If you're like me, you're vaguely aware that it's a good idea to back up your computer occasionally. You also think that it sounds like something complicated and tedious and that perhaps since you only litter your computer with itty bitty word processing files, you don't really need to do it. And also, that the odds are so small that you're going to lose everything that it is a good idea to spend your time watching "American Idol" instead of backing up your computer.

Not so, however. Miss Gina Trapani Smartypants at Lifehacker tells me that "everyone who has important stuff just on their computers should back up regularly, especially writers who have all their notes, interview files, drafts, etc." Fortunately, backing up isn't as hard as I thought it was. " The key is to not have all your important data on one disk. Spread it around, so if one dies, you'll have it somewhere else. You can back up to any kind of disk - a recordable CD, an external hard drive, your iPod, one of those tiny USB thumb drives."

In fact, if you're super lazy, you don't even need to back up to anything in particular. "At the very least, email yourself stuff (like to Gmail) to make sure it's duplicated somewhere," says Gina (which is what I do anyway, since I send my stuff to my home computer and to my work computer.)

"The pain is remembering to do it. It's like going to the dentist," says Gina. However, if you are extremely lazy, "There's a bunch of software out there that can schedule backups and do 'em automatically." You can find these sort of tools on places like Lifehacker or you can just do this crazy thing called Googling.