I went paperless today. I've planned to exorcise our household of this anachronism for some time, so it feels great to have done it!
There were, however, a few important requirements before I embarked on this epic journey of minimalisation, I had to be able to:
1. Scribble and take notes
2. Back up scanned files
3. Be more efficient than paper
4. Access information faster than paper
How did I do this?
Three pieces of technology and about four hours. Two hours to install, setup and implement a simple usable process, and two hours to cleanse myself of my arboreal sins.
1. Lenovo X61T tablet - Lets me annotate scanned documents with a digitizer pen. I like to scribble. I can now carry and create information wherever I go. The ace up my sleeve is I can take written notes and write on existing documents anywhere.
2. Canon Lide50 scanner - My trusty workhorse scans multiple documents into a single pdf and has the fantastic ability of one button scanning. I scanned over 5 years of financial, personal and business data in 2 hours. The double paged stuff is being outsourced to a business scanner, it's not worth the time to do it myself.
3. Microsoft SyncToy - A free application (bless you Mr. Gates) that allows you to backup a pair of folders. Using some simple jedi mind tricks, I've paired folders on separate networked hard disks mirroring the scanned data between them. It's brilliant, simple disaster recovery planning for home use (Unless we get attacked by an EMP, somehow I don't think anyone will need paper then)
So how much paper do I have left?
- Ten page paper folder. Birth, marriage, citizenship and other important certificates, I'm not worried, they're scanned too!
- 4 blank and mildly scribbled notebooks.
- 2 guitar tabs I'm not sure I can find online easily (Canon in D and Tommy Emmanuel's Angelina)
So there you have it, paper less with all the benefits!
Flickr credit: Thaths
if you get a virus that eats all the PDF documents inside folder #1, will it get replicated to folder #2?
Posted by: Chris | March 13, 2008 at 01:07 AM