To Go Electronic or Not that is the Question

There is a debate going on in my head on whether or not I’ll be totally digitized in 1-2 years with all the technology going on.  Well, after some contemplation I’m ready to begin a debate or at least a start to it.  I’m now 40 years old and about 70-80% of my life have been on processing the old fashion way, pen and paper.  It wasn’t until recently that that texting, e-mail and sharing online exploded the last ten years.  I was using internet when it was still on the DOS feel back at Department of Health and Human Services in 1993.  And up until I was about 16 years of age, I’ve been storing and hoarding stuff forever.  Letting go and living simplicity was not in my nature.

I realize in the last year or so, that my physical space truly is limited and all the memories, scrapbooks, books and magazines that I’ve carried upon me on my shoulder has taken a toll with the many moves with my career.  So I figured, no more..If I can access all my information electronically, then there would be no need for physical storage since I would have a way to access it without the physical space.  Then, we are on the mercy of backups and online availability, which is one of the downsides. 

But think about all the pros of having it all online – you don’t have to carry a huge purse that has an organizer weighing 1 lb.  You can virtually access it anywhere; no more lugging heavy binders and paper everywhere.  You can access yours photos, books, to-do list everywhere not having to remember where you put your to-do list.  You can maybe even be more organized.  No more shredding and disposition.  The pros sound great.

Then you try out this plan and realize some flaws are there already.  I saw this YouTube clip from Loree Marrero, Clutter Diet about how people process information differently and it got me thinking why I wanted to go digital.  The clip mentioned an important thing – well to access your to-do list on your smart phone already requires turning on your phone (granted it’s charged), opening your app if you have a password, finding your app, typing it in and letting auto correct do it’s thing…. Hmmm lots of steps already.  Whereas with a pen and paper it’s available and all you need to do is pick it up and write it down and you’re done.   I’ve been wired for 30 years to use pen and paper and am not quite the digital native like what my daughter (who is now using iPhone to text me and may never learn to properly type).    Pen and paper is also my preference and was my life style up until the recently.  Thinking back to how my office operates, we like the cut and paste feature in logging cable traffic (official messages) that come in.  It sure beats pen and paper writing it over and over, day after day.  But when you think about adjusting the lines in the excel spreadsheet, opening up each e-mail, etc and the processes involved, you wonder if it’s more administrative overhead.  I need to do three things in order to make this system work.  For example, the to-do list on my phone takes more time “to-do” than actually making one up.  Finally, with all the photo web sites available and unlimited electronic storage spaces, you need to remember where you electronically stored them.   Good luck with organizing your e-mails, online drive, photo sites and such!

 As I noted above, downside to going totally digital is that you are at the mercy of backup.  It would depend on the network being up to function especially with a lot of phone apps requiring internet connectivity.  Second you would need caching data to make use of when the network is down but then again it takes storage on your device or computer.  You would also need backup and then you would need to make sure you backup frequently (an extra admin overhead) and also have safekeeping of that backup and know how to access it when needed.  You may even need backup of a backup because what if your backup is damaged? 

All my life I’ve been struggling with storing things and memories.  You can imaging than how going digital will at this point for me, require some admin maintenance to keep the system running.  The time it takes to access electronic data (whether to-do list) e-mail, picture or photos, is dependent on network speed.  For me, now in 2015, it’s quicker to write.

With the pros and cons mentioned, I think the only way I’d be totally digitized is this – if voice recognition works and becomes easier to do whether by my to do list can be recorded when I think of it; not necessitating the need to find pen and paper.  Then I would have my phone with me and have what I need to do with me.  I still believe I’ll need pen and paper to dump out my thoughts before they are transferred digitally.  I hate the folder nightmare in my E-mail apps, so redundancy of where I put information (hard or electronic copy) will be needed.  I will keep electronic copies and also print copies so I can access print copies when the network is down.  My goal is to print less photos and to share/use them effectively.  My favorite photos will now be uploaded to an online drive where they are backed up and into their labels (furbabies, verse images, Alyssa) and I can display them on my computer screen or even TV as slide shows when I desire.  Aha, less physical picture frames in my house.  The key is simplicity and though I’m not naturally that way, I can aim…little by little.

Thoughts to this?  Send me an electronic message :)

Hmmmm..My Christmas Wish list - Amazon Echo?  Maybe if it syncs with all my devices maybe that is the answer.