Presented at the National Extension Technology Conference 2105, Big Sky Montana Discover ways to convert your office to a paper LESS environment. Tips and Techniques will be shared on how to use less paper in your workplace, home or office. Mark Light, Assistant Professor, 4-H Youth Development, Ohio State University, light.42@osu.edu

1. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
Making Mountains of
Paper into Molehills by
Going Paper LESS
Mark Light, 4-H Youth Development Educator

2. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
Does this scene look familiar in some of the offices you have to work in?

3. Background
• In 1975, A Business Week article predicted
that the office of the future would be
paperless.
• 40 years later, here we sit in offices that
still contain paper.
• Electronic tools like the PC made it
possible by putting a computer at every
desk, but it also put a printer on the same
desks.

4. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION

5. Barriers??

6. Barriers
• Time
• Process / policies are determined by others
• Lack of proper technology
• Keeping older technology / deskjets, fax, file cabinets
• Money
• Employee resistence
• Paper has been in our lives for longer than paper.less
(birth certificate)
• Space
• Clientele
• Ties to the past
• “ I may need this some day”

7. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION

8. Paper.less
• Going paper.less is about using less paper
versus totally eliminating paper
• Allows for multiple styles in an office
• Involves looking at each process / task to
determine why the paper exists
• Digital First
• Clientele in different

9. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
Advantages?

10. Advantages
• Saving money – file cabinet = ipad
• Square footage
• Increase in productivity
• Access from remote locations
• Collaboration
• Clean office
• Backing up files (fire, flood, etc.)
• Collaboration

11. Necessary tools
• Your computer
• Mobile phone or tablet
• External or cloud storage
• Multipage / Scanner / copier with OCR
• Paper shredder
• Apps and other software

12. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
What are you using?

13. Mark’s List
• Amazon Photo & icloud for pictures
• Google Drive – forms & collaboration docs
• Dropbox and / or box for Powerpoint
• Phone camera
• Evernote – meeting minutes, web clips, reading material
• Scannable (Genius Scan) – Pic to PDF
• Post it Plus – collaboration
• Demographica – audience numbers
• Kahoot, Polleveywhere – Audience surveys

14. Mark’s TipsHome
• Taking pictures of school art and papers – not saving
• Viewing local newspaper online versus printed subscription
• Cancelling junk mail / getting online newsletters from orgs.
Work
• Using two devices (computer, tablet, phone / dual monitors)
• Eliminating handouts and agendas by projecting on the wall
• Reducing papers printed by eliminating desktop printer and using network printer
• Reducing size of forms and paperwork for families to have to print from the web
• Online scheduling for appointments
• Scanning manuals and resources in the copier to be saved as a .pdf
• Taking meeting notes on iPad through Evernote, then searching meeting info is available on iPad,
phone, and computer.
• Using cloud to post materials after a presentation, so I am not printing an entire PowerPoint
presentation as a handout
• Reduce font size by one and reduce margins before printing (two sided)
• New exchange server puts all OSU contacts in e-mail program, so we do not need printed
directories and phone lists
• Calendars – you can give read only access to other colleagues so printing weekly calendars are
not needed

15. How?
• Set aside time. Going paperless is easier said than done. You should set aside
time, in fact, a day if possible.
• Choose and organize. Now begins the cumbersome (and boring) part. You
need to carefully divide documents into useful and not necessary. You’d be
surprised to find how much trash you’ve got once you start organizing stuff. You
would also need to create different folders on your computer, and other devices
so that the clutter isn’t transferred from your desk to your hard drive.
• Start the upload and backup. Done organizing? Great, now start the process
of transferring data and making it go digital. Also, back it up on the external drive
as you save it on your computer. No point delaying the backup.
• Do a final check. Go through the papers as well as the data on the
computer/cellphone/iPad to see if they match and you haven’t missed anything.
Also, check the non-essential list of items again to confirm that all of it is useless.
• Shred what’s not needed. Pat yourself on the back, you have successfully
accomplished the herculean task of going paperless and de-cluttering your
workspace. Now, just get rid of all the useless documents to give a sparkling
clean look to your workspace! Make it look beautiful!