It’s Time to Sit Down with that Scanner

Every once and a while, I look over at my paper pile (yes, even I have a paper pile to deal with) in my office. When I look at it, it occurs to me that I should get rid of it. No matter how much I try, I still find that there are people who send me paper. Some of the things are easy to deal with. Flyers for everything you could possibly imagine are not things that get to go anywhere near my filing system. There are some bills and other things that still get mailed by hard copy to me. For these things, I will scan and save them into my filing system. For the most part, because I get a lot of my documents digitally, I can ignore my ever-growing pile of paper. There are times that I can ignore it no longer. This happened to me about a month ago. I looked at the collection of paper that I have (technically I keep it in a bin)and realized that I needed to cut it down.

1) Take some time to get it done right – there is nothing worse (as far as the filing is concerned) than trying to rush through scanning and getting rid of paper. It indeed happens to me that I will go months without scanning things into my filing system, and then all of a sudden, I see the paper pile monster in the corner of my eye and have to take action. Not unlike what I was talking about last week with scheduling time to sort through your e-mail, It’s essential to make sure that you set aside some time to get through some of the paper that is piling up around you. If you take your time and set up your filing system correctly, then it will make it so that filing will go a lot smoother. Before I get questions on what a “proper” filing system is,I should probably mention that the only “proper” filing system is the one that works for you. If you can find all your documents and you’re the only one accessing it, then organize the files however works best for you. If more than one person is accessing your data, it would be prudent to make sure that there is a guide of some sort to navigating your filing system. 

2) Make yourself a standard file naming system – The trick with digital files (and I’ve said this before) is that once they are scanned, you can only see what they are by their icon and their filename without having to open every single file. If you take some time to create a file naming convention that you can understand where the files have to go and what they are, your life will become so much simpler. There are three things that I put in the file names when I’m scanning, so I know what files go where. I put in the date on the paper, the file location where it’s going, and a quick description of what it is. This could be as simple as “2019-0623 – Jason Visa – Best Buy 232.95.” I use the YYY-MM-DD method for my dates because that way, the computer sorts them in order.

3) Scan and Shred! – Now that you have some time, and have figured out how you want to name your files, get cracking! I find that when I’m scanning documents, I get into a bot of a groove. When I get there, it means that I can scan faster and go through my pile more quickly. Scanning and getting through your papers are super important. Equally important is what happens to your documents once you’re done scanning them. I have my shredder within 2 feet of my scanner. I can run the paper through the scanner, name the file appropriately, and then with barely even a ten-degree turn, I’m able to put that paper directly into my shredder. I don’t believe in keeping paper unless you have to, so 90% of what I scan gets shredded.

I’ll be perfectly honest, there are lots of times where I’m able to ignore the pile of paper in my office, but when it gets too much for me, I like the fact that I have a simple system for getting all of my documents into my filing system and the paper out of my life. It’s encouraging to me that making up a digital filing system can be so simple. All you need to do is make sure that you stick to the three things that I have outlined here and getting rid of that pile of paper.

Do you have a pile of paper you’re looking to get rid of?

Let me know in the comments section below. If you like this blog post and want to see more, you can follow me on Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @jasonlovefiles) or Subscribe to my blog to get new content delivered directly to your mailbox.