“I must create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s.”
-William Blake
Forget the paperless office — it’s aiming too low.
Let’s take a look at the bigger picture: a paperless life. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate three other nuisances: answering the phone, checking voicemail, and returning phone calls.
Is this possible? It is. The key to finding means to accomplish the “impossible” is asking the right question: “How would you do ____ for a week if your life depended on it?” Most things considered impossible just haven’t been looked at through the “how” lens of lateral thinking. Here are a few exercise questions for Paperless Life 101:
What would you have to do to never again touch mail?
What would you have to do to never touch another check?
What would you have to do to never touch another dollar?
Consider these questions as real questions. If I offered you a million dollars to do each of these things for a month, could you do it? Here are a just a few potential strategies for doing all three, then we’ll move on to phone games:
1. No more mail:
First, we need to cut out the crap — reduce volume. To begin, get removed from junk mail lists and common commercial mailing lists. There are a few ways to do this: 1) Get remove from the most common junkmail lists (this costs a few dollars in some cases) and check alternative strategies at www.stopjunkmail.org, 2) Use LifeLock, or another identity protection service, which automatically removes you from large mailing lists, one of the most common vehicle for identity theft. Last, we’ll have your mail forwarded to special processing centers, where it is all scanned and emailed to you. One popular service is called Remote Control Mail, and there are two big benefits to the time-focused and mobile-minded: relevant postal mail is funneled into e-mail, so you can check both email and postal mail at once (“batching” both at the same time); you can travel freely whenever and wherever without ever missing a letter.
2. No more checks — this is the easiest and most familiar:
-Set up online banking so you can issue checks directly from your bank, and set up automatic recurring payments
-Give your accountant power of attorney to sign specific checks (for tax documents, etc.) on your behalf. Power of attorney is no joke, so do your homework, but it can be used — as I do — with little risk. This approach not only cuts down on checks but also finance-related mail, which you can then forward to your accountant for handling start-to-finish.
3. No more cash — easier than you think:
I hate cash, and I hate coins even more. Why don’t men’s wallets have pockets? In all cases, getting rid of physical wampum is more about breaking personal habit than overcoming external resistance. For the last several months, I’ve replaced a brick of a wallet with a razor-thin money clip holding four credit cards (Business Platinum AMEX, business Chase Continental Mastercard, personal AMEX, personal Mastercard), one debit card for emergencies, and health/car insurance. I haven’t had a single problem. Some smaller shops will prefer that you cover coffee with cash, for example, but credit is accepted.
Paper cuts fingers and kills forests, but what of the damn 9-to-5 headaches? How can you eliminate the need to answer the phone, check voicemail, or return phone calls? Here are a few quick fixes:
1. No more answering the phone:
Use a service like GrandCentral to listen to voicemail as they’re being left. Each caller is required to announce their name before the call is dialed, and you are able to preview the name and send them to voicemail, where you can listen to their message as they leave it. If you want to speak with them, you can jump in. If not, let them leave a voicemail and — at the set times when you batch — go to step 2.
2. No more voicemail:
Get your voicemail delivered to your e-mail inbox, which then serves as your single communications “funnel”. This would be our single “bucket” in the parlance of David Allen, and our remote control postal mail joins the voicemail here: e-mail, postal mail, and voicemail all in one place. GrandCentral can e-mail audio files, but for those who want text, Simulscribe is a popular option with near 90% transcription accuracy. Stop managing separate inputs from office phone voicemail, cell phone voicemail, and multiple email accounts. Consolidate. To further encourage all people to communicate with you via e-mail, there are two approaches that I’ve used effectively: indicate in your voicemail greeting that people must leave their e-mail address, and respond to them via e-mail; use Jott to send a voice message to them as an e-mail.
3. No more returning calls:
Pinger enables you to send voicemail to people without calling them. Why would you want to do that? From their website:
We’ve all been there-you make a call and think to yourself, “please don’t pick up”, or you call and think “I hope I’m not interrupting…” With Pinger you leave the message at your convenience, and they get it at their convenience. Unlike voicemail, there is no ringing, no annoying prompts, no lengthy greetings — just your message.
