Even in our digital age we can get a pile of papers laying around in no time. Bills, receipts, notes, some paperwork for your job, or even notes you have taken by hand. With these 5 tools you can digitize the hardcopies and keep your office clean.
1. Your Phone
Odds are you have a decently high quality camera attached to a computer within arms reach. You might even be holding it right now. My guess is that 80% of the mail that you get that doesn’t need to be thrown away immediately, could be thrown away after taking a picture of it with your phone.
You can then use one of the convenient cloud storage options like Google Drive or iCloud to store it or organize it however you like.
2. Cloud Storage
Cloud storage gives you access to these documents anywhere you have internet access. Its like having a giant filing cabinet that weighs next to nothing and is a lot easier to organize.
You can get a lot of this for free and there are a bunch of companies that provide it as a service. Depending on how paranoid you are and how secure you want your documents, you can go with an decentralized blockchain solutions like Storj or stick with one of the most well know ones like Dropbox.
Of course you have your Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive, and Apple iCloud which you most likely have one of or have easy access to.
3. A Scanner
For multipage documents, a scanner with an automatic document feeder is the way to go. Some even have integrations to cloud storage to make sending your newly digitized documents a breeze.
If you are low on space there are some incredibly compact scanners that don’t take much room or can be easily lifted to put away when your are done.
Brother™ is my go to brand when it comes to scanners and printers. If you don’t already have a scanner, you should try one of their compact desk scanners.
Be wary of the compact scanners that don’t have built in guides. They can end up rotating the paper as it feeds through causing the scan to be distorted and possibly damaging the paper making it difficult to rescan.
Depending on the type of scanner you go with, you can also use it to digitize old family photos. Preserve some memories.
4. A Paper Shredder
A good cross-cut shredder is a perfect complement to your scanner. A lot of documents have personally identifying or sensitive info and should be shredded before being discarded. This saves you the trouble of having cut them up with scissors or finding a way to safely burn them.
I have been using the same shredder for at least 6 years now and it gets plenty of work. And it wasn’t very expensive either. Basically an older version of this model.
As a bonus, a good shredder can also cut up your old credit or debit cards.
5. An External Hard Drive
Maybe you don’t entirely trust cloud providers or your internet access is a little on the slow side and you want a local copy of your files. Either way, a good external hard drive can give you a ton of storage space for relatively cheap. This also allows you to free up space on your computer’s hard drive.
Bit By Bit
Depending on how many papers you have it may feel a little intimidating. But if you just take a small bit of time, say 15 minutes, everyday to scan, organize, shred, and throw away, you could get thru the pile faster than you think.