Even though I haven't been very active in the blogosphere lately, work HAS continued on the paperless journey. Of course, I have had to remind my wife a couple of times that this is a marathon, not a race to the mailbox... but overall things are going well.
A few key updates to mention:
1) (this is mostly for my wife if she stumbles across this blog :) My paperless journey started with genealogy because that's where the bulk of my papers come from. I do continue to have paper in and around my desk, but FAR less than before. Once we get the genealogy system ironed out, other things will fall in place. For now though, I will still have some work papers floating around, a few emails I've printed off and of course, my most favoritest paper... bills.
2) I have had great progress on the genealogy front. In the past serveral weeks I have printed only 4 new papers, despite working on a new 30 page section on our family history for Christmas gifts. In past years, when taking on a project like this, I type, print, edit the hardcopy, make changes, reprint, etc. This year, I've taken a new approach. Using One Note, I write a paragraph at a time in a "block." I can easily treat each paragraph as it's own entity and move it around at will until it fits the story just right. For a particularly difficult passage, I have found it helps to add a new page and look at that section on it's own without anything else distracting me.
3) (this is mostly for my wife if she stumbles across this blog :) I'm still hoping for a FlipPal scanner for Christmas. I see great progress in my future with the Flip Pal in my life. Just Sayin'...
So, the obvious question on everyone's mind (everyone that cares, that is) is... "After annoncing to the world a little over 2 months ago that you were going paperless, is there any significant change? Is it working? Are you sticking to it?"
I am sticking to it. It is working, and yes, I do notice a change. Besides the obvious lack of a stack of papers on my desk, the bookshelf I had to add to my office a few months ago to give me more room to stack things on is slowly becoming a little more bare, and A LOT more organized. It can be done. But it is (Honey, are you reading this?) a marathon and not a sprint to the finish line...
I have never in my life printed out an email. That's an easy thing to cut out right there!
ReplyDeleteI have also started on my goal to go more-or-less paperless. My main issue is post-its. I've signed up on linoit.com and haven't decided yet if it's the system for me to replace my many scraps of paper. We'll see!
Happy holidays!
Awesome news. You'll have to keep me updated on your progress to. Post Its were a big one for me as well,but they pretty much disappeared with the Windows7 Sticky Notes app. They are easy enough to puch to the background and pull up in my face if I need them, so that has been one of the easier things for me.
ReplyDeleteReally, when it comes down to it, its all about personal preferences, I guess. Emails are work related and our system automatically purges emails after 30 days, so sometimes... when I'm paranoid, I print something off, "just in case" (Now, don't ask me if I ever actually use those, because the times are too few and far between to really be worth my time, but it's a habit I'll need to get myself out of at some point.
While I haven't made any pledges, your blog has prompted me to think more about whether I really have to print something...
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!