5 Ways to Keep Hard Copy in a Digital World

One thing that drives me crazy on a regular basis is people who feel the need to keep everything hard copy. To be clear, it’s not the ones who are well organized, the people who have proper filing systems which keep all their papers in order. I’m more referring to people whom I’ve seen in most of my working life who have piles and piles of paper on their desks and claim it’s organized. These, by the way, are the same people when you ask them for something have to go searching through all their “well organized” piles.

 

I have had experiences with loads of paper on my desk. I was once charged with digitizing an entire office’s file room, and I spent the better part of 3 years with a pile of paper on my desk that on occasion reached 2 feet tall! To be clear, there is loads of middle ground between having an entirely paper filing system and a wholly paperless system. Being able to manage the digital and the hard copy aspects of your filing system is something that should me be continuously maintained. There are, luckily a few different things that you can do to make this management a bit easier.

 

1) Pick your spots – As I said, there are many different degrees between full digital and full hard copy. The trick is to set for yourself what you need to keep a hard copy and what can be kept merely digital. Like I said previously, My general rule of thumb is only to keep hard copy that which I think is entirely legally necessary. I don’t keep bank statements or visa receipts in hard copy, but I do have a physical copy of the past few years of income tax paperwork (Something we’re required to do in Canada).

 

2) Organize it the same as your Digital Files – If you figure out a way to keep your files digitally it makes sense that you similarly keep your hard copy files. What I tend to do in my digital system is have folders which cover larger subjects (bills as an example) and then have subfolders which cover more specific topics (Phone company bills). In my hard copy system what I do is I have a two drawer filing cabinet which holds some legal information in one drawer and my banking info that I do need to keep a hard copy in another. In each drawer, the folders separate the documents by subject. Organizing it like my digital system makes it so that I can quickly move between systems without having to give any serious thought to what goes where.

 

3) Keep them in a Safe Place – This is where even I have to offer a minor “mia culpa.” While the filing cabinet where I keep my documents is in a safe place, it could be safer. I am currently working on trying to find myself a filing cabinet that is fireproof. This will make it so that my documents will not only be in a safe place but if there was an accident and there was a fire, then the papers would still be safe. I’m fully aware that this can be a bit much, so what I would recommend is finding some sort of filing cabinet where you can keep your documents. If you are able to keep your records in a safe and organized fashion, then you will always be able to find them.

 

4) Go through and Toss as Necessary – This is actually part of my first point. Some documents do not need to be kept forever. It’s essential, therefore, to review what documents you have and see if you REALLY need them. The one thing that I must advise here is that if you are keeping hard copy documents for legal reasons and want to dispose of them, I would make sure that you check with your local government to make sure that you can actually destroy the documents.

 

5) Don’t succumb to clutter – This is so easy to do, and I indeed have accidentally buried myself in clutter a few times. The trick is to know when to stop collecting all the hard copy. One of the things that I do is have something that I call my “Scan man” file. It’s a plastic file folder I keep in my briefcase. When it gets too thick with the stuff that I put in it. I sit down in front of my computer with my scanner, and I scan it all. It’s now gotten to the point that I can almost feel when my briefcase is too heavy, and I think to myself “Oh! Time to start scanning!” It’s easier than having papers scattered all over the place and trying to chase down what needs to be scanned.

 

Keeping hard copy files in this ever increasingly digital world is not strictly difficult, the problem is what to keep and for how long. When sorting out your digital system, it’s important to think about what you really NEED to keep in hard copy as well as digital and what you merely want to keep.

 

Do you keep anything hard copy?