What Does Partially Paperless Look Like in Your Home? Battle Plans, Part IV

Thinking about going partially paperless in your home life? With easy access to the internet via computers and smartphones and lots of statements and bills available electronically you might be exploring your options. We've been discussing home papers over the past several blog entries (see Part I, Part II & Part III for background) and I would be remiss if I didn't include email and electronic documents in the discussion.

Before we start, remember that there are three types of papers: archive, reference, and motion. Emails and electronic documents fall into the same three categories. Refer to Battle Plan 2 in Part I for a refresher.

When moving from paper to electronic, consider the following decisions:

• What do you feel comfortable receiving electronically? It's not going to help if you receive the electronic document and then print it out.
• How will you keep your passwords? Each account will need a different password for security, so make sure you have an easy way to access your password when you need it.
• Is this something you want to do over time or all at once?
• How will you track tasks linked to email or electronic documents?

Here are other ideas to help you become partially paperless.

Email: Julie Morgenstern states, "Email can save or steal time, depending on how you manage it." So if you are experiencing email overwhelm or feel like you spend too much time handling email, here are some tips:

• Don't just delete, unsubscribe! Obviously, deleting as many emails as possible is great. More important is to stop them from coming in the first place. Ezines and electronic newsletters are required to have "opt out" buttons. They are usually found at the bottom of the page. Have no fear, if you have "unsubscribers remorse" they'll be happy to have you sign up again:-)
• File, don't print! Save some trees by not printing email. It's so easy to hit the print button. But as soon as you do that, you've created paper clutter. Only print out what you absolutely have to. See Electronic File Structures section below for filing ideas.

Electronic Documents: Name with a purpose! When creating and saving documents, consider what you will think about when you want to retrieve the file. If you have multiple drafts of the same document, determine how you will distinguish between them. I use an underscore then the date, so a document updated Nov. 16, 2011 would have this: _111611 after the document name. It works for me, but it may not work for you. The same naming principle holds true with documents that are sent to you. You can rename utility bills, bank and credit card statements in ways that make sense for you.

Electronic File Structures: Make it parallel! The file structure on your hard drive and in your email should parallel the structure of your paper files. It won't be exactly the same because some documents you may only have in one or two different formats. By having the systems parallel, you only have to learn one system rather than three.

Upcoming blog posts, will address life "in the cloud" and dealing with your Motion papers.