###
None of these strategies are perfect, but they do demonstrate that none of our impossible questions are impossible to answer. Once you frame the question in terms of “how would I…?”, it is entirely possible to stop tolerating most of life’s annoyances and eliminate them altogether.
Did you like this? Please take a second to Digg it here and I’ll focus on more of doing the impossible, tech lifehacks, etc.
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Here in India (I work for a US company), the knowledge workers like me work thus: Business mostly via email, and the rest via mobile phone (SMS and voice). It is therefore important to have your own “email policy” and a “mobile phone policy”. It is normally not-the-done-thing to bar certain email addresses and mobile numbers from communicating with you. So, you must process ALL of these. My email policy: I spend about 10 minutes every morning to delete yesterday’s unwanted mails. My target is to delete ALL mails from my Inbox and preserve only the relevant mails in the “Sent Mails” folder. On an average, I preserve around 10 mails a day. I also celebrate “let us delete mails day” once every 6 months and target to exterminate as many as I can.
About mobile, I store “names” of those people with who I would like to talk. Rest of the calls meet with “no answer” or “busy” fate. Of course, I will take these calls if they persisted and called repeatedly.
Voice mail is seldom used.
Also, our wallets do have coin pockets. You can buy a cup of tea for around 8 cents. In fact, India has a very rich culture of street food. These guys and almost all sweetmeat shops do not accept credit cards. They prefer the old school. Coins are handy in this part of the knowledge workers’ universe!
[…] Timothy Ferriss on Doing The Impossible “The key to finding means to accomplish the “impossibleâ€? is asking the right question: […]
[…] Timothy Ferriss on Doing The Impossible “The key to finding means to accomplish the “impossibleâ€? is asking the right question: “How […]
I’m not very good at online dating. I’m trying to find a way to ask you on a date and have you say, “yes.” Do you have any advice?
This post is dead-on. Thanks for writing the resourceful book Tim!
I would have piles of mail in my room waiting to be shredded, but I didn’t want to take the time to do it. Eventually I would end up shredding it all at one time (batch processing), but it would take over an hour to sort out all the junk and shred everything. So I attacked the root cause and I went with http://www.tidymailbox.com to get rid of most of my junk mail. I also went paperless with most of my bills.
[…] One of my favorite blog posts of his is: “How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another…. […]
[…] resources: Download Google RSS Reader Subscribe to this blog’s RSS Feed How to Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail, Never Return Another Phone Call How to Take Notes Like an Alpha-Geek The 10 Most Common Words You Should Stop Using […]
Another interesting resource is Sandy. Sandy is what you might call a “virtual virtual assistant”. Sandy can manage appointments, and remind you of them and other scheduled tasks just when you need to know. She can keep track of all kinds of things you need to remember like contacts, books you want to read, birthdays, bookmarks, people to call and things to do. She can keep track of any notes you want to make, and in general she will help keep you organized. No more sticky notes or pads of paper to keep track of all those to-do’s, ideas and thoughts. She can be accessed via email, mobile and IM. Link her to Jott and you can call her! Extremely useful. For a little more on Sandy, you can read my post on here here.
If you can access it from a Blackberry or other web-enabled PDA, why would you need “Sandy”? Isn’t that what a PDA is supposed to do?
Using say Outlook and your PDA to keep track of notes, contacts appointments, etc. requires you to constantly synch them. A good alternative would be to use GMail/Google Apps which would then give access from any online device (e.g. PC and Blackberry) and adds some SMS support which is useful if you only have a cell phone handy. But all of these requires that you enter and organize these.
Sandy is really meant to be a virtual personal assistant. You just tell here in natural language what you need kept track of or what you need looked up, and she does the organizing and retrieval. The idea is that she is a little more like a secretary than a PDA or Outlook (or whatever is your PIM tools of choice). Best of all, you can access your “secretary” from email, sms, PDA, IM and even by telephone (via Jott). How do you make a note of an idea or set a reminder when all you have is a plain old telephone handy, or you are driving and cannot enter stuff on your PDA? I hope that helps explain the difference. In a way, you have to try it out to fully appreciate the service! I hope this helps!!!
