More Memory
I just dropped another 2G into my desktop computer. It took about ten minutes and $150.
I still think this amount of memory is astonishing, extravagant, strange: I remember when a 64K board was a monster.
It's easy to be try to get by without enough memory, or disk, or speed; Eastgate used to have a terrible time getting barely adequate hardware. And, these days, you don't hit a brick wall that says, "You can't do your work until you get more RAM." Instead, everything just slows down a little, or works a little less reliably.
Backup. Get a big enough screen. Get enough memory. Have plenty of disk. Have a good notebook, and a good pen, beside your computer. You'll get more done.