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