of my files from the same place.
In Conclusion
For the record, throwing a laptop is never a good idea. In fact, I would like to say that throwing a laptop is always a bad idea. We all behave differently when posed with stressful events or life changes.
A global pandemic is a valid reason to feel and act differently, and you have every right to not ‘be yourself’ during these times. However, talking with family and friends, listening to music, watching a comedy, performing a home workout, treating yourself to a beer and a pizza, spending time reading a book in a hot bath, rearranging your folders on Bublup like an architect designing the ‘next big thing,’ or simply counting the wonderfully positive things in life are all great ways to calm down and feel less stressed.
If you do slip up, learn from it, turn it into a positive, and move on.
I recycled ‘Leno’ for parts, I bought a flashy new and high-performing laptop that actually allows me to work more productively than I thought possible, the artwork was placed on the wall which once showed ‘Leno’s’ dent, and my girlfriend and I won quiz night every week for the remainder of lockdown (resulting in the numerous family-feuds that only make life more interesting and fun, but that’s another story entirely).
About the author
Stacey Quick is a fitness and lifestyle coach that took his business online and now trains more than 40 clients from all over the globe. He loves using Bublup to share resources with his fitness community and to build and manage new projects.
