Table of Content
Separate the unimportant mail like junk or newsletters directly so that you don‘t even need carry it into your house or your flat. If it is important mail, scan it right away, then throw it away. If you need the original document, scan it, then file it somewhere where you will find it without problems. The answers to these questions will depend on personal preferences, and there’s lots of great advice and recommendations online. And truthfully, in this case, the destination is more important than the journey. But I will say, we already had a flat-bed scanner, but we bought a small wand-scanner just for this project, and it’s the bomb.
Every how-to computer book ever written talks about “not if you lose data but when you lose data.” So to be safe, develop a routine for backing up your files. It doesn’t matter whether you use the cloud or an external hard drive, or both. This may sound over-the-top, but after a visit from a sticky-fingered burglar, not only were our computers missing, but our external hard drive was as well. External storage comes in a variety of forms including, CDs, USB sticks and mobile phones. These are all great for when you need to transfer data from one device to another. However, these devices have limited storage capacity.
Community College Pathway to Law Toolkit
It’s just there in the unlikely case that I lose my other files. The idea is that I could upload the files back into Evernote and just search for what I need if that worst scenario happens. I back up my files with several external drives that are stored in a fire/water proof safe. It is also stored in the Evernote cloud storage.
Go through ALL of your files, keepsake boxes, holiday card boxes, etc. Once a month or every two months, I scan and shred all in one sitting. Because I wait so long between scans, this usually takes me about 1/2 an hour to an hour. When you scan something this creates a new “note” in Evernote.
Benefits of going paperless
This form of arts and crafts also can be very stimulating for adults. Some, use the paper crafting cloth for decorations, with the aid of placing them in a present basket or using them as gift wrap. While others use them for an American favored pastime known as scrap booking. Paper crafts had been very popular for a while now.
Having a back up of important documentation is necessary when traveling the world. There are a lot of things that can be handled while traveling with the right safeguards in place. Living in a paperless world offers many advantages, and the one you’ll hear most often is helping the environment. I’m as green as the next person, but I suspect that like me, most people are more interested in the personal perks that result from making the change. We dipped our toe into the paperless pond a few years ago on our last RTW.
Why take notes: Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Branson
Make sure all documents is going to right digital files. When you say “yes”, you may or may not realize “paper life” not only have a significant damage on environment but also cost you more money, spaces and time. I have added a bullet point about converting to online statements. All our bills, except for medical bills are on automatic payment as well, so that helps cut out another step. However, I have found that even when they send it in an email, they almost never send the actual statement. It is usually a link to their site and then I have to log in, so I don’t like to rely just on that email notification.
It was first mentioned in a Business Week article called “The Office of the Future” in 1975. Now it’s time to really ratchet up your efficiencies! Make a list of the top 10 documents your law firm creates on a regular basis and convert those into document templates. Instead of printing, folding, stuffing, stamping, addressing, and sending invoices, with paperless billing you click a button and invoices are emailed out to clients. They can then pay online with debit or credit cards and you have your money the next day. Commit to it, and realize that after this 12-month plan is over, your office will operate with a lot less stress and waste.
Get the Medium app
Scanning your document is not only helpful for environment saving but also it helps you to organize your documents easier and safer. Then that external hard drive goes back into my fireproof safe. I did lots of research into hard drives, cloud storage, and digital filing systems and ended up adopting a lot what Just a Girl and Her Blog shares in her post.
Paper documents are often difficult to locate, with more time going toward finding them than using the information once it’s located. Digital solutions mean that your staff has access to every document they need on their computer or device. The environment is certainly a consideration in going paperless.
Convert statements to online statements if you haven’t already. If you want to keep your own file of these statements or a keep a back up copy, you can download them and save them to Evernote, which I will talk about in a minute. At the recommendation of Just a Girl and Her Blog, I bought the Fujitsu Scan Snap S1300i scanner. For our purposes, I have found that the smaller one has been more than enough for our needs.
Subscribing to digital copies also enables you to create an archive of all the important statements and bills, and store them in a neatly organized way. Saving and storing your archive on online storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox is a far better option compared to storing physical paper documents in a file. You can also neatly organize your digital files using apps like Documents — the best file manager app for iPhone and iPad. Digital documentation demands a robust protocol for storage and data backup. Lost documents can cost your company time and money.
But for the most part, we haven’t come unstuck. We struggled with that ‘Go Paperless’ button the first few times. You’ve inspired me to look for ways to backup files and then go paperless.
That said, it will still take A VERY LONG time to scan your documents when you do an initial purge. If you can get more than one person with a smart phone to help you, I highly recommend it. Or see if you can borrow a good scanner just to help you get caught up.
No comments:
Post a Comment