I often find I want to go back to older versions of my documents. Whether it’s my CV, excel sheets with my balance or document templates, older versions are useful. Maybe I deleted something I shouldn’t have. Maybe I want to understand why I made a change. Sometimes I’m just being nostalgic or curious.
If you’re a developer, you already know there’s a solution for this. You may not be using it for this purpose, though. If you’re not a developer – don’t worry, you don’t have to be to benefit from this.
The solution is called version control. Git is probably the most popular one. It is also completely free. What git does is, it lets you easily maintain versions of your files. Every time you make a change, you can save this change as a version. You can add a comment to help you remember what changed. You can then easily go back to older versions.
Once you get the hang of it, using git becomes second nature. You have free apps that help you manage your versions. Sourcetree is a popular one for Mac and Windows.
It gets cooler, though. You can store your files on the cloud for free by using a free service such as GitHub or Bitbucket.
Version your files. It takes a little bit of learning, but not much. It’s worth the effort. You’ll be happy you did when you want to dig out the first version of your CV or that recipe you used before you decided 2 tablespoons of salt were a good idea.
Optimising My Life 