Best printer? One without ink cartridges!

Last month I bought a new HP printer. While I love the feature that lets me wirelessly send photos to it via an iPhone app, it still drinks ink like it’s been stranded in a desert for days on end. Just this week I spent nearly $100 to replace its five ink cartridges.

So, I am thrilled to see the release of this new printer that–drumroll, please!–requires no ink. None. Zilch. Nada.

How cool is that?

Of course if you do the math, converting yen to USD, you’ll find that the cost is way out of reach. But if Moore’s Law extends to printer technology, we could see this reach an acceptable price level at some point.

Procrastinate much? Go celebrate!

photo: flickr/svennevenn

Just when you’d resigned yourself to a forecast of gray skies with nary a party in sight, here’s a reason to celebrate:

It’s National Procrastination Week.

We all have reasons why we procrastinate. Good reasons.

I certainly have mine. Chief among them—my PC flashed me with its blue screen of death a few weeks ago. My productivity ground to a halt. I limped along on my laptop and my cell, but since my scanner was PC-only, my paperless quest had to wait.

Until I was able to order a scanner for my new iMac and get back in the business of going paperless once again, that is. Today, I set up my new ScanSnap S1500M and configured it to work with Evernote. It took a little time to get the settings just right, but now I’m ready to give it another go.

I just finished scanning a stack of papers that’s been accumulating on my desk, and I feel so much better! Because if there’s anything procrastinators secretly relish, it’s the magical moments in which we temporarily defeat our foe.

So, if you count procrastination as one of your vices, join in! Raise a glass to the way you’ve perfected this skill over the years.

And then do something.

Order a ScanSnap and plot the demise of your paper piles.

Musician rocks with a paperless sheet music library

Jason rocks.

To hear his tunes, check out his website. To watch him convert walls of music books and drawers of files from paper to digital, have a look at his video. Here you go.

I love the part where he dumps all the paper out after he completes his project. And his comments about what he’s going to keep in all those empty drawers and display on all those newly available shelves. (more…)

When small change is a big deal

The average American used 663 pounds of paper in 2006. No wonder I feel like the paper flow in my life is unmanageable!

This video raises some good points about our paper usage. And it illustrates how much of a difference we can make by changing some of our paper consumption habits.

What small change in your paper usage could you make that might have a big payoff?

Why FILE is a four-letter word

photo: flickr/curiousyellow

I hate to file.

It’s not that I reject the whole concept of filing, it’s just that filing never seems important enough to float to the top of my to-do list. That’s probably why I have stacks of paper everywhere.

Now, don’t misunderstand: I do have paper files. It’s just that I don’t make the time to maintain them. So, if I filed it long, long ago, and it’s recorded in my Paper Tiger filing software, I can retrieve it in a matter of minutes. But since I don’t devote time to routine maintenance of my paper files, most things simply sit around in a collection of boxes and bins. I know they’re there—somewhere—but I can’t put my finger on them when I want them, so it’s not a good way to work.

Living a paperless life is going to change all that. (more…)