[…] How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… […]
Hey Tim, this is great! I also invite you to check out GotVoice. Similar to Spinvox and SimulScribe, but GotVoice can retrieve your cell, home and work phone voicemail and send them to you as text in SMS and email.
Also, not sure if you saw about Om Malik’s heart attack (GigaOm.com), but he thanks GotVoice for simplifying all of his phones and voicemails, and being able to rapidly read through his hundreds of iPhone, VoIP and landline voicemails he received after his heart attack in only 50 minutes:
http://gigaom.com/2008/01/08/checking-in-with-gigaom-readers-an-update/
“I also want to thank a service called GotVoice. It is sort of like Yahoo for voicemail — a nifty web-based voicemail management system. I had signed up for it before the holidays to “review” the service. It worked with my iPhone, my AT&T line and my softphone VoIP service. It pulled the voicemails from the various systems and put them in the order received. More importantly, it sent me a transcript of the voicemails in the email inbox. In less that 50 minutes I read your sentiments.”
[…] site, I’ve been playing with several phone technologies during the past 6 months (inspired by this post from Tim I’ll be sharing my experiences, starting with Grand […]
[…] How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… E-mail-Free Fridays and How to Save Your Weekend […]
In the office we use an add-on for Outlook called Cloudmark. We can’t use a spam filter, because we get initial enquiries from clients which could come in various forms, and which we can’t risk losing.
Cloudmark connects millions of users to a central database. Users identify spam, and this information is passed to the database. Users receive constant updates, so the program knows which emails other people have identified as spam. Because it doesn’t use a filter there is little risk of losing real emails. The program works in the background and deletes spam almost instantly.
[…] Love it and some hate it, reflecting or deleting e-mail can be an art form. […]
Nice tips, but only applicable to US (for example, grandCentral is not available in france or japan)
Tim, I can’t recall seeing Earth Class Mail ( http://www.earthclassmail.com/ ) mentioned on you site before, as a way to get rid of handling paper it seems like a good one.
I came across the reference to Earth Class mail in this post: http://blogs.computerworld.com/how_to_work_from_the_beach
Cheers and thanks for what you do.
Phil
Rats! The mention is in this actual post – just tagged Remote Mail on the link rather than Earth Class mail.
Scratch my last comment.
(How emabrassing).
I live in Canada, and, mens wallets here have a place for change.
Also, I have to say, this would not work for us Canucks because Tim Hortans does NOT take debt or credit card, cash only. I NEED MY TIMMYS SO it’s not possible.
[…] want to present like Steve Jobs. I want to live like Tim Ferriss. I want to talk like Larry David. I want to have honest, moving work like Ricky Gervais. I […]
Can anyone please get/send me an invite to Grand Central Station as it is in Private Beta. It would be greatly appriciated and I will say a toast to you when I do my next wine tasting. My email: maven@mavenwines.com
Paperless is the way into the future, and the way to facilitate the 4-hour work week. The “Paperless Joy” book by George Dimopoulos is taking a fresh look at paperlessness and how it can transform our lives and world.
Hi TIM!
Can you help please…?
I’m reading your book at the moment, I’m somewhere in the middle. It’s realy good, one of the best ones I’ve ever read! Website’s great too, almost made me cry when I first I look through it, hehe
I understand it all very well, and totally agree with most of the things you write about, but I’m in a very difficult position at the moment, and don’t know how to break out of it.
I’ve been dreaming of having my own business for a while, as soon as possible; I have a whole plan in place, but I need more cash. Now, multiplying my income seems to me almost impossible, since I only work in administration, stuck in this bloody office from 9-5 :(. I started looking for a new job, something where I could be rewarded on my performance, rather then time I’ve spent at work, but it’s just not easy, and I’m getting very frustrated.
Do you have any suggestions? Or anyone really… I know Tim’s not replying to all posts.
