I save every half an hour real time even though I am on battery backup system which allows me to use my pc for 10+ minutes after a power failure - I pretend it isn't there and just save often. Even during a build I save my progress every half an hour - so I have never lost anything.
Origin I have on auto updates - but Cortana is set to not let anything interrupt my game play so she sends me a notice of what ever tried to interrupt me after I exit the game - and even Origin has to wait. LOL.
Believe me I take lots of precautions as I learned many years ago - I hate redoing something I have already done - so I make it so those things can't happen. But my best investment has to be my back up power supply - especially way up here in Maine. Usually I have ample time to properly power down my pc and for our back up household power system to come on without worrying about losing anything I was doing on the pc.
To the OP my heart seriously feels for you - know how that feels and made sure I never have that issue ever again. Even though I have such good back up I still make it a point every half hour to save - whether I am gaming or working on something on the pc - save and save often and regularly. If you can buy a back up power supply - invest - you'll be glad you did. If you have a Windows 10 pc take advantage of the software Windows gives you like Cortana virtual assistant- so nothing can interrupt your game like that ever again. It is often useful.