Paperless

May 5th, 2006

People who know me already know that I’m a freak about being paperless.

• At work, my client kills a lot of trees with work order documentation. I mean A LOT. Hundreds of thousands of pages a month. They are very popular with several mobile recycling companies. Part of my job is coming up with ways to reduce or eliminate the senseless massacre, so safe to say I think about paperless from time to time.
• At school, my professors distribute lecture notes in PowerPoint format. Most of my classmates print out the notes, then annotate them during class. I type them directly into the PowerPoint notes field on my laptop. Sooo much nicer — the files are digital, so they’ll live a longer life, plus they’re relevant to the material (vs. a Word doc that lives side-by-side). Best of all, they’re searchable. Searchable! Think about that for a second. Ten years from now, all the information I’ve ever kept on the Loanable Funds framework will be at my fingertips.
• At home, I signed up for paperless billing from my bank and credit cards. Not everyone bills paperless, but I wish they did. I can’t stand paper bills…you open them up, then put it down somewhere, but if you don’t keep it in the same place you keep the other bills, you’ll never see it again. You might as well shred it.
• For To-do lists, chores, and all the little stuff, I’ll use whiteboards (not electronic, but better than paper) or store them on my Treo 650.

Still, I keep a bunch of papers in file folders that have some necessity. Medical info, shot records, travel stuff, legal papers, etc. They’re important to have, but the only reason I keep them is to show them to someone else, usually by fax.

Case in point. I’m buying a house, and the loan officer I’m working with asks me to fax over some bank documents. I have them of course…in hard copy…at home. And of course, it’s Friday and I’m leaving for a business trip all next week. Geez.

It’s times like this that kick your motivation into another gear. That last wall is tumbling down, by God! Today, I learned how to use the magnificent scan-to-email function on the office printer. File folder, I’m giving you notice….your time is short.

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