Cut Paper Clutter and Future-Proof Documents
A thoughtful handwritten card is great, but most paper we deal with is just annoying, clogging filing drawers and neural pathways alike. Justin Klosky from OCD Experience gives tips how you can convert your paper clutter and create digital organization that will allow you to access documents for many years to come.
Reduce Paper/Utilize Technology
If you have more than one filing drawer in your home and small business this applies to you!
It is time to O.C.D. (Organize & Create Discipline) and rid yourself of papers in your entire life. To prevent this tip from becoming pages of instructions, simply start going digital today. We won’t discuss the prior work you need to do, so if you don’t already have one, buy a scanner, an external hard drive and a paper shredder. It will be worth every penny.
Simply start scanning ANYTHING that you truly think you will need to reference again and shred the originals. Create a simple folder structure on your computer like you would a filing cabinet and utilize additional folders for each category you will be scanning documents for. Common folders will be: Business, Children, Health, Home, Insurance, Money/Taxes, Receipts, Resumes.
Lastly setup your external hard drive to back up your computer anytime a file has been altered and added. This will also prevent you from losing your data.
Organize: Gather all of your paper documents you want to take the time to digitize.
Create: Create a simple folder structure to store all of your digital files.
Discipline: Whenever a document comes in that needs to be scanned and filed make sure you do it daily, if not weekly. Never let something sit longer than a week or it will eventually become a chore!
Reduce Paper/Utilize Technology Tip: Only scan what you truly need in your life and shred the rest. This will eliminate paper pile ups and will allow you to live in a paperless world as effectively as possible. Keep all hard copies of certified documents.