Day 3 – Coming Soon

Unexpected slog…day three of the go paperless challenge will be posted later tonight / early morning tomorrow.

Go Paperless Challenge Day 2 / 14: Understand Your Workflow and Archival Process

You’re going to have to change some–or maybe all–of your current workflow and archival processes as you go paperless. However, if you don’t know what those are, you’re going to have a horrid time making changes. You need to understand how you really plan (not just what sounds good or looks good on paper), how you work every day and how you archive your work (including backing up your files).

Ask yourself these questions, and any follow up questions as they come to you:

• How do I organize drafts–do I keep them all separate, get rid of the older ones as I complete newer ones?
• Do I organize my work by topic? Client? Date? Status toward completion?
• Do I keep master lists?
• Do I keep to-do lists?
• How do I use a calendar?
• Do I have template / master documents I refer to?

These are just a few questions to jog your mind. You understand what you’ll need to be looking at, and why: you’re going to have to do it all on your computer.

My very low-fi solution is to do just about everything in my word processor–from to-do lists to different drafts–and save it all in my organized folders. Right now you’re just thinking about what you’re going to do, however, so try to think about what types of things you’ll need to do and how you could do it. An example would be if you use a lot of master / template documents. You will need to enter those documents into your word processor and save them as templates.

Outline in a word document or use mind-mapping software to determine your workflow for freelance writing projects and other nonbillable / administrative work. My workflow looks like this for a freelance writing project:

• Project clarification with client (email)
• Type up a research plan (word processor)
• Research (Internet and word processor)
• Outline (word processor)
• Draft (word processor)
• Edit (word processor)
• Delivery (email)

For accounting / administrative things, I outsource, and therefore my workflow is centered around email and reading / reviewing spreadsheets. What is your workflow now? How will it become paperless? Everywhere you saw “word processor” on my workflow outline example, I once used papers and binders and folders. I just took everything to my word processor. Spend the second day of the go paperless freelance writer process determining your current workflow and how it will be adapted for going paperless.

Go Paperless Challenge Day 1 / 14: Evaluate Everything You Have

The first step / first day’s task in going paperless is to evaluate everything that you have: all of your files, all of your supplies, all of the components of your office setup.

An already organized file system will consist of major categories and subcategories as a general filing scheme. Your supplies and office setup will probably also complement your daily workflow and you’ve got your paper-based productivity scheme maxed out at full effectiveness.

The rest of the world is a mess. The files are everywhere, you have no idea where your supplies are and your office setup is just wherever you got the desk, filing cabinet, etcetera.

Whether paper-based pro or total mess, you’ll have to organize and rearrange what you have.

Evaluate your files and discern their context within master categories and logical subcategories—either preexisting or newly created. Once you look at everything you have, you’ll realize this is actually quite a bit easier that it sounds. Your brain likes to categorize things, and looking at your files your brain will automatically start searching for sorting methods and patterns. Everything needs a place, and you’ll discover that you’ll find a pattern to the documents you have. You’ll just need to outline that pattern.

When you have that pattern figured out (or if you already have a pattern for all of your documents), fire up your word processor and create a quick outline / index for all of your major categories and their subdivisions. Save this file on your desktop and refer to it regularly until we get to the transition and filing process. These categories will be your organization bible for your electronic file system.

I used Notepad and created this simple list:

• Private Projects / Base Website / Page Content, Blog Content, Article Marketing Content, Ebook and Sales Letter
• Clients / Name of Client / Brief, Master Projects List, Projects by name OR deadline OR destination
• Reference / Writing Ebooks, Links
• Accounting / Year / Month / Invoices, Expenses
• Vendors / Name of Vendor / Brief, Master Projects List, Projects by name OR deadline OR destination

The Go Paperless Challenge

The Go Paperless Challenge will begin on December 16, 2009.

Ruh-roh…Complex is not the Goal

I received very valuable feedback that my organization process was a little too complicated in my ebook. I had a master folders and a-to-z system of organization. I didn’t think it was complicated, but…

I’m always ready to improve! I’m looking at having a system that is based on the stages of the writing process. I mean, documents don’t necessarily have to be a-to-z because the computer will sort them. So, for the second edition, I know that I will be simplifying the folder organization system. I’ll also be talking about linking Open Office and Google Docs to create a free backup system.

If you are participating in the paperless challenge, you’ll get to be a beta tester and see all these improvements. You’ll get to consult with me for free as much as you need to you.

 

It isn’t too late to sign up. I am going to keep signups for the contest open (officially, you can always pop in during the middle, work at your own pace, etc) until the end of November. That way any NaNo’ers that are barring their participation because of novel-dom can still participate.

 

Got a simple method for digital organization? Let’s hear it!

Limited Time Price Slash

I’ll admit it…not everyone knows who the hell I am and just why they should trust my advice.

So, until my kind and gracious reviewers have finished the ebook, I’ve reduced the price to only $5. You can buy it for the discounted price here. Be patient, the host will take a bit to update the price from $14 to $5.

The Big, Real and REALLY BIG Challenges to Going Paperless

I just read an Ezines article that gives perfectly good reasons why it can be almost impossible to go paperless. There are very real challenges that can seem insurmountable. Paper is a really big deal. Paper has been around for a while. Paper is attached to industry, to hearts, to psychology and to everything . I know this is true…I just love paper.

Not to sound like some hoity toity environmentalist but that I love it isn’t as important as to what this “white monster” does the planet. Oh, and I save thousands of dollars because I don’t use paper. I mean, I love the chocolate but hate the cellulite so I reduced. My reduction happened to have been an elimination of paper. If you don’t want to completely rid your life of paper but want to get greener with your paper consumption, great for you! That means that you’ll be making a change and making a difference in your footprint and in your overhead. Going paperless or reducing your paper consumption does a business good.

I read terms in that article that used to describe me: Office supply junkie.  Organizer. Purist. The piler. The paper-related industry loyalist.

Every single one of those words used to describe me.  I used a technique I aptly turned to the acronym BUFFY to take myself from each of my holdups and effective strategies using paper to paperless. My ebook has an entire chapter devoted to how this strategy is key to going paperless. You can read that chapter if you join the free writing community Freelance Writerville II.

Those really big challenges? They all have bigger, better reasons to be tossed aside (money, the earth, productivity…) but they also have solutions that are digitally based that you can find to personally work for you.

What are some of the biggest challenges being / to go paperless would  present for you? Let’s see if we can’t tackle them.