128
Chapter 09: goIng paperless THE SIMPLE GUIDE TO GOING PAPERLESS
We have noticed a trend in the number of people that go paperless – the journey of getting rid of as much paper as you can and substituting it with digital copies. Going paperless is one of the best things you do – it will save you paper, money and a lot of time. The transition might seem daunting but it’s actually fairly easy. I’ll share a story how I accidentally went paperless and how I got rid of my favorite magazines and substituted them for digital copies.
I hope that this will inspire you to considering going paperless too.
GOING PAPERLESS WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE AND EVERNOTE
A couple years ago, the lease on my apartment was about to end and I didn’t have any plans to renew it. Instead, I decided to live in Europe and Asia for a couple of years and then return to LA. As I was cleaning my apartment, I realized I needed to keep all these important paper documents (tax papers, bank statements, transcripts, etc) but I had no physical space to store them.I had to figure out a way to keep these documents, but I didn’t want to bring them with me. Plus I needed to have all my important documents easily
129
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
accessible while I was abroad. What to do?
iPhone and Evernote to the rescue!
Out of necessity I found a cheap and quick solution to my problem: I used my iPhone to scan all the documents and Evernote as my storage medium. This is a great solution when you don’t have access to any scanner but you still want/
need to keep paper documents in digital format. There are many advantages for going paperless and having everything stored in digital format:
• No papers to store and carry around
• No more clutter around the room
• Save money
• Going green and saving the environment
• Access anywhere, anytime
This is especially useful for people who travel a lot and need to be able to access their documents on-the-go (like yours truly). The great thing about using Evernote as storage medium is that it has the ability to read text in scanned documents. This is huge and what made me choose it over using Dropbox or Google Docs. While I love both Dropbox and Google docs, you can’t search for text within scanned images. Evernote supports OCR scanning so it can recognize text within images and makes it accessible for search. If you have a premium Evernote account, it can also search within PDF files for you.
Disclaimer: I will recommend that using a full fledge desktop scanner, or a mobile scanner such as the Fujitsu Scansnap, is a better alternative than the iPhone. It’s more accurate and will give you higher resolution copies. It’s also much easier and faster, but the big advantage of your iPhone is that you can do it anywhere and you don’t have to buy extra equipment. This chapter will show you how can do all this with the iPhone. If you’re an Android user, we recommend CamScanner.
In this chapter I will use Evernote (free account will do, although I have premium) and an iPhone. For the iPhone, you need to purchase the app
JotNot Scanner Pro because it will act as our scanner. You can buy it for $0.99 in the App store.
130
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
Note: technically you can use the built-in scanner that comes with the Evernote app on iOS or Android. It’s a great feature but if you also want to scan documents and store them outside Evernote, then having a separate app is necessary. On the iOS, I’ve tried different apps like Docscanner and Scanner Pro. These are also great apps but they use PDF as primary format, which make them not searchable within Evernote unless you have the premium account. Although I think Scanner Pro is the best app (most features and very customizable), JotNot is easier to use, cheaper, and natively stores files in image formats which make them searchable in Evernote.
Since Evernote is supported on all major platforms (OS X, Windows, iOS and Android) you will be able to access your information anywhere, anytime and with any device. What’s not to like about that?
SETUP IPHONE AND EVERNOTE
Assuming you have created an Evernote account (free account is good enough), the first thing you need to do is create a new notebook called
“Documents”. Here’s how you do it (my screenshots show the Mac OS X version, it looks a little different on Windows).
1. Go to File > New Notebook (or press Shift+Command+N).
131
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
Create a new notebook in Evernote
2. Name your notebook “Documents”.
In this chapter I will be using the following a printed document as illustration.
This is the first page of a book summary I made on The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (which is a great book). I took a picture of it below with my iPhone:
132
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
One page out of a book summary of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
133
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
WORKFLOW
Now that you have a foundation set up, it’s time to get into the actual workflow. It’s really simple going paperless with your iPhone and Evernote.
1. First start up Jot Not Scanner.
Start JotNot Scanner Pro on your iPhone
134
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
2. You’ll be greeted by this screen:
Welcome screen of JotNot Scanner Pro on iPhone
135
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
3. Tap on the gear icon, select Evernote and link your Evernote account.
136
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
4. After filling in your Evernote username and password, it’s time to scan some documents. There are two ways to go about it; you either take a picture or use a picture from your camera roll. In this chapter I’ll use a picture of my camera roll; it’s the one you saw earlier. It really doesn’t matter if you take a picture or use one from your camera roll. What does matter is how you take the picture.
When you take a picture, the best way is by standing in a room with plenty of (sun)light and hold your camera perpendicular to the paper.
5. In the next screen you can now drag the corners of the image to ensure that only the paper gets scanned. Most of the time you can skip this but occasionally you will have to adjust the corners. Then tap on Process in the top right corner.
Dragging corners on JotNot Scanner Pro on iPhone
137
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
6. You’re almost done. You get a preview to see how your scan turned out. The next step is to upload it to Evernote by tapping on the arrow at the bottom.
