Paper is Still Useful (Even Though I Hate It)

Jeremy · 0:00

Welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast number six.

Speaker 2 · 0:08

The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become irreplaceable, game-changing leader assistants. And here's your host, my dad.

Jeremy · 0:19

Hey everyone, welcome to episode six of The Leader Assistant Podcast. Today, in episode six, I'm going to talk about paper. Oh, I love paper. I'm going to talk about why paper is a waste of space, but also a very helpful productivity tool. This story or rant, if you will, is about why I hate paper and why I believe it's a waste of space. Hate may be too strong of a word, but probably not that strong. I really do hate dealing with paper, printing out, faxing, scanning, signing, mailing. It's 2019. When I'm recording this podcast, why do we have to deal with so much paper? Technology and computers and iPhones and Android devices are so advanced that there's no reason we should be shuffling paper to and from. Yet some industries, I'll say government, financial services, medical, insist that we print out a document, we sign it, we scan it, we email it. But then we have to mail it or sometimes we physically have to take the paper into a person at an office. And I just don't get why they can't accept a digital signature. Why can't I renew my driver's license online? Do they, does the DMV hate trees? It's like certain industries really want to punish the world for moving on without them. And I imagine, sometimes I imagine their employees thinking, if I have to sort a bunch of paper in a filing cabinet in a musty basement, then I'm going to make sure our customers have to print a document, buy an envelope, buy a stamp, mail it back to us. Or better yet, I'll make them come to this musty basement so they can experience the smells first hand. Yes, I'm speaking from personal experience, in case you couldn't tell. One of the most frustrating things in office life, speaking of paper, is dealing with printers. I personally believe that printers have a special place in hell. They run out of ink, they jam, they don't connect to Wi-Fi, they print blank pages, they leave streaks across your documents. But worst of all, they require you to buy paper and use paper. Again, with all the advances in technology we've had over the last 15 to 20 years, you'd think we could design it, that someone could design a printer that actually works. At least 78, 79, 80 percent of the time would be nice. But no, instead, having to print something is the last thing any of us want to do, because we know the printer is probably not going to work. But that's my side note about how I hate printers. Back to paper. As you can see, I hate working with paper. I think for me personally, typing is so much quicker than handwriting. Digital files are so much easier to edit, share, and store. I never have to see them on my desk or keep them together with sharp metal objects. I use my phone or computer to take notes. I sign documents with my computer. I store files digitally with tools like Dropbox, Google Drive, and flash drives. But come to think of it, flash drives are most often used to take files I have to print to Kinko's. But anyway, the point is I save a ton of time not dealing with paper, so I use digital files. Speaking of digital files, one of my favorite digital tools is a Google Sheet. That's a two-column Google Sheet that I use for my meeting agendas and to-do lists. You can check out that template. I'll talk more about this template in a different episode, but you can check it out if you want to try it out and download it at goburrows.com forward slash agenda. You can download that for free. But again, I hate paper, but I do want to talk a little bit about why paper is amazing and can be helpful. So even though as much as I talked about how much I hate paper, I still use it. I know I'm a hypocrite, but it's true. I use it not often, but I do use it. So when and why do I use paper? I'm glad you asked. There are times when my to-do lists in calendar and inbox are so cluttered and jam packed that opening up my email for even 10 seconds might make my head hurt. So during moments like this, I'll grab one small piece of paper or post-it note and I'll set it next to my computer and I'll jot down a bullet list of what I need to get done that day. In other words, I use paper when I'm overwhelmed. I use paper when I'm stuck. I use paper to help me get back to being productive. So yes, paper and printers are terrible, but don't burn all your paper just yet. Paper can be very valuable when you have digital overload and need to just write down a couple of things and take care of business. Another side note I will say about paper is when somebody comes up to my desk and I'm in the middle of some big project or working on some document on my computer, I like to have a Post-It note pad, just a very small one, available so that I can grab that and write down what they're asking me to help with so that I don't have to finagle with my windows on my three monitors. So it's another productive way to use paper is to just have it available in case you need to write down something really quick and address it later. So anyway, again, if you're tired of paper, you want to use an easy digital tool to keep track of your to-do list. You can grab my Agenda to-do list template at goburrows.com forward slash agenda. So thanks again for listening to the podcast. Thanks for listening to my rant on paper. Again, I think it's a waste of space, but I also think it's a very useful in today's digital age. That to every once in a while, we just need to take a deep breath, grab a piece of paper, and simplify our work lives. So we'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 2 · 7:02

The leadership quote today is from Napoleon Bonaparte. A leader is a dealer in hope. Check out this episode's show notes at leaderassistant.com forward slash six.