Even the mention of the word causes some people to imagine lost data, disaster and panic. People also put the word paperless office in the same sentence “that it won’t happen in my lifetime.” First of all, there is no reason for such images. And second, get use to the idea of the paper less office. It is here for some and coming for others.

Quite frankly, I can not envision a home office without the term paperless office in the same sentence. I actually started moving towards the paperless office before I moved my office to the home January 2005. There were a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact of saving space. Physical space to be exact. Most if not all home offices have a set amount of space to work with. And the last thing we need is a pile of paper, a pile of files and a wall full of 4-drawer file cabinets taking up valuable real estate.

But, there are other reasons to move your office to the paperless office. Take for example the fact that almost everyone I talk to who works from a home office uses a laptop computer as one of their main computers. And when we leave the home office for business reasons, or for any reason for that matter, we take our laptops with us. When this occurs, wouldn’t it be great to take our office with us? When I leave the home office and because I utilize a paperless office, I take my entire office with me. All my client/customer files are with me. All my tools are with me. No matter where I go, because I use a paperless office, my office is with me.

One thing to remember about making the transition to the paperless office is there is plenty of technology which will enable you to do this. There is a wide range of scanners and some are very reasonably priced. (I will discuss technology in a very near future post). And best of all, most of the scanners today come bundled with some great software to handle your virtual filing.

Most are reluctant to make the move to the paperless office. And some are just not comfortable giving up paper completely. Let me assure you, you don’t have to give up paper completely. I still use paper to make handwritten notes of conversations and ideas I am working on. However, I am moving closer to using my mindmap program more and more for the projects we are working on. I still find myself grabbing the notepad and jotting down ideas. And I still keep original documents that I feel I might need sometime. But, my paper files don’t consist of much. Before I moved to the paperless office I had lined along one wall in my home office four 4-drawer file cabinets. Now I use a file drawer to keep the few paper files I still keep.

When you make the move, make the move. When you get your mail, scan it. When you get a fax, get it through your computer and file it on your computer. Don’t print it. And please don’t print any of the emails you get. File them on your computer. You should set yourself up what I like to call a virtual file cabinet. And you can have multi virtual file cabinets on your harddrive just like you would have on your office wall. Have one for your projects with sub-folders for each project. Have one for clients and each client should have their own file folder in that main client folder on your desktop. And, for each client I have subfolders for each type of document I might be handling with that client. (I will show you how I do this in a future post).

In addition to what I have already discussed, you should have virtual file folders for all your bills and tax information. Keep in mind, you want to have everything filed in your virtual office so you don’t have those piles of papers in those in and out baskets on your desk. What you will find is your office is cleaner and you will be more organized. Trust me it works.

Finally, and the last item I will mention in this post. Backup, backup, backup. I do multi-backups of all my virtual files. And you should keep one of them offsite at least weekly. External hard drives are pretty cheap now and most computers come with CD/DVD-RW’s. There is no reason to not backup.

If you are working on moving to a paperless office or already using this method, please post your comments here. If you have questions about moving to the paperless office, post your questions here. This post is the first in what I hope will be an on-going series of post on the paperless office. I am a firm believer in the paperless and what it can do for the Home Office Warrior.