Fight the impulse to print web pages or emails—the information is already saved for you.

Computers were supposed to solve the “paper problem”—or so we were led to believe. In reality, computers tend to generate far more paper than they conserve—the article you printed out, the emails you decided to make hard copies of, etc. I’ve found that many people who print out information from the internet and email do not really have a clear idea of why they are printing it out, other than that they are saving it “for later.” Nor do they have a specific place to put this printed information, so it tends to end up buried under a pile or hidden in a drawer.

Here’s a handy guideline for managing the impulse to print: print web pages or emails ONLY when you know exactly where they are going—if you can’t answer that question, then there’s no need to have a hard copy. Instead, create a system of bookmarks in your web browser which will help you find the articles that you’d like to read or refer to later. You can create bookmarks by topic, by site, by date… whatever makes the most sense for your purposes. Likewise, as an alternative to printing out emails, create folders in your email program to store your old email messages, or offload them onto a CD or removable disk.

If you’re wondering how to implement these strategies, we’d be happy to chat with you. Contact us for a complimentary strategy session by going to http://www.customlivingsolutions.com/Apply

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