A machine ignored at the first strange sound eventually chooses its own downtime.

Small warnings are cheap to answer and expensive to ignore. A strange sound, a slight ache, a task that suddenly takes twice as long, a temper shorter than usual. Left alone, none of these go away politely, and the shutdown that eventually arrives happens on the machine’s schedule rather than yours. What could have been an evening becomes a month.

Think about the first odd signal you have been overriding lately. Give it an hour of attention this week rather than waiting for it to demand a season. Early maintenance is almost always the shorter route.