Paperless Office: I Can Find Anything Quick
by: Dill Ward, Real Estate Investor / Agent
As a real estate professional I value organization. As a geek I appreciate the ease of doing so using technology. I shudder at the thought of standing in the driveway of my next deal without every document that's ever come across my desk at my fingertips. I love having the ability to quickly thumb through my thousands of contacts to find just the person I'm thinking of who can help me problem solve. In my business, buying distressed property means having to make decisions very quickly as competition for the best deals is fierce. I use my mountains of carefully sorted data to mine and my clients' benefit.
How do I do this?
First, every single paper object that becomes in my possession gets assessed to determine if it contains data to be captured. If it is approved it enters the system to an "inbox" where it waits for a scanning/paper reduction session. Every few days I sit down with the folder and work through piece by piece. I determine what information needs to be recorded and decide where to store it. I use my Fuji S300M portable document scanner exclusively to convert paper to pdfs. It's super fast, portable powered by my laptop and scans every size document.
Second, naming folders & files something detailed is the most important part of the process when archiving data. If you can't remember "how" to look for it, forget it. What I do is make separate folders named as detailed as possible, business cards, receipts, contracts, photos, research, bills, even concert tickets. Last say goodbye forever and send it through the shredder.
There is nothing I can't retrieve at a moments notice. Of course this takes constant discipline. Keep with the system. Just like working out, it's hard at first but soon it's easy breezy and you'll reap the rewards of your effort by being more organized, more efficient and most importantly reduce your stress.
I must say, you do have a handle on what is happening digitally...
ReplyDeleteNow all you have to do is realize that going paperless is detrimental to society.
I've been paperless, as I mentioned to you today 11-30-09 4pm, for some time now.
The new wounder will be "Cloud Computing" if Google gets their way, I use it to a small degree. That effort will condense networks putting IP administrators out on the street. It'll happen as we progress up the digital trail,... open an account and run your business, no network needed.
All you have to do is step back and see the whole picture.
From a manufacturing standpoint...ie...file cabinets to paper clips disappear, along with all the jobs from trucking...to you name it. With that, realize that office floor space condenses. You have yet to see that problem come front and center.....however, it's going to happen. We have way more commercial office floor space than we will ever need going into the future.
I equate the digital age to the dust bowl of the 30's during the depression...only it will be on a world wide scale.
This mess is far from over and it's not all about real estate, as colossal a problem it is.
I, also note we are on the same page when it comes to the other discussions we had.
Regards
Mike