Paperless or clutterless?
By Jason Slater in Reader
Posted in Management on June 18, 2008 at 8:53 am
At a passing glance you may think I am leaving my job. My desk drawers are empty, the files on my desk are gone, the various catalogues and magazines that were kept ‘for reference’ have been given a decent send off. The only things on my desk now are a laptop, my pencil case, a memory stick and a phone. Before the collection tub starts getting passed around I should clarify that I am not actually leaving but attempting to go paperless (again). Here we go again. In fact a further point of clarification would be stay that it is not just paperless but clutterless - which involves all those gadgets that have built up, cables that lie around and other items that have been popped down temporarily and ended up staying for a few years.
The project started out of a need to tidy our open plan office in general as it was getting very cluttered from mounds of paperwork that threatened to take over. Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for the project though - many people still appear to hold the belief that a messy desk is a busy desk; the more paper you have on your desk the less likely you are to be given more. This may be true, only time will tell. However I have found the deconstruction of my immediate working environment and practices somewhat therapeutic and it has helped refocus on projects that have ended up on the back burner for one reason or another - a spring clean perhaps?
If someone approaches me for a work project with a bundle of paper ready to hand over I tell them that, as the project sponsor, they are best placed to keep hold of all their paper work - anything that is essential for me to use during the project can get scanned in and filed neatly in my computer folder. My folders are beginning to fill up and I can’t help thinking that a natural extension of the project would be to reduce the number of electronic documents floating around.
That said, every morning the post arrives and a pile of paper varying from magazines, literature, flyers, catalogues and seminar invitations is dumped on my desk. I give it a quick flick - if it looks dull then it gets binned. Perhaps, if it has a passing interest, I tear out the relevant bit to read about later (some lucky ones get stuck in my journal). Other things including invoices, quotes, etc are duly scanned and sent to the archive - best hold on to them for the time being at least.
The only paper I have left is my daily journal/work planner which I still havent found the nerve to dismiss just yet. It is surprising as there are many tools around me that would perform the job admirably but for some reason I just cant let it go. As I look at my desk now the irritating thing is the number of cables and wires, to which end I have replaced my mouse with a wireless mouse (a Microsoft wireless presenter mouse 8000) and the keyboard is next. I still prefer a wired network connection to a wireless one and there is very little I can do about the phone and various power cables but so far the project is going reasonably well.
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Loading ...Pingback by Breaking free from the desk :: Gizmos for Geeks - June 18, 2008 on 9:16 am
[…] at work I have taken the plunge to go paperless and clutterless but try as I might every morning I have incoming post to deal with and throughout the day it seems […]
Comment by battery - June 19, 2008 on 12:45 pm
[…]Really great, Mark. You’re making the right decision.First, to be competitive and big, then you’ll have influence over graphic card manufacturers.This looks promising ;)[…]
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