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Moving to a Paperless Office, the Apple Mac iPhone iPad Way

Update: Thanks for the link Macsurfer dudes.

Super Fast Two-Sided Scanning to PDF

Recently, I've been trying to move to an increasingly paperless lifestyle. I'm a Mac, iPhone, iPad owner - so I write from that perspective.

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M has been the key to moving in this direction. It's a fast, duplex (double-sided) PDF scanner with an automatic document feeder which really does make it a snap to quickly scan and store documents and receipts to your hard drive. Basically, you insert a document, push a button and the document is quickly stored. It's also compact and designed to easily unjam (which happens occasionally).

Remember Everything in the Cloud

The ScanSnap also works well with Evernote, a free cloud-based organizer of all your links, photos and documents. There is also a great Evernote iPhone application. If you scan a lot, an Evernote premium account only costs $45 per year (or $5/monthly).

Snapshot Notes et al. with the iPhone 4

The improved focus, speed and resolution on the iPhone 4 camera makes it an indispensable new tool in the move towards a paperless office. I regularly photograph everything from business cards to napkin scribbles for my iPhone to remember and upload to Evernote. Note: Thus far, I am not impressed with the Evernote Business Card Manager application - but I'm hoping they make the OCR features more automated.

Obviously, going paperless raises a number of other issues:

Primarily, you need to have a well coordinated backup solution. My friend Phillip Smith at Community Bandwidth wrote up this excellent post on his strategy for secure, automated backups for under $500.

Backup Your Paperless Office in the Cloud

He recommends the BackBlaze online service which seems to work well but not in my particular configuration. It's taking over a month to backup my initial primary desktop and photo library. I'm having to rethink my usage of their service. Backblaze essentially backs up one computer and its external hard drive for $5 per month. However, at least right now, it does not back up external drives that you use with TimeMachine nor network attached storage.

Get a Really Big Encrypted Hard Drive

I also purchased his suggested Secure Western Digital My Book Studio 2 TB External Hard Drive WDBAAJ0020HSL-NESN. I especially appreciate its built-in encryption. This drive works phenomenally well with its speedy Firewire 800 interface. I've configured my ScanSnap to scan directly to the My Book Studio.

These days, I scan almost all incoming paper that I need to save and recycle the rest.

Stem the Tide of Incoming Paper

Earlier this year, I signed up for a junk mail prevention service called 41pounds - read more about it at Tales of Change. Basically, for $41, they will gradually help you eliminate catalogs, junk mail and phone book deliveries for five years. I've had good success working with them - and get a fraction of the paper-based mail that I used to. 

When you stem the tide of incoming paper, it's even easier to move to a paperless office.

After You Scan It, Shred It

Now that I'm scanning so much more paper, I have more paper to dispose of...securely. I use a crosscut shredder like the Royal 16. Using a crosscut shredder is a important for minimizing the risk of identity theft.

Failsafe Redundancy

If you want additional redundancy locally, consider a $69 Western Digital Elements 1 TB External Hard Drive to just make a snapshot of your paperless office (and iTunes library) and store it in a Fireproof Safe (yes it fits) ...or with nearby family. You can't beat the price for this additional level of locally accessible redundancy. 

Taking Digital Notes

I've also begun to experiment with an iPad Stylus and Dan Bricklin's Note Taker HD. So far, it hasn't stolen me away from my beloved Moleskine notebooks . I'm a bit more curious about the Livescribe 4 GB Smartpen but haven't yet taken the plunge.

Related links that may interest you:

If you liked this post, you might also like How to save on iPhone text messaging fees and How to save $420 on your Comcast cable bill.

How to save on (or eliminate) iPhone text messaging (SMS) fees

Why are you still paying AT&T for iPhone text messaging? Most AT&T iPhone users spend between $5 - $20 per month on SMS text messaging fees - that's up to $240 per year in unnecessary costs. Now that Apple has approved Google's Voice application, there is really no need to pay for text messaging.

Google's new Voice application now offers the same notifications as the iPhone's native SMS application, so there are few if any reasons not to switch over. And, there are many new reasons to switch.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Sign up for Google Voice and choose a number. You don't have to switch your phone number to use Google Voice, but you will need to use this number for inbound and outbound text messaging. I chose a number with the same last four digits as my mobile number - this made the transition easier.
2. Install the Google Voice application on your iPhone
3. Ask your contacts to use your Google Voice number when texting you (and calling you if you want). Depending on how many people you SMS with, this may take longer to switch people over.
4. When you're no longer getting texts to your native mobile number, turn off your monthly SMS fee with AT&T. If you're on an unlimited plan, you might start by switching to the $5 monthly plan (200 messages) until your contacts have switched over.
5. Get familiar with Google Voice, including its Web application, as it offers a lot of great features including call screening, call routing, voice mail transcription, email delivery of voice mail and free to inexpensive VoIP.

The Google Voice for iPhone application still has some rough edges but I expect it will continue to get better.

With Google Voice, I've reduced my iPhone bill to about $75 monthly which is not that much more than other typical cell phone plans.

Notes:

• If your contacts keep texting you at your mobile number, you will incur SMS fees. So, it's important to ask people to use your Google Voice number or you'll get charged an exorbitant per message fee.
• Google Voice SMS is free only for domestic messages. International messages are extra.

Now for what really matters...

I've posted some personal thoughts on today's national elections up at Tales of Change: Now for what really matters... It's reflective in part of watching Microsoft get its way in Washington State in this last legislative session. Hope you'll take a look.