At work, we have an army of administrators who manage all aspects of our company from HR, Finance, and IT. At home, it’s just my wife and me. In my opinion, automation is the only option. I just refuse to do manual processing. If it’s not automated, I’m not going to do it. I don’t have the resources to hire a team. Instead, I’m taking advantage of some really cheap and some free services.
Email and Calendar: Google ($0.00)
I’m surprised on how many people do not use Gmail. The search function makes organizing by folders a thing of the past. I just archive everything and when I need something, I just key in my search terms.
Document Management: Evernote ($45 a year)
I’ve been using Evernote seriously for a week now and have made a commitment to build the processes necessary to ensure that all inputs gets scanned and entered into Evernote. The search function is priceless. All my documents are piled in a to-do bin. Once a week, I spend a few hours scanning and shredding, then tagging and labeling. On the road, I can access those files on the web and on my iPad/iPhone.
File Storage and Sync: DropBox ($0.00)
DropBox is my go to service. I keep my files in the “cloud” which is synced to any machine that I have DropBox installed, including my iPad and iPhone. The greatest feature is redundant backup on multiple machine and automatic syncing. There’s also a file history and a history of deleted files. This came in really handy when I inadvertently deleted some files.
Printing and Scanning: Lexmark Prestige Pro 805 ($250 + $4.99 ink)
I rarely print and if I do, it’s with my Lexmark wireless printer. I bought this because it comes with $4.99 black ink cartridges; the color still costs an arm and a leg. It has duplex printing as well. I really use this because it has built in apps to pre-program functions to scan directly to Evernote.
Home Network: Apple Airport Extreme ($199)
My home network is connected by the Apple Airport wireless router. I have three networks. First, one is for guests. When I have visitors, they can access my guest network using a password. They have full Internet access but not to my home network. I then have two more, one dedicated to 802.11N and one for all others. Both of these networks are password protected and connect to my printer and networked drives. These are simply older external hard drives. Eventually I’m going to upgrade to a Terabyte drive to store files.
These are just some of the tools I use. In a future post, I’ll map out my workflow. Do you have any recommendations on other services?