JotNot Scanner Pro preview screen on iPhone
138
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
7. Now select your Evernote account, pick which pages you want to store (usually all of them), fill in a title, select the “Documents” notebook and you’re all set.
Share to Evernote
Using a Desktop Scanner: if you’re using a Desktop scanner, you will want to use the scanning application that comes with the scanner – this is usually provided by the manufacturer (Canon, Epson, HP etc) and varies from scanner to scanner. Mac users can also use Image Capture which comes bundled with OS X. This software will usually let you output to a .jpg or .pdf format, both which are fine for dragging-and-dropping straight into Evernote.
Done! You now have gone paperless with your iPhone and Evernote!
139
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
All this will make searching and accessing your documents so much easier and faster. Plus you can access them anywhere, anytime with your iPhone. Follow the same steps for all your documents and you will have now a secure backup and easily accessible digital filing system.
140
Chapter 09: goIng paperless GOING PAPERLESS WITH YOUR MAGAZINES
Now that you’re set up with your new paperless workflow, it’s time to take the next step with your magazines. If you like reading magazines like I do, the next step is to switch from paper magazines to digital magazines.
When I was a teenager I was hooked on the weekly edition of The Economist.
As the years went by and I started to subscribe to more magazines, my resentment towards magazines also grew. I loved consuming interesting content but my room would be cluttered with all these magazines and I hated it. It would grow into a love/hate relationship – on one hand I loved reading but on the other hand I hated the clutter.
So I searched for a solution. As I shifted towards a paperless lifestyle, I found the perfect solution for this – Zinio.
Zinio is an online service where you can subscribe to all major magazines and read them on your phone, desktop or tablet. Reading magazines on your tablet is one of the best things you can do if you’re interested in going paperless with your magazines. You just download their app, login and it will download all the magazines you’re subscribed to.
As I started to use Zinio I discovered other hidden advantages of this services.
Some of the main advantages of Zinio include:
• No more paper magazines cluttered in my apartment (yay!)
• All major magazines are available (even from other countries)
• Discover more magazines you might be interested in that you wouldn’t know about otherwise (with their huge selection there is something for everyone)
• Cheaper prices (you save a lot of money compared to retail prices)
• Easy billing management (all in one place)
• You can buy backlogs of magazines (great for specialized and niche magazines)
• Available on iOS, Android and desktop
• Save the environment (going green)
Having your billing centralized is a big plus for me. When I had paper
subscriptions I would never know when I had to renew or how much it would
141
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
be, but with Zinio I can just login and have an overview of when my renewal date is and for how much.
READING EXPERIENCE
Here’s how Zinio looks on an iPad
The Zinio app makes the reading experience fantastic – especially on an iPad. It’s better than reading a regular PDF where you just swipe pages. You have interactive links so it’s easy to browse around. You just tap and you’ll instantly be on the right page. Also, at the bottom of your screen you can see thumbnails of pages that make it very easy to browse.
MY SUBSCRIPTIONS
If you’re curious what I read, here’s a list of my subscriptions:
• Macworld
• Harvard Business Review
• The Economist
142
Chapter 09: goIng paperless
• Forbes
• Smart Money
• Travel + Leisure
• Esquire
• Men’s Fitness
As you can see, I read a lot. Unlike most books, you don’t have to read
everything in a magazine. It’s easy to skip around and you just read whatever you feel like. This is perfect for reading on a plane, train and those times in the bathroom (admit it, I know you do too!)
Note: if you’re looking for books, check our list of recommended books.
GETTING ZINIO
If you want to start going digital and paperless with your magazine
subscriptions, I highly recommend Zinio. I’ve tried iBooks, Newsstand and Amazon but their selection is not as good as Zinio’s. The fact that the prices are cheaper on Zinio is a plus (although I would have paid full price just for the convenience) and another reason to make the leap.
Click here to sign up for Zinio.
143
Chapter 09: goIng paperless ACTION STEPS
This chapter showed you how you can go paperless with just your iPhone and Evernote. The process of going paperless is not as difficult as it might seem and you don’t compromise anything. On the contrary, you will be much more effective managing your documents and files. Plus, if you go paperless with your magazines too you’ll have less clutter in your life.
Here’s what to do next:
1. Sign up for Evernote.
2. Start scanning papers with your smartphone or scanner.
3. Import them into Evernote.
4. Transition from paper magazines to digital magazines by using Zinio.
Chapter 10:
Organizing Your Files, Folders and
Documents
145
Chapter 10: FIles, Folders and doCuments ORGANIZING YOUR FILES, FOLDERS AND
DOCUMENTS
One of the simplest and most overlooked aspects of being organized is getting your computer files organized. It’s something that’s easy to take for granted, especially when you forget that most people don’t use their computers like us crazy systems-people do. Let’s look at some good practices for keeping your files and documents neat, in folders and easy searchable and accessible.
The idea of organizing files and documents goes back to the good-old-days of filing cabinets and paper. Hopefully, the last chapter on Going Paperless has started putting you in the mindset of making everything digital.
The advantage of the original paper-based cabinets was that you really had to think about where to put documents so that they could be easily located when they were needed. With computers, we have somewhat lost this art-form and exchanged it for an all-in-one search function instead.
