How many pieces of paper are on your kitchen counter, dining room table, or some other place where they don’t belong? Do you hang onto receipts? Is there a stack of papers from the vet that you keep in case you need to remember exactly what meds your pet took three years ago? All that paper sits there waiting for a time when you’ll be able to deal with it, which never seems to come. It’s time to get rid of the paper and all the guilt that piles up along with it. It’s time to go paperless.
What Does Paper-Free Mean?
I’ve been paper-free for more than a decade. By paper-free, I don’t mean I have zero papers in my life. I still need my paper birth certificate, of course, and I use a traditional notebook to take notes for a language class I take. For the most part, however, I don’t hang on to paper. Instead, I scan important documents to a storage service and keep digital notes in a note-taking app. I write my to-do list and shopping list in an app on my phone. I pin restaurant recommendations in an online map. There are so many simple tricks that can help you remove paper from your life.
Going digital is easy. The hard part is not letting paper start to creep back in. If you’re ready to get rid of most of the paper in your life, here’s what you need to know to get started and to keep it up.
1. Ignore the Backlog
The first step in going paperless is to forget about whatever paper backlog you’ve already accumulated and instead focus on the new habits you need going forward. What will you do differently starting from this day forward? It may sound counterintuitive, but it works.
Having to deal with a backlog can feel overwhelming, and when people feel overwhelmed, they procrastinate. So forget about it for now. In short, don’t look backward. Adopt a go-forward approach instead.
You’ll get to your old piles of paper someday—or not. For now, don’t let old papers hold you back from starting something new.
2. Get These 5 Apps
To make real progress going paperless, you’ll need five apps or services.
- To-do list appTo-do list app. You need a to-do list app to write down and organize not only your tasks and chores, but also for shopping lists and other reminders.
- Scanning appScanning app. A scanning app helps you quickly digitize physical papers.
- Online storage serviceOnline storage service. An online storage service is where you will store the majority of your digitized papers. A few examples are such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. I go into more on this piece in a moment because it’s a little more complicated than the other apps.
- E-signature tools. E-signature tools are more common than you might realize. In all likelihood, you probably already have an app preinstalled on your computer with this functionality. Adobe Acrobat Reader and Apple’s Preview are two examples.
- Document delivery or sharing service. A document delivery service helps you send and share files without printing them. Most online storage services already include tools for sharing and delivering documents, and they’re fine for most people’s needs. If you send a lot of files that you need signed and returned, however, a specialized service such as DocuSign or HelloSign may be better.
Read my more detailed recommendations for each of the apps you need to go paperless if you aren’t sure how to find and choose them.
3. Pick a Storage Service
Let’s dig into the storage service, the third type of app mentioned above, a little more. The storage service is where you keep digital versions of your paper documents, and, as mentioned, perhaps also share and deliver documents to others.
Ideally, you want a storage service that makes your files accessible no matter where you are and backs them up. One option is to use a cloud storage and file-sharing service, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive.
There used to be several speciality services designed to help you go paperless by automatically detecting and classifying different types of documents you uploaded to them, such as tax filings and medical bills—but most of those services haven’t survived. Most of them pivoted to focus on serving small businesses instead of personal and home consumers. NeatFiles and FileThis (consumer editions) are still around if this kind of service sounds appealing to you.
No matter which storage service you choose, pick one and stick with it so that you can put all your documents in one place.
For any storage service, make sure you understand the privacy and security settings and rules, as well as the sharing options. Keep your private and sensitive documents separate (in different folders) from any files or folders you might share.
4. Sign Up for Digital Statement and Payments, and Remove Yourself From Mail Lists
If you still receive paper bills and statements, sign up to receive them by email anywhere you can. Additionally, switch to online payments wherever possible.
The last holdouts for online payments tend to be landlords and management companies. If you’re stuck writing a monthly rent check, try explaining to the landlord they’ll get their money faster and more reliably if they’ll accept digital payments. Even the smallest businesses can accept direct bank transfers with little or no fees attached, and many now accept funds via mobile payment apps. When you can pay all your bills digitally rather than with checks and envelopes, you get one step closer to being paperless.
If you must send checks, see if your bank offers online check writing. It’s a service where you write a check from your online account and have the bank mail it to the addressee. Some banks even pay for the postage!
To reduce the amount of junk snail mail that you get, your best bet is to follow a two-step approach, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s info on consumer junk mail. The FTC recommends first opting out from marketing companies using DMAChoice.org (note that there is a $2 processing fee). Second, remove yourself from lists for insurance and bank offers using OptOutPrescreen.com.
5. Scan and Shred New Incoming Papers
Once you’ve cut down on incoming papers, it’s time to start developing new habits for all the paperwork that still manages to flow into your life. The process that you’ll do the most is scan and shred, or scan and recycle. Start to think of scanning and shredding/recycling as a new habit you’re trying to adopt.
I prefer to scan papers using a mobile app, but alternatively you can use a desktop scanner or the scanning function on a multifunction printer.
Make a rule for yourself that goes something like this: When I get a new piece of paper that I need to digitize, I’ll use my phone to scan it right away and then place the paper in the recycling bin or shredding pile. Better yet, send it straight to the shredder if you have one. Why wait?
Forcing yourself to follow that habit may be hard. “I don’t have the time to scan this right now,” you might say. Practice your new habit by scanning a document or two from your backlog, just to try it out. How long does it take? Which app did you use? Did you need to troubleshoot at any point?
As you scan papers, at some point you need to name the document, maybe add tags, and file it into an appropriate folder. One trick is to make your default scanning location a folder that you call Inbox. Scan everything to the inbox, and if you don’t have time in the moment to rename, tag, and sort the file, you can tackle everything in the inbox when you do have time.
You might also find that scanning documents in natural light goes more smoothly than doing it with indoor lighting, so sometimes it pays to wait until daytime rather than scanning at night. Once you get a feel for how to do it and how much time it takes, you might have an easier time following through.
6. Develop Other Workflows
Scanning and shredding is one workflow. As you get comfortable with your paperless lifestyle, you’ll need more workflows for other situations.
Here’s an example: When you buy a new product, take pictures of the owner’s manual, receipt, warranty, and serial number. Upload those pictures to your storage service and then get rid of the extraneous papers.
Another workflow is to save a pile of papers that you think you should shred but aren’t sure right now, and then go through them on a dedicated day. Pick a time and date, whether every Saturday or the first Sunday of the month, and use that time to clear out your stack.
Sometimes you may want to scan papers while also keeping the originals, in the case of insurance certificates, homeowner’s documents, and so forth. By digitizing them, you create a backup copy and ensure you have access to the information they contain, even if you can’t get your hands on the original. It’s also much quicker and easier to search for these documents digitally rather than physically.
7. Don’t Overthink It
At some point in going paperless, you’ll question whether to keep original copies or shred certain documents after digitizing them. When facing a tough call, don’t overthink it. Being paperless should make your life simpler and easier—not more stressful. When in doubt, save the original. Stash it in a folder, accordion binder, or filing cabinet. No one is going to come and take your Paperless Club card away if you hang onto a few papers.
That said, don’t hang on to or bother digitizing papers that have no purpose. If you’re the type of person who diligently hangs on to paper believing you’re doing the responsible thing, it can feel scary to shred and recycle anything. But will you ever need that receipt for a sandwich or an explanation of benefits statements from two years ago? Shred them and let it go.
