Paper-Free Ninja

Become a Paper-Free Ninja

Written by Luke O'Connell

Maybe you’re here because you have piles of folders containing every document you’ve ever received over 2 decades? You’ve just spent 3 hours searching for that one elusive bank statement? Maybe you’re already pretty lean and just looking for a few pointers to make you a paper-free ninja. Either way, you’re in the right place. Today we’ll look at what it means to be paper-free and top tips for really nailing it. The benefits are simple:

  1. Search – You’ll be able to find documents in seconds and even search within documents
  2. Secure – More secure than a filing cabinet with a flimsy lock. Just make sure you protect your files properly (see tech section)
  3. Share – Easy to share documents with others and print out copies if needed

1. State of Mind

Firstly you’ll need to get into the right state of mind. This is easily said but it’s important to have a few ground rules:

  1. Don’t be a worrywart. You need to let go of that notion that one day the original copy of a bank statement or high school certificate is going to be a lifesaver. Simply put there are very few documents that you’ll need to keep originals and they almost always tell you that on the document! As you progress on this paper-free journey you’ll start to understand that there are very few documents that you actually need to keep physical copies of. Examples of these (this is not exhaustive) are:
    a. Birth certificates
    b. Social security cards
    c. House deeds (although these should actually be kept by a solicitor/lawyer)
    d. Will & testament (again should be kept by solicitor/lawyer)
    e. Passports & visa documentation
  2. Do be ruthless. Old Christmas cards from 1990? Note from your old boyfriend? Why? If you have something sentimental then just scan it in. If you do ever want to go back and look (which is unlikely), you’ll be able to.

2. Starting the Paper-Free Journey

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your paper-free life… or a more organised world anyway. Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Decide what you want to keep – This isn’t simply about scanning in everything that you have. There is likely to be a good % of paperwork that you just don’t need to keep. Especially when it comes to financial records really ask yourself if you need a 15-year-old bank statement.
  2. Scan, scan & scan some more – This is the hard part. You’ll need to scan in all your documentation. See the tech part for the best way to do this & how to store the files. If this is too daunting you might consider a scanning service. This is where you’ll ship (or they’ll collect) all your documentation for it to be scanned in and on-request, destroyed. Just remember to use a service that supports confidential processing.
  3. Securely destroy – It’s imperative that you get rid of your documents properly. Use a cross-shredder (cuts both ways, not just into strips like cheaper shredders). If you don’t do this you’ll have your identity stolen faster than you can press scan.
  4. Go paperless – Once you’ve reached paper-free nirvana don’t forget to make sure that you go paperless on as many services as possible. From banks to utilities to stockbrokers almost all businesses offer paper-free options now. Just remember… don’t forget to download them. Often there will be a cap of how far back you can download your statements so it’s good practice to do a mass download every month or two. You also don’t know when a business could fold and you could lose access altogether.

3. The Tech

Getting the tech right is essential for your paper-free transformation. This is all about making your life easier remember?

  1. Scanner – Ideally you want 2 features. An ADF or automatic document feeder is critical. This will allow you to load a stack of pages into the feeder and they’ll be scanned in sequence. Duplex scanning is a nice-to-have as it will avoid you having to turn your pages over and spend time re-sequencing them. ADF is usually pretty standard but duplex can be costly and can result in bigger units.
  2. Files – You should be scanning to PDF as you can then index it. The resolution is up to you but it’s a good idea to go for a medium setting if possible. You don’t need super high quality but at the same time, you need to be able to read it & re-print if required.
  3. File Structure – Sometimes you’ll scan each document into a new file, bank statements are a good example of this. You might therefore have files called “2017 01 My Bank.pdf” and “2017 02 My Bank.pdf” etc. The alternative is merging pages into the same file. You might do this for ad-hoc communications from your bank and call it “My Bank Comms.pdf”. This decision is mostly around volume; you do not want a 200+ page PDF so be sensible around splitting files if needed. A good rule of thumb is a 50-page cap.
  4. Naming Convention & Folder Structure – Decide on a naming convention. For recurring documents ideally start with the year & month as in the examples above. It’ll help with sorting. Finally, think about folder structures. This will help with navigation.
  5. Software & OCR – Your scanner will have its own scanning interface. As well as setting the above settings you’ll also want to look for an OCR option. This will create the PDFs as searchable files from the outset. Not all scanning software supports this. If yours doesn’t you’ll need to post-process it in something like Adobe Acrobat afterwards although this is not ideal.
  6. PDF Manipulation – You’ll need something like Adobe Acrobat to help you manage your PDF files. Common tasks are:
    a. Re-sequencing, deleting or adding pages
    b. Adding password protection to confidential files
    c. Post-processing like OCR, page rotation, tilt correction etc
    There are free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat but put simply, it’s the most powerful and will retain the integrity of your files so if you can afford it, get it.
  7. Storage – Finally, you need to figure out where and how to store your files. A cloud-based storage service like Dropbox is an ideal solution here. Not only will it mean you can access your files from anywhere, but it’ll also make sure nothing is deleted by accident and you can even opt-in for a revision rollback in case of file corruption. You just need to make sure your files are secure of course, think about password protection or even file encryption if needs be, but remember that you’ll lose some features with this like mobile access & in-file/meta searching.

4. Ninja Exam

You’ll know when you are truly a paper-free ninja when all this just becomes habit. It’ll seem like an uphill struggle at first while you get your achieves scanned in and organised, but like most things, you’ll never look back.

If you have any paper-free tips then let me know, I’m always excited to hear from other ninjas 😉