What Should You Do When You Lose Hours of Your Work?

Today didn’t go the way I expected.

I had already finished editing my TikTok video and was ready to submit it.

Then I realized something was wrong.

The finished video was gone.

I searched through my folders, checked my recent files, and hoped I had saved it somewhere else. But no matter how many times I looked, I couldn’t find it.

For a few minutes, I just sat there thinking about all the time I had already spent on that video.

Since I still had a deadline to meet, I didn’t have much of a choice.

I had to start all over again.

It was frustrating because I wasn’t improving the video anymore — I was simply trying to recreate something I had already finished.

The good thing was that I noticed I wasn’t as slow as before.

Even though I was rushing, I was able to edit faster because of everything I’ve been practicing these past few days. I still had to think carefully about the hooks, B-rolls, captions, and timing, but the process felt more familiar than it did when I first started.

Today’s experience also taught me a lesson that seems simple but is easy to overlook.

Always secure your finished work.

Save your project properly. Make backups if possible. Double-check that your exported video is really there before moving on to something else.

Losing a finished project is stressful, but losing it twice would be even worse.

By the end of the day, I felt exhausted.

Balancing my internship, work, and responsibilities at home already takes a lot of energy, and having to redo an entire video made the day even heavier.

Still, I finished what needed to be done.

It wasn’t the kind of progress I wanted, but it reminded me that sometimes growth isn’t about creating something new.

Sometimes it’s about staying calm, adapting quickly, and finishing the job even when the day doesn’t go according to plan.

I am currently an Intern for Kuys JM’s AI Manager Training. If you want to see which online skills suit you like how I started, click here to take the Skills Quiz: https://quiz.onlinefilipinoworkers.ph