My ADHD Brain: Semi-Paperless Filing - Part 1 with Evernote & Google Drive


Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'm going to share Part 1 of my policies and methods for semi-paperless filing.  This is part of a series on my ADHD brain and all of the systems I use to compensate for a lack of internal structure and organization.  
Okay -- when I say that I'm paperless, I'm not talking about being an over-the-top nut job about it.  I do not scan everything that comes into my house. That would be time consuming and crazy.  But -- if I think I may want to have access to that piece of information when I'm out and about -- I store it electronically.  So, really I have 3 options, pitch, physically file or electronically file.  Let's go through each. 

Pitch

I come from a family who, let's just say, keeps things, so the advent of the  Internet has really helped me get rid of things.  My basic policy is -- if I can access it online easily, I get rid of it. That pertains to financial statements (which I shred), magazines, catalogs, and countless other documents that are easy to find online.

File Physically

I have a file cabinet that I use to store some paper files.  My rule of thumb here is that I will keep it if I don't need to access it much, but I might need it for records -- like a tax audit, for example.  Or if it's just too much work to scan it like longer insurance documents or appliance manuals.  I also try to keep some of the kids' stuff that they might want actual hard copies of.  The universe of paper that I keep includes tax back-up documentation (although I keep the actual tax forms electronically), insurance statements and policies, mortgage statements and documents, credit card bills, and receipts and invoices for up to 3 years.  I have one folder for each kid for stuff like certificates, awards, and report cards.  I also reserve a large portion of this file cabinet for manuals and warranties for purchases.  I have them organized by floor of the house (folders for ground floor, outside, basement, upstairs). Everything else, I get rid of or store electronically. Which brings me to . . .

File Electronically

Here are some of the things that I save electronically: School flyers and handouts, handbooks for kids activities, presentations or meeting handouts, forms, schedules, immunizations for everyone in family including dog, vet records, car repair info, recipes, articles to remember, memorabilia, printed photos, etc.  I have 2 places where I store electronic files: Evernote and Google Drive.  I use Google Photos to store kids arts and memorabilia -- see my separate video on that.  

Evernote

My main storage service for electronic filing is Evernote.  They have a web version as well as a version for the PC, iPhone and iPad.  I use this as my main notetaking app (see my video on paperless notes in this series) so it makes sense to use this for files too unless there is a good reason to put it elsewhere.  I either attach it to a note by taking a photo (if it's just a page or two) or, if it's longer, I scan the paper using the Scannable app and attach it to an Evernote note with a descriptive title.  I used to have a flat bed scanner, but at some point it stopped working and I have decided not to replace it since the mobile options have gotten so much better.  I use three cool tools for getting files into Evernote.  The first one is . . .
  • Attach Photo - Let's go through how this works.  Let's say I want to keep this recipe that my mother in law printed out for me.  Since it is only 2 pages, I will just take a photo.  Go into Evernote, create a new note, choose to attach a photo.  At this point, I can choose to select a photo or photos from my camera roll. But in this case, I'm going to take a picture of the recipe.  I have two options: the one with the one that looks like mountains with a sun is just a regular photo.  The one that looks like a document is "Auto Mode."  What that means is that Evernote will attempt to determine which part of the photo is your document and then white out the background to give it more contrast.  So here is what a photo looks like in photo mode.  Okay -- this is what happens if I take it again using Auto Mode.  It doesn't always do the best job figuring out what you want to capture, but I like it best for most text documents.   Now you can see that I captured the recipe and it comes right up when I view the note.
Join me in Part 2 when I share the other 2 cool tools I use to get files into Evernote as well as when I use Google Drive and Google Photos.  Comments below are always appreciated!  Thanks for watching.

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