Paper Diary Week One

Day 1 Wednesday 25th February (Ash Wednesday)

Today I walked into the office and looked at the piles of paper for the last time. For the next 47 days we shall be attempting to keep it paper free.

The first thing I did was break the fast. There was an article in the local paper about Feelgood Organic Hampers and our pledge and I wanted to scan it for the Facebook page so it had to be bought, but this with any luck will be my first and last slip on this journey.

We set about emptying our desks of paper, of ridding every nook and cranny of the office of the stuff. There was a lot more work involved in this than I had anticipated. The pile of paper to be dealt with swallowed the floor space before being laid to rest in the recycle bin, which began to grow beyond it's own structure. Eventually we were free of it, no loose receipt or post it note was left. The desks seemed empty and vast. Suddenly there was space and the space left room for clear thinking.

We have replaced post it notes with white boards and notepads with iPods but there is of course some paper we need to keep hold of for the time being. The index card file will need to be added to our computer address book but this will happen slowly over the next few weeks. The biggest challenge ahead is to not allow any new paper in and, more importantly, not to create any paperwork.

I think there may even be enough room for a plant on my desk now, tomorrow I may go and steal one from our hallway.

Day 2
Thursday 26th Feb

I’m beginning to wonder how I managed this last year without my iPod. Software solutions certainly seem to be a big part of living with out paper. Mix this with some more traditional tools such as whiteboards, blackboards and chalk and almost all bases are covered. I guess it could work out quite expensive if you threw yourself into software entirely. My computer, only 2 years old already creaks and grinds when it has to cope with the many programmes I keep open in order to deal with our Lenten pledge.

What I would love at the moment is a pocket sized wetwipe board. I am really missing my little moleskin notebook and there are times when I just want to scribble something down and using the iPod can seem like a chore. If anyone has one or wants to invent one you’ve got a customer here!

I have managed to use no paper at all today, although there is still some in my in tray to dispense with. I’m about to outsource my book keeping and I’m wondering how they will react to me insisting on either emailing them everything or submitting it on CD. I’m a bit torn over the idea of burning stuff to CD which could potentially be far worse from the environment than the paper alternative.

Day 3
Friday 27th of Feb
My first challenge of the day arrived in the post. A price list and brochure of new products from one of our suppliers. We do need this piece of paper but there must be an alternative. The solution was to set up a standard email response so that in future we can respond immediately, asking suppliers to send information by email. Of course the trick is to nip it in the bud before they send it, so I shall have to put it on my to do list to contact all my suppliers regarding this.

We also received a paper invoice today. We are new customers to the company involved so we will ensure that all future invoices come by email. We already pay all our suppliers by bank transfer or Direct Debit to avoid the unnecessary use of cheques, envelopes and stamps.

One question that still needs to be addressed is how we are to deal with our Farmers Market pricelist. This document not only allows us to keep tabs on stock but is also a tool to help calculate how much VAT we have collected at the different rates.

This week we are simply using last weeks pricelist, marking up our sales in a different colour. A better solution does need to be found however, the one pricelist can only last so long!