It’s September – a month that signifies a change and preparation for the rest of the year, so it’s only natural that this month is National Preparedness Month – a time to assess how prepared you and your family may (or may not) be for a worst-case scenario.
This year, the focus of National Preparedness Month is beyond just devising and communicating an escape plan for your family. It is expanding the focus to ensure you are completely ready for anything that could come your way – and that includes document preparedness.
What is document preparedness?
Document preparedness is ensuring there is a proactive preparedness plan that prevents all-important documents from being destroyed and/or disappearing in a disaster – in other words, protecting your documents in case your home was caught in a fire, flood, or natural disaster.
Getting started with document preparedness
To get started, consider these questions:
· Where are your important documents?
· Are they secure and out of danger?
· Are they locked away and safe, but accessible as needed?
· Are your important documents hard copies or digital? Or both?
· Do you have a backup drive?
· Where do you store that backup drive?
· Do you even know what a backup drive is? 
If you have a few unknowns or realized that your current solution may not be the best solution, keep reading.
3 steps to document preparedness
It’s easier than you think to prepare your important documents and protect them. So, take a bit of time and follow these three steps and you can experience the peace of mind that comes with being prepared.
1. Do an audit. Conduct an initial audit of your important documents and figure out what you have and what needs protection. Gather all copies of those documents and categorize them based on the functions they serve. Determine how you would need each document in a disaster situation and who else may need access to those documents. After understanding your current situation a bit better, you can identify a solution that will work best for you.
2. Go digital. Turn all your paper documents and hardcopies into digital files. Use a high quality scanner and create digital duplicates for your keeping. The benefit of digitizing is that you don’t have to worry so much about the physical document and a search and find rescue for your fireproof box when you’re in an extreme situation. Digital documents take up less storage space and have less of a chance of experiencing damage.
3. Find (and use) a storage solution. Once you have your documents digitized, figure out the best storage plan. This may be storing the files on your computer and backing up to an external hard drive. Or it could mean backing your files up to a cloud service so you don’t have to worry about a physical location and you can access your documents from anywhere, anytime. Cloud storage options foster an easier collaboration process, so if you need to get your insurance coverage documents over to your mortgage company, it could happen within the click of a button or a tap on a mobile screen. Make your storage solution decision based on what you think will be easiest and most efficient for you and your family if you ever find yourself in this unfortunate situation.
Although there is a lot more to National Preparedness Month than document management, there is no better time than now to address this issue and ensure you are prepared and protected.
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