Cheers! 😀
[…] to check multiple sources of contact have been addressed by people like Tim Ferris in his post “How to do the impossible“. GTD theory and practice help fill-in the much needed issue of managing communication but for […]
[…] Ferriss’ How to Do The Impossible: Useful and practical solutions for a wide range of automation and reduction […]
If you want to get rid of your paper documents and manage them online with your electronic documents, please try our service. You can send your paper documents to us via pre-paid envelopes or boxes and we’ll scan them into your secure online account. (and securely shred your originals)
You can also self-scan and upload to your account, upload your electronic documents, email documents to your account. Now, you can search, share and download ALL of your documents from one central location.
For those of you who dislike cash, US Attorneys love people like you. You are an open book of information to troll through.
Having once had my full financial life laid bare before the government, I took a dramatic U-turn and now almost always use cash. It’s anonymous. Identity theft is more difficult. And best of all, it will be incredibly frustrating for any government bureaucrat that might want to ever look over my finances.
I’m surprised that you’re advocating cutting out using cash for using cards to pay for things. I find that it takes twice or three times as long to pay with a card than it does with cash. My rules are to have cash for daily items, cards for items when you don’t carry that much cash on you. The other benefit of cash is that I can see what I have left until my next weekly cash withdrawl.
People cost the most nowadays, we need more robots. Anyone got a good code to run one?
Speaking of cutting paper….
You can now set up a virtual LLC or S-Corp in Vermont!
It’s kind of a big deal.
Nice practical article, Tim.
About checks, it’s even easier for me not to use them. In Belgium, we don’t use it from 01/01/2002… 🙂
FYI, I live in rural USA, and you can’t survive on only credit here either. Many places simply don’t accept credit cards. This might have to do with the fact that in rural areas there is more poverty and more cash employment (either cash payroll or off-the-books work). So don’t travel the US assuming universal credit card access. You can probably find any service in any area, but in some places you’ll have to try two or three locations before you find one that takes credit (depending on your needs).
Excellent tips Tim. I have started to get rid of paper and the mail problem a year ago. But I won’t use credit cards if I can pay cash. I really like to pay via cash, because it’s faster, I can get a lot more discounts and I stay anonymous. I really don’t like it, when it’s transparent what brands I buy, what time I go shopping, how much I spent on certain products etc.
Hey Tim,
Going paperless and voicemail-less not only saves time and energy, it’s the responsible thing to do.
We save trees by going paperless. I know that sounds cliche and cheesy, but it’s really true. Unless you really need a physical copy of something (rarely), not printing it out means you don’t need to buy as much (if any) paper. If enough people do that, then the manufacturer cuts down less trees.
By not needing to deal with paper and long voicemails (we can read way faster than reading, after all), we save time and energy. We can process and take action on digital text and images MUCH faster, freeing up resources to do more or other things.
What’s interesting is that every year, this whole paper-less/voicemail-less work flow is becoming standard. More and more technology released to let us do that. Better times for us all 🙂
Here’s to a continued effective workflow and increased time and energy to be able to do more of what we love,
Oleg
I use http://www.usamail1.com and I’m very happy with their service. Their site is easy to navigate, and their customer service has always been very helpful
Hi Tim. It looks like some of your organizational and filing needs could be solved with the use of some clever software! There are a lot of options for filing software. We do document management and filing for a living with a clever twist. The Paper Tiger Filing System is a proven tool and we are ready to you in any way we can do to meet your filing system needs.
Hi Tim,
Read your book this past year and have followed the blog ever since. Wanted to see if you had any thoughts how the FHWW could simplify the life of a college and soon to be law student?
HI Tim,
Have you looked at NoMorePost.com? a paperless postal service based in London, UK.
We started using it in our office back in October and our paper consumption has gone down by almost 50%. We started using to avoid the problems caused by the postal strikes we had here last year.
Worth a look.
Regards
Chris
I realize that this post is a couple years old, but it’s one that I come back to a few times a year. I’ve successfully integrated several of the ideas on this list into my life and my business, including the difficult ones such as ditching the telephone entirely, as much as I would like to do so.
