A year ago, I packed up my apartment and moved to Boulder for the summer. Then I moved into a sublet, Then I moved into a house in Oakland, Before that, I'd done 5 other moves--from a rental in San Jose to another in Palo Alto, from a house in New Jersey to San Jose, from a San Jose house to NJ, from Brooklyn to NJ..you get the picture.
This is by way of illustrating that any possessions--and files--that survived the moves had to feel pretty damn valuable.
So here I am, nice Spring weekend, deciding this is the moment to clean out my file cabinet and put away all those old bills, tax statements, etc lying around in a big old box.
Only you know, what I discovered?
So much of what I use to manage my life and pay bills, track insurance, etc. is now digital that I was able to throw 2/3rd of the paper out (after I shredded it, of course).
I am writing this post, tho, because it's not the shift in the companies that service me that is noteworthy, it's my attitude. Somehow, a year ago, having files of COBRA statements, conference attendees, etc, felt useful; today it feels like so much clutter.
While I am not as close to the end of paper as I wish I was, it's clear that online filing systems, the kindle and the cloud are making it much easier to not print things out--and easier to have repositories of records that are digital.
Side note: Anyone scanning their paper files? (Or is that over the top anal?)
This is by way of illustrating that any possessions--and files--that survived the moves had to feel pretty damn valuable.
So here I am, nice Spring weekend, deciding this is the moment to clean out my file cabinet and put away all those old bills, tax statements, etc lying around in a big old box.
Only you know, what I discovered?
So much of what I use to manage my life and pay bills, track insurance, etc. is now digital that I was able to throw 2/3rd of the paper out (after I shredded it, of course).
I am writing this post, tho, because it's not the shift in the companies that service me that is noteworthy, it's my attitude. Somehow, a year ago, having files of COBRA statements, conference attendees, etc, felt useful; today it feels like so much clutter.
While I am not as close to the end of paper as I wish I was, it's clear that online filing systems, the kindle and the cloud are making it much easier to not print things out--and easier to have repositories of records that are digital.
Side note: Anyone scanning their paper files? (Or is that over the top anal?)
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Hiya!
We have a system at our home of scanning in stuff that is important to the household (and then we send a copy to everyone and normally retain a copy on Basecamp).
I used to scan a lot more, and I think Susan is going to get a new scanner soon, so I might actually open my check stub envelopes and get that over with to clear those out.
I personally don't generate a lot of bills, so I could scan everything without it being much of a hassle. Of course, backing up becomes even more important. But I am really good about that, too! ^_^
This sounds like a seismic shift. I'll be watching for similar, internally and in others.
Scanning to files has always seemed to me to be, oh, too involved or too demanding a use by peripheral software. But in the last few months I've found the notion of scanning directly to PDF (and receipt, statement, etc. straight to the shredder) to have a very powerful allure.
From the perspective of archiving and cross-platform retrieval later and compatibility with future equipment, I can't imagine PDF is superior to TIF or that DjVU wouldn't make even more sense. So I recognize this is not a fully rational response.
But I do recognize that scanning directly to PDF has pretty much clinched it. And now reading your post may set me into motion . . .
Roger Sperberg
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