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You probably read that post title and thought, "WHAT?! Abby, you are the queen of binders and paper lists! How in the world are you talking about going paperless?!" Weeeelllll, it's time you learned my dirty little secret: I am actually only the second most organized person in my family. It's true. However organized I may be, my husband Donnie is probably the most meticulously organized person I know, and while I'm a pen and paper girl and organize with binders and lists, his method is totally different and almost completely paperless! Even the Cs think he's awesome at it... 😀

{Original photograph by Photography by JoLynne}

I already spilled my guts about how I use a paper system to organize our home and our budget, but I asked D to write a post on his system so that you too can reap all of benefits of going paperless!! Our systems compliment each other pretty well. While I organize the day-to-day stuff in my pretty binders like shopping lists, spending, and the kids' school information, he does all of the record keeping for our family, managing things like taxes, bills, important records, warranties, insurance, etc. Anything you would normally stuff in a filing cabinet is his domain, just without the filing cabinet. He's giving away all his secrets today, so make sure you get that "Pin It" button ready-- you're going to want to remember this!

Just a note before we get started: this post is longer than one of my usual blog posts, but the information in it is important and could literally change your organizational life, so stick with it! And so without further ado, I present my hubby...

UPDATE: Donnie has updated and improved his system even more since writing this original post and is sharing even more about going paperless in this post!

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For me, the perfect desk would have nothing on it but a Macbook Air and a cup of coffee. Even my Macbook power cable annoys me! I'm always trying to get rid of stuff-- I would much rather downsize than upgrade. Ideally, all of my worldly possessions would fit into a backpack or two. These tendencies can drive Abby crazy, but they do have one benefit...

We are (almost) completely paperless!

I use two key tools to make this process incredibly easy: my high speed scanner * and Evernote. Here's why I think you should go paperless this week:

reduces clutter

reduces stress

gives you access to documents anytime, anywhere

saves time

reduces storage space

saves on printing costs

documents are not vulnerable to water and fire

increases privacy

makes you better looking {right, Abby? 😉 }

The biggest benefit for me is peace of mind. There's no price tag on that. Everything is in its place, and you don't have all these open loops in your life. In Getting Things Done* by David Allen (highly recommended!) an open loop is defined as:

...anything pulling your attention that doesn't belong where it is, the way it is.

Let's close open loops and restore peace of mind!

Set Up Your System

It's easy to understand the benefits of going paperless, but the hard part is actually making some decisions and setting up the system. I'm going to get rid of the guesswork and make it as easy as possible for you today! To get your paperless system set up, you will need to:

Buy a scanner Sign up for Evernote premium Read Evernote Essentials Start scanning!

Step One: Buy a Scanner

{via *}

It wasn't until I bought my Fujitsu Scansnap that I was able to go completely paperless. Here's* the model I have. I think it's the perfect compromise between the pricier but faster ix500* and the s1100* without a paper tray. I highly recommend having the paper tray. If you want to be super cool you could always go with the co-branded Evernote / Fujitsu scanner.* I will say that I've been more than happy with my s1300i!*

There are lots of other scanners out there; some are okay and some are downright bad, but I wouldn't even look beyond Fujitsu. They are the standard.

Step Two: Sign up for Evernote Premium



You can save yourself the frustration of organizing your now-digital documents in some little file/folder structure on your computer! This is way too much work and nightmare waiting to happen. One of the benefits of going paperless is saving time. Files and folders on your hard drive take a lot of time. Evernote's simple system of tagging documents will save you tons of time!

Evernote is a digital filing cabinet, second brain, and your new best friend. You will get to know each other well. It's like the first few months of dating someone-- you think you know them but then they do something new and unexpected that reveals another amazing quality! Evernote and I have been married for three years now, I'm still learning new things about her (or it?). 😀

Thankfully Evernote and the Fujitsu Scansnap have a nice tight integration. Notice below that one of the Scansnap options is to scan directly into Evernote. This works flawlessly. I have it set up so that all I need to do is plug the scanner into my Macbook, load some paper, and push the flashing blue button. Then magically all the documents end up my Evernote inbox.

It's easy to get overwhelmed once your documents have been scanned and are in Evernote. That was me at one point. I tried to duplicate physical folder structures into digital notebooks within Evernote. It drove me crazy!