For my primary line of work, I negotiate payment plans, reduced settlements, and penalty relief between the IRS and small businesses. You would think this requires a tremendous amount of telephone time, and for most of my colleagues, it does. It’s a line of work that requires a fairly close relationship with clients for long periods of time, sometimes into multiple years.
However, I’ve created systems that allow me to manage that relationship effectively, and do it on my terms. First, I only check voicemail at 10am and 2pm, and only return phone calls after the 2pm block. I do the majority of my communication with clients via fax and email, and have no qualms returning a voicemail via email.
On the IRS side, there is almost nothing I can’t do via fax or FedEx, and it is often preferred by the agency, since it creates a paper trail, and there is usually a form for it anyway.
Since I carry a smaller client load than most of my cohorts, I am also able to complete the majority of my weekly actual tax work in only two days, Tuesday and Thursday. This allows me to devote most of the rest of the week to marketing and systems development, and only occasional emergency communication with clients or the IRS. This time devoted to marketing and systems development has lead to vast efficiency improvements in our business.
I have been resisting using Earth Class Mail, but I am almost convinced to use them for my incoming IRS mail, since there is such a huge volume of it every day. I do use Google Voice as my primary phone number, but find their transcription service lacking, so cannot rely on it. I hardly ever carry my cell phone, and am actually thinking of just straight up getting rid of it and only having some sort of pre-paid thing to keep in the truck for emergencies.
-Jassen
We used ringcentral based on a recommendation in these comments and canceled after 30 days due to HORRIBLE customer service. Even after we canceled before the trail period was up the credit card charges remained and we had to call back a few weeks later to make sure they canceled them. The Indians we got on the phone we excessively nice but couldn’t solve basic problems or answer simple questions. We requested a number port, then had it canceled, then realized it hadn’t actually been canceled when our current provider called us to ask why we were switching services. Seems like one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing there.
Hi Russell,
I’m very sorry to hear this. Alas, companies with good services turn back quite quickly when they grow too quickly and sacrifice in both hiring and quality assurance.
All the best,
Tim
I would rather make all of my purchases using my debit card. It’s easier for me to keep track of what I am spending daily, weekly, monthly, without really borrowing but as you said, some businesses don’t accept credit, even in the US. That drives me nuts since I really don’t care to carry cash. Just forces me to shop at the places that DO accept credit.
Hi There, in relation to never checking your voicemail again, I have used a system called vonage which is a voice over IP system. I found this to be very useful as rather than having to listen to voicemail on the phone, if you miss a call and dont have your normal answering phone on, then the system emails you with an attached .wav file so you can listen to the message on your computer instead.
Very interesting ideas. I try my best not to print anything unless absolutely necessary. I do all my bills and banking online where possible. I am not sure that I want my snail mail opened and scanned by a third party. I think that sharing files electronically would save a lot of work and headaches and paper.
I think it’s time to revisit online postal mail management. The service mentioned in the post – Remote Control Mail – appears to no longer exist.
A few companies have filled the void but it would be great to hear some feedback or personal experiences with each of them:
– http://www.earthclassmail.com/
– http://www.mailboxforwarding.com
http://www.virtualpostmail.com
Does anyone have any experience with these companies they could share?
Russell:
In response to your comment earlier this afternoon, I’ve gone through 3 such companies, and finally landed on Virtual Post Mail. Their interface is a bit too fancy, in my opinion, but that’s just a personal preference towards web site simplicity. Other than that, their fee structure, the specials they often run, and the service itself has been outstanding for the two months I’ve been using it.
I now run ALL of my client IRS mail through the service — I can truly have a paperless practice now. They are much cheaper than Earth Class Mail, have a secure mail sorting facility (which I require due to the nature of my practice), and they open and scan the mails I tell them too within the span of 3 or 4 hours of selecting it, which is fine for my timelines.
