Your Personal Paperless Process
- Purpose - Why do you want be paperless. Know your story and be ready to share it
- Assess - What are your producers - Processes and workflows that generate the most paper
- Solutions - Suggestions for removing paper from your process
- Share - It's not enough to change yourself. We must advance the industry together
Know Yourself - Know Your Purpose
Why do you want to be paperless. Why do you want to improve yourself. Over the years in my journey. Like most personal transformations, I have found the individuals that do not know why they want to become paperless and don't make a personal commitment to becoming paperless, will not become paperless. They will quickly fall away from the journey.
Your aha movement:
Most of us use an alarm to get us going in the morning. Many of us need the same push to get going towards a goal. The aha moment for me that illistrated the need to become paperless was when the collegues covered my entire office in sticky notes. I was obsessed with paper
Maybe your aha moment is the pile of paper siting around your office. Recently, I was in a colleagues office who has yet to make the commitment to being paperless. He was then looking for pamphlet that was in his stacks of paper. He just knew it was some where in the room. We spent 5 minutes looking for it and could not come across it. Sad thing was that after a single google search with a few of the proper keywords, the first result we came across was the pamphlet. Less than 30 seconds of searching. This is actually true for most information in our lives, it typically can be found quicker by searching the web or your computer than searching for the physical information.
Your story could be related to all the benefits of becoming paperless. Shortly after I made the decision to be paperless I started noticing the benefits. Some of the benefits I see everyday include:
These are my benefits, what are yours? The benefits support your story. Once you have that story, write it down (digitally of course), and be ready to share it. Feel free to send it to me. I enjoy hearing everyone's story. We can always work together.
Your aha movement:
Most of us use an alarm to get us going in the morning. Many of us need the same push to get going towards a goal. The aha moment for me that illistrated the need to become paperless was when the collegues covered my entire office in sticky notes. I was obsessed with paper
Maybe your aha moment is the pile of paper siting around your office. Recently, I was in a colleagues office who has yet to make the commitment to being paperless. He was then looking for pamphlet that was in his stacks of paper. He just knew it was some where in the room. We spent 5 minutes looking for it and could not come across it. Sad thing was that after a single google search with a few of the proper keywords, the first result we came across was the pamphlet. Less than 30 seconds of searching. This is actually true for most information in our lives, it typically can be found quicker by searching the web or your computer than searching for the physical information.
Your story could be related to all the benefits of becoming paperless. Shortly after I made the decision to be paperless I started noticing the benefits. Some of the benefits I see everyday include:
- I am less stressed because of the reduce cluster
- I am less forgetful because I use technology to help me remember
- I can locate information much quick because its all digitized and just a keyword away.
- I am more focused on the focused on the task at hand rather than the piles of paper staring at me.
- Overall my life is just a little bit more simple, because I have fewer placed for information to collect and distract me.
These are my benefits, what are yours? The benefits support your story. Once you have that story, write it down (digitally of course), and be ready to share it. Feel free to send it to me. I enjoy hearing everyone's story. We can always work together.
Assess - What are your producers?
"Now that you know why you want to be paperless, we need to start eliminating paper from our lives. So look around your world and see document your producers. Your world includes your office, your home, your bag, and your pockets. Anywhere paper can collect and begin to pile up.
Your office:
Next time your are at the office, look around. What are your paper producers. Among st my list included:
Your Home:
Your paperless journey cannot be just about your work life, but needs to be about your life as a whole. Even though it seems like we spend most of our day at the office, a good portion of the day is still spend at home. Look around your home, what paper keeps creeping in. For me there are three major producers:
Your bag and pockets
A friend of mine talks about how being paperless has literally lighten his load.
Your office:
Next time your are at the office, look around. What are your paper producers. Among st my list included:
- Note taking - I carried around a portfolio that a wrote down my notes. My notes that I rarely went back to.
- My to do list - I actually use sticky notes to track all my to dos. I stuck a pad in my back pocket and spent more time sorting though my to dos than doing them.
- Document storage - If I wanted to read something later, I printed it out an put it on the stack. The stack that I never got to.
