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





I was working with a client Friday and was reminded that many people still don't know about Box-Bottom File Folders. They are terrific for those very bulky files that would dwarf an ordinary hanging folder and cause the contents to bow up out of the top.
We are always telling our clients that manuals and user guides are obsolete the moment they are printed. Of course there are some you may use more frequently and those are great to hold onto, but there are some you probably never would use. You can now throw electronics-related manuals away with confidence because of this great website called "
You've heard of the Terminator... now meet "The Laminator." I really like laminating important pieces of paper! Here are some ways that I use laminating pouches around my home and office:
Yes, Monday, January 14th is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Did you know that the #1 reason that people call us for services in person is PAPER?
This Sunday the Austin American-Statesman's
"They" say it's that time of year... however, I actually recommend cleaning out your files in April right after you finish your taxes. I suppose this is exactly 6 months after April, so if you want to do this twice a year, October and April make a lot of sense. (Who sets these national observances anyway?)
I work with a lot of high-achieving people, and they are really intent on being the best in their fields and staying on top of all of the information they need to know. Unfortunately, there is just way too much information for them to possibly consume... and that leads to "READING GUILT." There is this expectation that they must consume all of this information and catalog it in their own filing systems, and when they can't, it is a big "SHOULD" hanging over their heads causing stress. 
One of the clutter traps we see often in people's homes is reading material... there is this strange guilt hanging over people's heads about all of the things that they "should" read sometime. The reading material that stacks up the quickest is newspapers. Sorry, Lois Lane-- the newspapers have gotta go.



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