~Jassen Bowman
We used ringcentral based on a recommendation in these comments and canceled after 30 days due to HORRIBLE customer service. Even after we canceled before the trail period was up the credit card charges remained and we had to call back a few weeks later to make sure they canceled them. The Indians we got on the phone we excessively nice but couldn’t solve basic problems or answer simple questions. We requested a number port, then had it canceled, then realized it hadn’t actually been canceled when our current provider called us to ask why we were switching services. Seems like one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing there
The tips are great! Its very informative. Here in our country the Philippines, companies in the urban city and areas are using this kind of system. Paperless and cashless life. Times are changing and the value of living is very high. Progressive nations like the U.S. and other first world countries are relying on the BPO or Business Process Outsourcing because it reduce the operational cost and time. Some prefer Virtual assistant or virtual secreatries to do the job like paperless, answering email and answering voice box, etc. Times are changing. Its Digital Age..
the remote mail link is dead. great post though! I would love to get rid of postal mail altogether. 🙂
Amanda —
I have been using Virtual Post Mail now for nearly 4 months, and I couldn’t be happier with it. It was that final piece that has allowed me to unplug and finally start to wander, but keep my “muses” going.
And no, I don’t get paid by them for posting, they don’t even HAVE an affiliate program, but if they did, I’d still plug them for free. 🙂
-Jassen
Credit card question: Really paperless?
If one uses only credit cards to pay for everything, what about all the receipts? Between business and personal use, I’m making at least 5 purchases per day, which generates 150 receipts per month.
Do you save all of them until the end of the month then check them off your bill (time consuming), or just toss them and assume your bill is accurate and you’re not getting overcharged??
Thanks for any thoughts/insights on the subject!
ST
Personally, I login to online banking so frequently that I see charges as they come through. Other than that, I don’t do a real reconciliation like you should.
If you really wanted to, take a photo of each receipt with your smart phone, and then chuck the receipt. JotNot for the iPhone is what I use for scanning and filing notes like that.
I like the idea of companies going paperless. I can see where a few problems may arise, but for the most part I can appreciate the concept. I think more companies are going to jump on this ever growing trend.
I really like how you mention not answering the phone — I hate voicemail and phone calls! The idea that I am at everyone’s beck and call 24/7/365 because of my cellphone is just awful; but then it is rude not to answer.
E-mail I can deal with more…
Hi Tim
I read your book some time ago and have been following your site and web appearances since but had not read this post previously. There are some great points here for extending time saving opportunities and I will be trying to add some of them to those I am doing already.
Keep up the good work!
Paul
You are a genius!!
And my favorite author…
Every time that I pick up 4 Hour Week or 4 Hour Body to read, over and over again, that’s what comes out of my mouth… Genius!!
And the funny thing is that I resisted a lot before finally giving up and reading your books… It just didn’t seem possible!
But well… you proved me wrong!!
I know its a late post, but your books are awesome mate!
You have really changed the way I do things for the best and have recommended this to all my friends.
See you on Twitter and Facebook.
Chris
Hi Tim,
Fantastic post, and yet again some amazing tips for efficiency! However, sadly, it seems like “truly” going paperless seems impossible, although we’re all aiming for it.
Anyhow, I just picked up the new version of 4HWW the other day, and have been reading diligently again, great new updates in it, hope to someday have the success that you have!
Cheers,
Dwad
I’ve been to Japan and pretty much cash is used over credit cards very regularly.
Nice article! With a baby on the way, I’m about to move my home office from a bedroom to an attic (installing skylights for this too!) but was contemplating how the additional space will inevitably lead to more clutter accumulating. Instead I should implement the suggestions here.
Similar article from Mashable, Nov. 2011:
http://mashable.com/2011/11/11/paperless-life/
You are something else. Excellent blog. Have you read the new best seller 25 Laws for Doing the Impossible? You may enjoy the book.
Still my all-time favorite Tim Ferriss article. This is probably my third or fourth comment on this one alone. Just wanted to share another piece of how I’m making it happen.