Lets say, for instance, that I scanned a 1099 MISC from Google for some Adsense Income. Would I put the document in the financial or taxes notebook? Maybe the blogging notebook? With physical documents these are the decisions that you have to make, but with the power of tags in Evernote you never have to decide where to put something.

When I scan a document it is fed into my Evernote Inbox. From there, I tag the document as many times as I want. So in our Google 1099 example, I would use the following tags: google, adsense, 1099, financial, taxes, 2013 taxes. That's 6 different tags which will be useful in the future when searching for the document.

Once a document has been tagged, I move it from the Inbox into the File Cabinet for future retrieval and use. The goal is "Inbox Zero." The Inbox is a temporary spot for notes and documents until you can tag them and move them into the File Cabinet. You can see in the picture above that I have 15 documents in my Inbox. That's 15 items that I need to process (tag and then move into the File Cabinet). Make sense?

OCR Saves the Day

The best feature of Evernote Premium ($5/month) is the OCR (optical character recognition) search feature. The little Evernote elephant is always working behind the scenes on their massive servers turning all of your scanned documents into searchable text. This has saved my butt numerous times. Maybe I forgot to name and tag a document. I could spend days flipping through Evernote trying to find the thing OR with OCR I can just start typing in the search box and Evernote will search not just tags and titles, but also the body of the document!

Let's say last year you saved a recipe to Evernote that called for lots of avocados. If you can't remember the name of the recipe, you would have had to sort through all of your notes tagged "recipe." With OCR you can just search for "avocados" and Evernote will pull up all the notes that contain the word "avocado" somewhere in the body of the note. It is SUCH a big time saver!

Naming Documents: It Doesn't Matter

Don't overthink naming documents, as it's really not that important. Tags and OCR is how you'll recall notes in the future. When I scan a document into Evernote, the Scansnap assigns it a file name that looks something like this "2014_02_04_98_93_17." This isn't particularly useful, but you can see that the first part of the title is the date I scanned the document. I keep that part and just add something relevant to the end. So for that Google 1099 it would be "2014_02_04 Google 1099 MISC." That's it! Then you tag away, move it to the File Cabinet notebook, and you're done!

What can't you store in Evernote?

Not much. Here are some things you can put into Evernote:

scanned paper

pdf files

word files

excel files

webpages

smart phone pictures

smart phone voice memos

How do I access my documents?

Once in Evernote you can access your documents from the iPhone app, Mac or Windows software, or from anywhere where in the world at Evernote.com. (Make sure you use a strong password and change it at least once a month.)

Step Three: Read The Paperless Home

If you want to stick with your new paperless lifestyle, I'm convinced you need to really learn Evernote. This is the biggest hangup for most. They think Evernote is too complicated, so they start trying to organize everything locally on their hard drive. This can quickly turn into a nightmare. I recently decided to write down everything I know about Evernote and going paperless in an eBook/course, The Paperless Home: How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Life because I think that if you're going to invest the time and money into going paperless, you need a proven system that will work for you for the long term.

My simple, yet effective paperless workflow has been in place in our home for over four years now, and it has been a total game changer for our family. My hope is that The Paperless Home will help you achieve the same peace of mind that going paperless has given us.

Step Four: Start Scanning

By this point you have (1) decided on a scanner, (2) signed up for Evernote Premium, and (3) read The Paperless Home. Congratulations! The planning and setup is over, and now is the time to take action!

{via}

First you will need to go through your existing filing cabinets and stacks of papers and decide what to do with all those old dusty documents. Make three piles:

Throw away (burn or shred) Scan and throw away Scan and keep

Pile 1: Throw Away

This is going to be a big pile of useless paper. Do you need your report card from high school? Probably not. Do you need your electric bill from 2007? No! Do you need your 401k plan prospectus from three jobs ago? No. If you think you do, go watch an episode of Hoarders and then come back. 😉

After my great purge I had 4 large garbage bags full of paper. I couldn't imagine shredding all of that, so I burned it in a fire pit. That was satisfying! It was like all these open loops in my life were now closed for good. If your spouse isn't as comfortable throwing stuff away as you are then I suggest you just do it and tell them later. 😉 It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission! (I'm only somewhat kidding.)

