A Tidy Idea?

I’m not a treehugger but I do beleive in cuting down on waste, and more to the point perhaps, recyling or re-using stuff can save you money.

Much as I try to be “all-digital” it’s not always going to work. For example,  I quit using a calender on the wall years ago, and I rely on Remember The Milk, and Google Calender to keep track of my life for me. Having said that, when the phone rings, I still tend to reach for a peice of scrap paper and a pen, rather than go to the keyboard and type up a note.  Perhaps, old habits die hard.

Anyway, I end up with all these scraps of paper with bits of information on them. It makes for an untidy desk. By the way, I don’t buy notepads, oh no! When I print out notes and programming code etc, the printer usually only prints to one side. I use two-sided printing if it’s something I really want to keep (as that only uses half the paper of course). But for a quick web page or html or css code dump I just hit the print button. When I’ve finished with the printed code, I cut the 8 x 10 sheets into 4, and make a stack on the side of my desk, which is my truly recycled notepad. Less dead trees, and less pennies spent too.

I have my printer set in draft mode by default, as the ink lasts longer too. Most things only need that. If I’m doing a letter or presentation document of some kind, then, and only then, I can use the special heavyweight paper, and high quality print mode.

Anyway, I digress.

I end up with lots of these quarter size pieces of paper with hand written notes on. So, I  tidy up, and end up with two stacks of paper. Those to write new notes on, and those that have notes on already. I tell myself I should file the information away on computer in the appropriate place, but well, it’s getting a round to it isn’t it?

So I have a halfway house. Once a week I get the notes and go through them. The ones I no longer need go in the trash. Anything I think might be useful again, I lay out on the scanner, and I scan the whole lot into a PDF. Then I can throw away the scraps.

One tidy desk again.

One day, I’ll get with it, and reach for the keyboard and digital notepad.  I’m kind of getting there, with Grand Central (which stores my voicemails digitally), and Jott, which transcribes my thoughts and messages.

Bottom line is, even us geeky types are still old fashioned in some ways.