Going Paperless #108: Add Reminders to Scanned Documents for Quick Action Items

Originally published on August 19, 2014.

One of the side-effects of being several years into going paperless is that on any given day, there isn’t much to scan. A corollary to this is that on the days that I do scan things, chances are good that I’m scanning something that I need to take an action on.

Before the good ol’ paperless days, papers that required some action on my part would go into a bin on my desk, which, if I remembered, I’d occasionally look through. Those days are long gone, and my paperless process for handling these documents is a big improvement. I thought I’d share it with folks today in case anyone else finds it useful. Here is what I do:

1. Scan the document

I still use my trusty Fujitsu ScanSnap s1300i, which hasn’t failed me yet. Indeed, as of this writing, I’ve scanned 3,467 pages with the scanner. I still use a process similar to what I started with a few years back, although instead of taking me 10 minutes each evening, it might take 2 or 3 minutes every second or third evening.

2. Set a reminder on the scanned document

Once the document has been scanned, if there is some action I have to take, I set a reminder on the document. For instance, we recently got our personal property tax statements from the state of Virginia, and those bills come due in October. I scanned in the documents, and then, as soon as they were scanned in, I set a reminder for 1 week prior to the date the bill is due.

3. File the document as usual

Once the reminder has been added, I tag and file the document as usual. With that done, I can pretty much forget about it because Evernote will remember it for me. And if I need to know at any given time, what reminders are lingering out there, I can easily take a look from inside Evernote. Evernote organizes these reminders by notebook, so here are the reminder currently active in my Filing Cabinet notebook:

Adding the reminders immediate after I scan in the document does 3 things that I find really helpful:

1. It takes the burden off me for remembering that I have something to do. Evernote will remind me, via email and via the alerts on my mobile device.
2. With the document scanned, it ensures I don’t misplace it (and then forget about it).
3. It reminds me in the context of the document itself. I like this better than adding an item to my to-do list that says, “Pay property tax.” That to-do list item would require me to go somewhere and find the document. By having the reminder as part of the document, I don’t waste any time. It’s right there when it comes time to take my action.

I’ve been using this more and more with things that I scan in, to the point where I’d guess that these day, half of what I scan gets a reminder. Of course, I’m not scanning a whole lot anymore. There is a sense of relief, once the document is scanned and the reminder is set. This is the epitome of what I think David Allen was getting at in his GTD book, when he talked about getting things out of your head. (It’s also about as close as I’ve managed to get to the GTD process, but that’s a story for another time…)

Originally published at www.jamierubin.net on August 19, 2014.