The Yes And No Question

The Yes And No Question

Yes Or NoOne of the more challenging aspects of going paperless is that it seems like you are constantly having to make decisions: which hardware to use? Which software to use? Local or cloud? How do you keep everything safe?

To make matters worse, every document that you have represents two decisions:

  • Do you scan it or not?
  • Once scanned, do you keep the paper or not?

Whether we talk about capturing the document electronically or holding on to the physical paper, this isn’t as geeky of a question as it sounds. Like any other clutter, memories and emotions can take over.

It all boils down to this: Yes or No? Keep the document or not?

The Scanning

It can be tempting to just start scanning everything. This helps to delay the decision, and after all, isn’t this why we are buying these shiny fast document scanners?

I believe that it is worthwhile to evaluate whether you need to keep a document before you scan it. Why waste time organizing something that you don’t need?

While she is talking about physical clutter in general, my smart friend Vanessa Hayes has an excellent tutorial on purging before organizing. It really is a valuable step.

The Decision

So you’ve decided what to scan, and you’ve done the deed. Now what do you do with that physical paper? Do you keep it? Yes or No?

Before we start, there are obvious legal implications for some types of documents that I am not going to get into here. They depend on your jurisdiction, so I recommend that you talk to your legal or tax expert if you have questions. I’m referring to the “other” documents below.

No, Trash It

Oh, this is a hard one. You wouldn’t have kept that document all this time if it didn’t mean something to you, right?

The problem is that we tend to transfer our memories and emotions onto physical objects, including pieces of paper.

A really good book on this subject is It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh. Many people have found it extremely helpful when working through these issues. This is a good high-level overview:

Peter says many people have a fear that if they let go of an object, they will also let go of the memory associated with it—which he says is an understandable fear. However, he urges us to consider the power that these objects hold over us by taking up valuable space, both emotionally and physically in our lives.

In many cases, the digital copy will be good enough.

Yes, Keep It

Legal reasons aside, there are many reasons why you might want to keep that document.

For starters, I will say that if shredding a piece of paper causes you undue anxiety, then keep it. Going paperless is supposed to reduce stress, not create it. More often than not, you know the right thing to do.

Again from that Peter Walsh segment:

Hold on to only those items that make you most happy and best remind you of a person or event, Peter says. Ask yourself, “Does this object make my heart sing?” If the object evokes wonderful, happy emotions and memories, keep it. But if it creates sorrow, pain or reopens an old wound—or you can’t even remember where it came from—let it go

What I Do

I scan and keep everything digitally. There is an annoying stat that you see quoted everywhere that I have never been able to find the source of. It says that we only need 20% of the documents that we file.

The problem is, you don’t know which 20% you’ll need. Therefore, I hold on to everything digitally.

With paper, I am extremely aggressive and hold on to almost nothing that isn’t legally required (surprise, surprise).

You will have to find the balance that works for you. Only you know the answer to the Yes or No question.

This post is part of a series called Gravity Rocks for my friend Rebecca Mullen. You can read about getting empowered with yes and no here.

(Photo by Abhi)

About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

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