- Plans and Specs - Our industry uses one of the most ineffective ways to communicate information in construction drawings and plans, and after we receive these plans, we just love to hang onto them. Even if we are not longer working on the project.
Your Home:
Your paperless journey cannot be just about your work life, but needs to be about your life as a whole. Even though it seems like we spend most of our day at the office, a good portion of the day is still spend at home. Look around your home, what paper keeps creeping in. For me there are three major producers:
- Newspapers - Think about how much of the paper we actually care about. Is there not a better way to get the same data?
- Mail - How much of what you get in the mail is actually of value?
- Magazines - How many magazines do you actually read?
- Books - We collect these like trophies. I still have books from college that I have never read.
Your bag and pockets
A friend of mine talks about how being paperless has literally lighten his load.
- Notebook - I constantly carried papers and my notebook with me just in case I
- Receipts - I rarely look at them again. Why do I even keep them?
- Cash - More and more we don't need cash to purchase anything
Solutions
First you must stop producing new paper and then you can purge.
- Note taking - Digitizing my note taking was critical to my success. For this I use Microsoft OneNote because it integrated so well with both my work and my personal life. It allows me to have access to my notes on any device. I has apps for my phone, my surface, and the web. Best of all it is free and has unlimited storage. Other great apps to try out include Evernote and Google Keep.
- To do List - Finding a replacement for my sticky notes took me forever. I tried everything from out look tasks to google tasks, to remember the milk, to whatever other app of the month I came across. Nothing seemed on stick until I came across Trello. I think Trello stuck because it works the way my mind worked. Trello uses board and lists with tasks flowing from list to list as the progress. Other great apps include wunderlist, any.do, and todoist. You can also just use one note taking apps too.
- Document storage - Find a replacement for the filing cabinet is critical to your conversion to paperless. First think about a cloud storage location. I have used just about every cloud storage platform out there. As I finished my dissertation, I finally standardized on one platform, Microsoft OneDrive. This is due to a deep integration with Microsoft Office and Office 365. It allows for online and desktop co-authoring of document. Some other options to evaluate include Google Drive, Box and Dropbox.
- Article Storage - As I stated above, I used to print out every article that I wanted to keep for later. To remove this need I started to use Pocket. Pocket is great because lets save content from so many different storage to read later. It typically converts the content into an easy to read format and will even read it to you if you wish.
- Plans and Specs - In our industry, digitizing plans and specs is a necessity. Bluebeam has quickly become the industry standard. It can actually replace multiple other high priced tools that you may use. It allows for collaboration through its studio offering. Plan grid is another option worth considering.
- Receipts - First just ask yourself if you actually need it. You need actually need it, consider camscanner, office lens, or onenote to digtally store reciepts and other important print items
- Billing - Paperless billing and autopay are your friend. If feel the need to get a bill, go for email rather than paper in the mail.
- Mail - Now this will take some work. Unfortunately, it takes focusing on each piece of mail. Basically Google how to get rid of each item you receive. Also can also sign up for dma choice.
- Books - I have completely stopped purchasing new paper books. I even don't like receiving them any more. Consider Amazon Kindle for your digital books. I have also started using hoopla to digitally borrow from my local library.
- Newspapers - Decide if you really need to follow the news. There are those that feel we don't really need to follow the news at all if you do want to follow the happenings of the day. Find an agitator such at Flipboard, Twitter, or my current favorite google now/news.
- Magazines - Most magazines have digital editions, looking into opting out of the paper edition.
- Cash - More and more we don't need to paper money. Use yo ur credit or debit card. Also consider mobile payment methods such as Android pay, Apple pay, paypal and venmo.
Share
It is not enough to help yourself become paperless. You must also help others. I have found that no one has ever become paperless unless they can make a personal commitment to it. Each person's motivation is a little different, you need to find what speaks to them. I have found that sharing your personal motivation really helps to them to discover their own motivation.
One way you can share your motivation is to send us the story of your paperless journey. How did you do it and what was your motivation?
One way you can share your motivation is to send us the story of your paperless journey. How did you do it and what was your motivation?