Paperless journalist, progress and challenges

Ten days after deciding to cut my paper use, I’ve made real progress towards being a paperless journalist. I’ve already packed a filing cabinet drawer worth of paper into plastic bags ready for the recycle collection. That’s about 20 kilograms in total and around 5 percent of the non-book or magazine paper floating around my home.

I’ve switched to electronic billing for my mobile phone account and electricity. Switching my Telecom account to paperless transactions has proved trickier – although I expect to make the move soon.

Remaining paperless challenges

I’m running up against two problems:

First, I’m a journalist and I keep most of my notes in reporter-style paper notebooks or larger A4-sized notebooks. For legal reasons I need to keep these safe long after publication. The statute of limitations in New Zealand is six years, but I can still be a good idea to keep notebooks for longer as older records may be a useful defence against later actions.

My handwriting is atrocious, many notes are in shorthand and anyway, scanning this material doesn’t appear practical. It would take supernatural handwriting recognition software to unlock my scribble.

There’s a similar legal problem with old business paperwork. I’ve a sizable collection of paper from when I ran a business in Australia – I’m supposed to keep this for seven years, which means I’ve about 18 months to go before junking it. There’s too much to scan and, with such a short amount of time to worry about, it doesn’t seem worth the effort.

What would you do?