The Paperless Professional

When I first purchased my iPad mini, I knew that it could be a useful productivity device as well as a device for consuming content.  But it was not until I read the Apple iBook "Paperless" by David Sparks that I really understood the productivity power of the iPad.  For me, it truly was a "paradigm shift."  In short, Mr. Sparks explains how to capture and process all things paper into a digital system.  As Mr. Sparks explains it, our reliance on paper as a society is largely a psychological dependency that can--and should--be broken.  Through the use of Mr. Sparks system, you cannot only archive reams of paper in a digital format, but also save them in a manner that creates a usable system ensuring that you can find those documents when you need them (isn't that what keeping all that paper is all about???)  Mr. Sparks's system accomplishes this in large part by saving files by using a format of date - document description, which operates largely as a tagging system.  Then by typing a few search terms in your Mac's spotlight (shortcut:  Command + Spacebar), you can summon, seemingly by magic, those documents that you need.  If that's not cool enough for you, Mr. Sparks also shows you how to use a program called Hazel, which can name your documents for you and move them to pre-selected folders, completely automating the process.

But before you can start putting Mr. Sparks paperless system into practice, you have to select a method for "capturing" all those paper documents and transferring them into digital form.  This is where the Fujitsu Scansnap ix500 comes in.  The Fujitsu Scansnap is a high capacity scanner.  It can scan 25 pages per minute.  It also automatically scans double sided and automatically skips blank pages.  Most importantly, it creates searchable PDF documents.  If you're a PC user, you'll also be glad to know that a free copy of Adobe Acrobat (which only works with PCs) is included.  At $400, the Fujitsu Scansnap is a great deal.

As a practicing attorney, I will tell you that keeping track of paper has been the bane of my existence for the past five years.  But now that I have the capability to scan my files, and just as important, can index them by creating outlines, which are tables of contents that you can access no matter where you are in the file, I am now in command of my files.  As Mr. Sparks, who is also an attorney, puts it, the ability to locate documents with lightning speed "strikes fear in the hearts of my enemies."  Knowledge is power, especially in the courtroom or professional setting.  And the ability to locate information the second you need it can make all the difference in a high pressured situation.

Of course, I'm sure that some people fear putting sometimes highly sensitive and private information into digital form.  The purpose of this post is not to argue with the naysayers.  Every person has to determine to what degree he or she is comfortable with disseminating information once its put in digital form.  But it is very much possible to protect digital information.  The biggest aspect of the debate is over cloud computing.  I'm personally not knowledgeable enough and would not feel comfortable saying 100% of that sensitive information put in Dropbox or Google Drive is completely safe.  Another concern for attorneys and other professionals who owe a duty of confidentiality to their clients is the ownership of the files once they are put in the cloud.  In a recent legal ethics opinion here in West Virginia, attorneys were advised that they can ethically store client information electronically, but have a duty to protect the client's information nonetheless.  One suggestion in the opinion was that attorneys inform their clients of their electronic retention policies in the fee agreement, which I have adopted by placing a provision in my agreements stating that the client understands and agrees that I have the right to maintain the file in electronic form.

An important point that Mr. Sparks makes in Paperless is that cloud computing websites like Google Drive and Dropbox are for syncing, not backup (of course, there are now online backup websites, such as Carbonite).  But I do my backup the old fashioned way, I have two Seagate backup plus external hard drives.  This way, sensitive material is kept locally and not subjected to potential cloud hackers.  I keep one at my apartment and one at my office.  That way, should either place burn down or be burglarized, I still have a backup at the other.  I have been advised that encryption on the Mac is extremely easy, but I have not yet attempted it.  I probably should do this to get the most security possible.  Of course, external hard drives, like the hard drive on your computer, will not last forever, which is another reason why its advisable to keep at least two external hard drives.  I use Time Machine with both of these hard drives.

External hard drives are very affordable nowadays.  The two external hard drives described above are one terabyte and cost in the $80 range.  As time goes on, hard drive space will continue to become cheaper and cheaper, so storage space isn't really a concern for taking a comprehensive approach to digitalizing your paper documents.

I have a third external hard drive, the Seagate Wireless backup plus, which I do not use with Time Machine.  The reason I do not use this hard drive with Time Machine is that Time Machine is a versioned backup, which means that if I delete something from my computer, Time Machine will eventually back up to the point that its back up will not contain what I deleted.  I have several movies on my computer that were taking up hard drive space, so I decided to buy this third hard drive for the purpose of keeping these movies saved to it and delete them off my hard drive.  I may at some point partition this drive to use half of the space for an additional Time Machine backup.  An added bonus is that because it is a wireless hard drive, I can stream movies from the hard drive to my iPad and no longer have to download movies to my iPad whenever I want to watch them.  The hard drive is really in all respects the same as the other two hard drives described above, but the wireless ability of this hard drive drives the price up 100% to the $175 range.  But having a hard drive that works with your iPad is worth it in my humble opinion.

As with any system for the archiving and retention of documents, going paperless certainly has an array of issues for any working professional who desires to institute such a system.  But when I think about all the man hours wasted by keeping paper documents, I think that all organizations who deal in vast streams of paper will eventually see the light.