Pile 2: Scan and Throw Away

Anything recent that you might need to refer to will go in this category. For instance, I scanned all of my old tax returns and then threw them away. I also scanned the most recent statement from any investment or bank account and then added the paper to the throw away pile. Don't get carried away by keeping too much. Remember that you will have to scan this entire pile, which takes some work. My "scan and throw away" pile was enough to fill half of one file cabinet drawer. That's it.

Pile 3: Scan and Keep

This pile will only have a few things in it. You’ll have birth certificates, marriage license(s), or any important document with an original signature. I scanned and tossed most of our mortgage paperwork but kept the cover sheet with the original signature. I’m not sure why, but if I saw blue ink on something that looked important I kept it. In total, I had less than 20 pieces of paper in this category. Instead of keeping these original documents in filing cabinet, I recommend a locking firebox. Here's the one* I have but there are lots* of good* options.*



That’s it! You’ve completed the purge process. Now you have to decide if you’re going to scan everything in the “scan” categories all at once or over a period of time. I did it over the course of a few months, but a lot of people prefer to just get it all out of the way at once-- whatever works best for you.

Create a Simple Paperless Workflow

Okay, so now you have your paperless tools and you’ve completed the great purge. The next part is the most important. You have to develop your paperless workflow for any incoming paper. Don't let it pile up! Stay on top of it and it will become easier and easier over time. It's now second nature for me, just like taking out the trash or washing the dishes. (except much more satisfying!)

{My description here is very basic. If you want to go into a deep dive on this topic you need to read the previously mentioned Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity* by David Allen. My system is loosely based on his ideas and I re-read the book every few years. Plus, you'll impress your friends when you tell them you follow the GTD productivity method. 😉 }

Here's how I manage incoming paper:

1. Every piece of paper goes into one central inbox:

{via}

I use this metal one from IKEA. When I get a stack of mail, a business card, a letter, notes from a conference, drawing by Connor, or any other type of paper, it goes onto the top shelf of this metal letter box. This is my “unprocessed” paper inbox. It all gets thrown on the top tray.

2. Make a decision with top shelf paper:

I go through all of the paper on the top shelf and decide what to do with it. This happens at least twice a week and takes no more than 2 minutes. Some of the stuff I throw away (junk mail, etc..) and other stuff I need to keep or take some action on. The stuff I decide to keep gets moved down to the middle shelf of the letter tray and is ready for the scanner!

3. Scan everything on the middle shelf:

My scanner sends everything directly to the Evernote Inbox notebook. Once I scan the paper, it either goes into the shredder or garbage can.

4. Evernote Inbox zero:

You can see from this screen shot that one of my Evernote notebooks is called “Inbox.” Everything is scanned into this notebook. I process the Inbox once per day and never take more than a minute or two to do so. Some items I just need to tag and move to the "File Cabinet" notebook for reference. Other items require some type of next action. If it's something that will take 2 minutes or less, I do it right then and there. If it's something that will take longer, I add it to my to-do list. {As you've probably guessed, my to-do list is not a piece of paper; it's a free app called Wunderlist. This is where I collect all of my "to-do" items. It also has a free iPhone app so my to-do list goes with me everywhere.}

The goal is to have nothing in your Evernote Inbox by the time you go to sleep at night. If you set aside a few minutes everyday, it's easy to accomplish. If you let it back up you'll end up getting overwhelmed and ditch the whole system. Don't let that happen!

Creating new habits is not always easy, but in the case of going paperless it is well worth the initial work! It will save you countless hours moving forward and will become second nature.

"I wish I never would've gone paperless." - Said no one ever.

And that's how he does it! Isn't he amazing?! This system has come to our rescue numerous times. One time we were at the mechanic and needed a current copy of our insurance. {which I may have forgotten to put in the glove compartment...oops!} Hubby was able to pull it up on his iPhone through Evernote, email it to the mechanic, and they had it printed out in less than a minute. It's brings so much peace of mind to know that we have all of our important information at our fingertips any time we need it! I am so thankful to have this system in place, and I know you will too!!

Have you gone paperless? What are your best tips?

*This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.*