Comments on: Six tips for going paperless

By: optimal living algorithm | how to live the (95%) paperless lifestyle | | O |

Thu, 20 May 2010 14:13:20 +0000

[...] http://unclutterer.com/2009/04.....paperless/ [...]

By: Vanessa H.

Vanessa H. — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:53:38 +0000

I think this gives the illusion of minimalism. I mean, which is more complicated: a piece of paper in a drawer, or a computer + scanner + backup? Some things that seem less complicated are actually more complicated. However, it could also depend on your personal amount of files, as to which is easier for you!

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:02:26 +0000

I know this discussion is a year old now, but I have to answer Luisa above, and ask other readers, if you’re here: Why download the online statements at all? After I have reviewed my AT&T bill and made sure it’s all correct and OK to pay (a job in itself), then I can pay the total online.

Why download and keep the 30 pages of bill at that point, or even the first page? I have a budget program that keeps track of what I paid for AT&T that month, and I can look up the bill whenever I want, if there is ever any question or problem with it (both on the AT&T site and by looking up that month’s bank statement). So why not have my creditors store all the bills for me?

By: Jackie Pettus

Jackie Pettus — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:28:04 +0000

Most scanning seems like a waste of time to me. You’re not saving paper, either. If you’re scanning something, it’s already on paper. Most of the stuff you’re saving won’t ever be needed….it’s “just in case.” I keep those papers in a good old fashhioned file drawer. Once a year I recycle or shred everything I can.

By: Linda Varone

Linda Varone — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:08:16 +0000

Re: reading on a computer screen. It has been documented that people read 20% slower when reading on a computer screen. I think it is because our brains need to go through an extra step converting pixels into a “solid” image of each letter or word. Having just read a 270 page document I can say it was exhausting and frustrating in a way that reading it on paper would not have been.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:42:41 +0000

ALSO BUY A GOOD STAPLE REMOVER.

Speaking from recent experience, there are more staples in your files than you realize. Without a staple remover your fingernails will suffer.

By: Six “More” Tips for Going Paperless | Fujitsu ScanSnap – Welcome to your productive, mobile, paperless, efficient life

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:14:46 +0000

[...] Shead (who also blogs at Productivity501) and Unclutterer, and hope you enjoy Mark’s “Six tips for going paperless” post as much as we [...]

By: [Worthy Wednesday] Unclutterer » The Life and Times of a Freelance Writer

[Worthy Wednesday] Unclutterer » The Life and Times of a Freelance Writer — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:20:48 +0000

[...] Six Tips for Going Paperless [...]

By: The Plaid Cow

The Plaid Cow — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:47:33 +0000

@Luisa: Unless space is a horribly tight, finding a good high-end scanner (like the SnapScan, which does everything you want) and a good separate printer would be best. You may even be able to set up the scanner software to have a scan-to-printer function so it works like a copier.

By: Luisa

Luisa — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:29:11 +0000

You know, I would go paperless with the statements, but the companies don’t make it easy for me. It’s tedious having to remember to go to to each company’s website, login and download the statements, every month and you have to go and click on each file one by one. A lot of them don’t even name each of the statements correctly, most use same generic name for every file, so I have to go rename each file I download, one at a time, some don’t even properly name the file with the right extension! I don’t expect them to email the statement directly to me, because there is security issue.

Question, anyone can recommend an all-in-one printer scanner, that can do multi page duplex auto load scanning? Big plus if it can do good OCR and save to PDF.

By: Dave Gambrill

Dave Gambrill — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:43:10 +0000

I use a site called Pixily to handle this for me. They charge very reasonable rates to collect, scan, and store my documents for me. I found it especially valuable at tax time since I could search receipts and other tax documents and print copies if needed. Check ‘em out at http://www.pixily.com

And no, I’m not an employee or partner – just a happy customer who thinks more people could benefit from their service.

By: Enrique S @ The Corporate Barbarian

Enrique S @ The Corporate Barbarian — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:54:06 +0000

I use a file naming system that includes the date, format(email, excel, word, etc), title, and source. By using a search tool like Windows desktop, I can usually find just about any file. I really want a SnapScan, it would be a big upgrade over my Dell all-in-one.

By: gypsy packer

gypsy packer — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Becoming minimalist–Have your eyes checked. I hate clutter but keep three pairs of glasses–the dreaded bifocal, bifocal sunglasses for drivng, and a single-vision set made at an entirely different strength, for working on the computer. Opticians are happy to make such glasses and will ask detailed questions about the monitor size and your distance from it, etc. Clerical workers purchase them routinely.

Even so, I am not crazy about reading on computers. You may want to transfer that paper to a plain-text file and load it onto an iPhone or another podclone with text-reading capabilities and read it like a book.

By: JJ

JJ — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:25:41 +0000

@ Clare: In the ScanSnap Manager you can set the Scansnap options to automatically OCR the documents when you are scanning them. The option is located under the “File Option” tab right below the file format choice. Adobe standard came bundled with my ScanSnap so I usually don’t use the ScanSnap OCR option as I am scanning at home, unless it is an article or policy of some sort.
Do I get the bonus points?

By: Clare

Clare — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:01:45 +0000

I own a ScanSnap, but am having a bitch of a time with…OCR? I guess? I have a lot of academic articles to scan in because they have my handscrawled notes in the margins, and I need them all (the documents, not the notes) to be keyword-searchable. What software should I be using? Bonus points for software that’s affordable on a student budget!