We ARE Moving Toward Paperless...

I personally do not believe there will ever be such a thing as a completely paperless world. (Yikes, this might be really funny someday if I am wrong!) I know so many clients who just like their paper. They like to hold it, mark on it, fold it, carry it, and keep it. And so many times it's convenient to print something and use it for a brief time even if you plan on ultimately keeping it electronically.

It is very interesting to see, however, that we are moving toward a more paperless society. I visited a client on Thursday for whom I had done a massive filing system project five years ago. I was training the new manager of the department on the system, which was all paper filing, and we were teaching her how to put her new papers into the system. "What papers?" was the answer... she gets and keeps everything electronically, and so does everyone else in the department. They may print things out for a short time, but they are not needing to file papers like they used to. It was such a huge contrast to five years ago!

What could you do today to go toward a more paperless existence? (And a related question, do you have a good backup system to make this work?)

Related posts: Sudden Hard Drive Crash, Find Stuff on Your Hard Drive

Comments

[shawnna]

I have mozzy on my computer, and it auto- backs up my folder where I keep my the scans of paper I get. If anything were to go wrong, I can immediately re-download that folder or ask them to send me a CD/DVD of the information. For a slick $5 a month with unlimited space, totally worth it.

[Jeri Dansky]

I'm scanning more papers (love my Fujitsu ScanSnap) so I can save digital files instead of paper ones. And yes, I backup to external hard drives.

[CJarrow]

Lorie-

I have been "almost" paperless for a year. There is "almost" nothing in my filing cabinet. Only paper docs like passports, ssn cards, certificates, etc.

As someone else mentioned, I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner. (simply awesome!) And on my Mac, I use a great program called Yep that lets you find any PDF in a visual library.

Thanks for the great post.

[Joy Perkins]

Hi Lorie,
Loved the paper - less story.
I've only been a PO for a few years and love the FreedomFiler product because you can add or remove files so easily. I've found it easier to set up a client with a file they think they need then gradually "wean" them off.
Saying "go paperless" is too threatening to many of my clients but they will give up one category at a time as they realize that they'd look it up online anyway.
I do backup to a remote location quite frequently and try to encourage all clients to do the same. (living in the San Francisco Bay Area you'd think they'd be more earthquake and wildfire conscious)
Thanks for the interesting material on the site.
Warmest regards,
Joy Perkins
www.OmnibusOrganizing.com

[Lori M]

Hi Lorie,

Yes, get all bills online and pay all bills online. Do you?

Strong armed husband to receive all newspapers and two magazine subscriptions online.

Called newspaper and had all flyers stopped, registered with post office to have all junk mail stopped that is addressed to anyone in the household including previous owners, and I alwaays return all junk mail advertising to sender, even if it costs me a stamp every time.

Each time a phone solicitor calls, I politely ask to be taken off the call list.

It is so refreshing to go to the mail box each day and only receive occasional important items.

This is the one area of my life where I am organized and have control ha ha.

[Megan @ Disorder2Order]

I am a firm believe in using Adobe PDF!!!! This can save a ton of paper for all those online receipts, or emails that you need to save for a later date. Just print it... to a PDF file! Saves me lots of paper!

[Ann at One Bag Nation]

I was very proud of myself today because I needed to retrieve some driving directions and there they were, stored electronically and ready to print!

I've also been using instapaper for personal web pages I want to read, and Delicious for work items.