Should You Be Totally Paperless?

PDA phones, blackberries, laptops and desktops with two and sometimes three screens to use, scanners, editable PDF files, voice recorders with voice translation software, etc. Between all the tools we have to make us paperless knowledge workers, one might think of you as a dinosaur if you keep track of any part of your time management system on paper. Most of us have seen the old Seinfeld episode where George is keeping every receipt, appointment, etc. that he has in his wallet that he cannot even close. He lost everything in a wind-storm!

I was there at the beginning of some of the paperless initiatives. Back in 1996 at Ernst & Young, our audit team was selected to be part of a pilot team tasked with implementing the firm's paperless package ahead of everyone else at the firm. I was young, a staff at the time. I felt privileged and very committed to the cause. Our audit team was ACTUALLY PROVIDED WITH 15% more hours in our overall budget because of the implementation.

That audit was a struggle. Some of us were very on board with our plan, while others were not so much. (Probably some teaming issues!)

I still remember the day, when after a pretty heated argument about how to best clear review notes, the partner decided from now on all review notes would be printed off and signed off on by the reviewer. I lost that argument :) We took a few steps back before we took a few steps forward. The experience was very informational. It also had me intrigued with the potential for accountants to utilize technology!

Now, 12 years later, I am going to ask you to consider something that goes against my love for technology: Consider printing out your weekly calendar on Sunday night. That's right, open up Outlook or whatever you use, and print out the upcoming week. This might seem like a big departure from your current system if you are paperless.

I have heard too many of my coachees tell me even when they get all their “To-Dos” completed in a week, they are not sure what they really accomplished. A hard-copy view of your week may do two things: (1) It allows you to see the bigger picture. It allows you to view your time commitments versus your goals. You can reflect on your time-blocks before your week and compare them to your goals. (2) It also allows you to cross things off your list as you get things accomplished during the week. Yep, use a pen or pencil.

Could you do both of these things on your computer? Sure. However, doing it in hard-copy for one week will teach you some things about yourself, it will be new and force you to think about your day more versus the auto-pilot mentality we can get from looking at the same computer screen every day. And if you do want to go back to the electronic way, I bet you will change up your system a little bit....for the better.