This is for all the other commenters that have asked for help with their voicemail messages. As of two minutes ago, my Google Voice number is on “Do Not Disturb”, as I am leaving for Paris tomorrow to start a 6-month, around-the-world journey (while still running a tax consulting practice). Here is what my new voicemail message states:
“You have reached the private voicemail box of Jassen Bowman. Please note that I am currently unable to answer telephone calls live. So that I may give you a response with my undivided attention, please leave a brief message with your name, purpose of your call, and your email address or fax number, and I will respond via email or fax with a thorough response to your inquiry. Thank you for calling, and make today your best day ever.”
All voicemails end up in my email inbox, transcribed. The fax part is important for me, as it is how I regularly communicate with IRS personnel on behalf of my clients, more so than phone, actually.
I hope this helps somebody out there!
One product that is useful for eliminating the use of paper is the Boogie Board. Basically it is a reusable eWriter. There is a version that can save what you write as well. It is made by Improv Electronics. You can find it at their site, amazon, brookstone, etc.
Personally, I don’t see a paperless society as being a completely reachable goal. I think that paper products are still more useful in many situations. It would take generations of effort and a worldwide paradigm shift to create a totally paper free world. But I’ll definitely reduce, reuse, recycle, and find better alternatives for paper wherever possible.
BTW, thanks for the 4 hour work week Tim. I am not yet as successful as I would like to be with the ideas in the 4HWW, but the information has been extremely helpful in my business endeavors.
Recently, I moved from large city to a village with less than 3000 inhabitants. Its so silent, but I like it. Living without internet would be possible, but do not know if I want to have it.
Hey Tim,
As usual, a great read. Im not sure that I agree with the no cash thing though… too many people these days live by their credit card. With that, they feel like they have unending access to cash… which is bad.
Gonna try out the Pinger tool though.
Thanks
Adam
Sensational ideas! Especially getting voice mail to inbox – that alone has saved us some time. No more keying in mailbox numbers and passwords – and i can get my messages on the go. Woo hoo!
Hmmm… I am not sure if there’s anything on this list that I couldn’t live without.
I think in 20 years or so, we won’t use currency anymore. Everyone will use debit cards and/or credit cards. You can currently get a credit card swiper that plugs into your cell phone for free. Who needs cash.
@Andrew – that’s fascinating! I’ve been thinking for a while about going back to using cash – I attend a lot of underground music shows at bars and it really is horrible the idea that all of these little businesses are getting gorged by the credit companies. Plus cash transactions aren’t tracked like credit transactions are.
Regardless of that, I much prefer it when I use debit and a transaction is immediately posted and withdrawn from my account. Not only does it cut out the middlemen (credit companies) but also helps me keep a clear idea of what i am actually spending.
Doing the impossible might be possible in the future, however,
people would have to deal with what we have right now.
Some people doesn’t want to make a change because that’s what
they’ve been doing for a long period of time. But change
would make or break us. Let’s make the impossible possible! 🙂
We can do things impossible possible. But in a third world country, it would be hard to face these challenges. Change is the only constant thing in this world, It may be difficult for some but who knows, this might make our life easier. 🙂
Definitely late to this thread, but I wanted to add another application that helps with call volume. Evoice. You can choose as many local or toll free numbers as you want and have them routed to you, or your assistant, or both simultaneously. You can also set hours on when it should ring you, and when it should route them directly to voicemail. And it can send voicemail recordings to your email similar to Google Voice.
I’m surprised not to see it mentioned anywhere on the blog. Is anyone else using it?
I hate checks. I have to go to the bank to deposit them, one more stop! Most banks do have a deposit feature on their mobile apps, thank goodness! My bank also offers Popmoney which allows me to send money to people for free. All they do is click a link that was emailed or texted to them and deposit the money in their account. Way easier than writing a check and no postage.
Hi Time and Team,
A few of the think at the top including Grand Central and Simulscribe are no longer live. Do you have any recommendations for new apps that do the same things?
Thanks,
Hi,
The grand central and simulscribe no loner work, do you have any updates?
thanks,
Jake
Tim,
What advantages are there to having those business and personal AMEX cards as well as your business and personal Mastercards ?
Thank you
Rex Freriks
I deeply need this kind of change.