Our personal test for organization is this: you should be able to find the majority of your documents without using Spotlight or Windows Search. If you can’t, you’ve got some housecleaning to do.
Note: we’ll be talking about folders and directories on your hard disk in this chapter. You could easily replicate the directory structures into a filing application like DevonThink, or wiki/notebook-style applications like Evernote and VoodooPad.
146
Chapter 10: FIles, Folders and doCuments
147
Chapter 10: FIles, Folders and doCuments
We’ll do our best to cover both OS X and Windows in this chapter. For the most part, the user directory structure is the same as is where you should store your files.
SOME SIMPLE RULES
Let’s start with some simple rules for managing your files and folders.
1. DON’T PUT FILES ON THE DESKTOP
Your desktop is supposed to be clean and display that gorgeous
high-resolution wallpaper you’ve got going on. It should contain your trash/recycle bin, and that’s about it.
On very rare exceptions you’re allowed to put a text file or two on your desktop if you’re referring to it regularly and don’t need to file it just yet.
2. LIMIT FOLDER CREATION
When you’re creating folders, think minimal. Most files and documents can fit somewhere in your hierarchy if you’ve done a good job of initially mapping it out.
In general, only create new folders (especially top-level folders in /documents) if you find yourself repeatedly coming back to save similar files in the same place, only to find that it doesn’t exist yet.
3. GET USED TO THINKING IN HIERARCHIES
Thinking in hierarchies is a learned skill. It takes time to get used to. If you want to manage your files and documents effectively, you’ll have to learn it.
To borrow a bit of pop-psychology, there are 3 main things you have to know:
chunking up, chunking down, and chunking sideways.
Start with the assumption that everything fits into a category or hierarchy of similar things. For example, let’s take Apple products.
148
Chapter 10: FIles, Folders and doCuments
Chunking Down, Up and Sideways with Apple Products
At the top, we have a category that encompasses all Apple products.
Now let’s chunk down (move down one hierarchy level). Now we have
multiple categories: portable computers, desktop computers, mobile devices, music devices, software.
Let’s chunk down again into mobile devices – you have the iPhone and the iPad. But if we chunk up from the iPhone, we can see that it could fit into both categories of “mobile devices” and “music devices”. This is entirely possible with most real-world hierarchies – things can fit in more than one place.
Now what if we chunk sideways from the iPhone? We end up with an iPad.
Chunking sideways describes moving amongst the members of an existing hierarchical level.
Applied to your files and documents, the general rule is that they should always sit with other files of the same, equivalent hierarchical level. For
example, application installers can sit in the same folder. Dated to-do lists can sit in the same folder. Personal letters to friends can sit in the same folder.
PDF scans of receipts by month can sit in the same folder.
4. /ARCHIVE IS YOUR FRIEND
One thing we’ve adopted at Asian Efficiency is the idea of having a /archive
149
Chapter 10: FIles, Folders and doCuments
folder within a lot of our folders.
We have hundreds of folders related to posts for our site. Each content piece gets its own folder for holding images, research, text and media related to that content piece. When you have a couple of hundred or so of these, it gets hard to find what you’re currently working on. So our solution has been that whenever a post or content piece goes live, we move the related folder into /archive. This way, all the pieces we’re currently working on can be easily found, and any older pieces that we want to refer to down the line can also be found be going into /archive.
DROPBOX
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of directory organization, I want to give a mention to Dropbox.
It is an absolutely amazing tool for backing up your documents and using them between different devices and computers. It’s also great for sharing documents with others.
If you use Dropbox and have a paid account with storage (highly
recommended), whatever directory structures we mention below can sit directly in your /Dropbox folder rather than your /Documents folder. We’ll clarify below as necessary.
DOCUMENTS
Let’s take a look at your personal documents.
Regardless of if you use Windows or Mac, you will likely use the /username/
Documents folder on your computer to hold your personal documents.
If you happen to do both work and personal tasks on your computer (like a lot of people do today), then you should really create two folders to separate out your personal and business items.
If you’re using Dropbox, it looks like this:
• /Dropbox/Business
• /Dropbox/Documents
If you’re not using Dropbox, you can similarly do:
150
Chapter 10: FIles, Folders and doCuments
• /Documents/Business
• /Documents/Personal You could also do:
• /Business
• /Documents
With both folders sitting directly under /username – as long as you pick one method and stick to it, it will work.
If you’re interested, at Asian Efficiency our team shares a Dropbox folder for most of our files, so we each have:
• /Dropbox/Asian Efficiency
• /Dropbox/Documents
Now how you actually divide up your personal documents is largely a matter of how you mentally divide up your life. A very basic split would be: health, finances, relationships. These would then have subfolders, for example:
• /Documents/health/dentist
• /Documents/health/doctor
• /Documents/finances/insurance
• /Documents/finances/Chase
You could also do a more granular split, like:
• /Documents/finances
• /Documents/social
• /Documents/play
• /Documents/mind
• /Documents/health
The general rule to follow is to pick a folder structure that matches how you
The general rule to follow is to pick a folder structure that matches how you