Eliminating paper

Lots of my friends are posting today about angst dealing with paper at work. Me, I'm trying to reduce my personal paper usage. Progress is slow, but noticeable.

Once, I kept old computer game magazines. But I never looked at them. Toss! There's a free shelf right there.

Then, I started being more selective. For a few years, I tore out articles from the magazines that I thought I was likely to want to refer to later. Years later, I looked back on the number of times I actually *had* referred to them. Less than once per year. None of the times I *did* look at them were significant enough that I would have been really unhappy if I hadn't been able to do so. So, no more ripping out articles. The magazine stays on my desk for a few months, then gets tossed in routine cleaning.

I still haven't quite gotten to the point of tossing the stuff I *did* tear out, but I suspect that that will happen next time I clean my computer room...

The real big project, of course, is converting most of my fiction to etexts. Remember, big Book Potlatch on April 19!

Eliminating paper

Lots of my friends are posting today about angst dealing with paper at work. Me, I'm trying to reduce my personal paper usage. Progress is slow, but noticeable.

Once, I kept old computer game magazines. But I never looked at them. Toss! There's a free shelf right there.

Then, I started being more selective. For a few years, I tore out articles from the magazines that I thought I was likely to want to refer to later. Years later, I looked back on the number of times I actually *had* referred to them. Less than once per year. None of the times I *did* look at them were significant enough that I would have been really unhappy if I hadn't been able to do so. So, no more ripping out articles. The magazine stays on my desk for a few months, then gets tossed in routine cleaning.

I still haven't quite gotten to the point of tossing the stuff I *did* tear out, but I suspect that that will happen next time I clean my computer room...

The real big project, of course, is converting most of my fiction to etexts. Remember, big Book Potlatch on April 19!