I've been trying to stem the tide of paperwork that I'm drowning in these days and suddenly it struck me...why on earth aren't I scanning this stuff and saving it on CDs instead of trying to save the hard copies?
I have have so much paper in my life I feel like I would start a forest fire if I lit a match! Like that wasn't bad enough but now I also have BOXES AND BOXES AND BOXES of my father's papers that I just can't bring myself to let go of.
Scanning this stuff may take me the rest of the summer but I'm determined! One of the reasons I haven't done it before was that my scanner wasn't in a place where it was easy to use. I've cleaned off the end of my desk and put the scanner there so I can just keep putting a new sheet in without even getting up from my chair.
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
Kimberly, before you jump, sit and think about how you're going to name the files and how you will save them (folders, subfolders). I've been doing the scan, burn to cd, burn original for about 3 years now. The biggest concern is "if I need this is 1 year, what will I think I named it and where would I have logically put it?" The only paper I have from last year is my financial statements (balance sheet, income statement) and customer order sheets/envelopes. Eventually I'll probably put some of these on cd too, but for now I have 1 sheet for the order with all pertinent info, usually stapled to the signed quote sheet and sketch sheet and if it was something I painted, I have the sheet glued to a 6x9 folder which has paint chips, sketches, etc. inside.
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Chris,
Thanks for the advice but believe it or not - I did that! That was my biggest concern about going semi-paperless. I'm hoping that this doesn't fall the way of all of my other organizational attempts.
I heard a great book title today - HOW TO GET ORGANIZED WITHOUT RESORTING TO ARSON. That cracked me up.
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
I started things off right, everything is electronic so I avoid all the paper clutter!
Of course, now I have 10 Gigs of harddrive space that's nothing but spreadsheets, invoicing, sketches, estimates, etc.. but at least it isnt on my desk!!
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