Itchy feet, hiking on the digital path, and no paperless life

How many times is it now you are moving house, and country? Why are you joining the digital transformation movement? What’s the motivation for your going paperless? Are you concerned about your carbon footprint? Are you one of those super eco-heroes?

I could continue the list of questions you can ask why someone is taking on a personal digital transformation. Never mind the attempt to lead a paperless life.

Fact 1: There’s no such thing as a paperless life

Let’s start with the simple project: living the paperless life. Depending on your personal preferences and how settled you are you might consider a life as paperless as possible as the only way forward.

I can barely count how often I’ve moved house since I left my parent’s home. Moreover, every move was a heavyweight one. Books were, and still are the source of my research and inspiration, mind you I read literature, drama and education at college, and now I research and write for my clients.

So move after move I either left more books with my parents, “donated” them to like-minded friends, sold them online or “forgot” them somewhere.

Until scanning and ebooks entered my life. Suddenly I was able to “get rid” of vast amounts of paper and instead of buying a printed book I ordered the ebook version.

As scanners became smaller, faster, more affordable and produced better scans, I started to digitize whole books, mainly those I could not replace with digital versions. Advanced digital reading and annotation tools are a great add on to my digital document collection.

With more and more business processes shifting from paper to digital another problem is solving itself without me putting an effort in: confirmations, invoices, and many other official documents are delivered straight into my inbox and subsequently into a folder on my hard drive.

Of course, there are still plenty paper-based processes to go through, for example filing my annual tax report back home. For some reason, they do not want me to use their online system. Or travelling to and within the US. I always need a printed boarding pass for some very friendly officer to put funny, colorful marks on it.

I also realised there’s no digital alternative to some hygiene must-haves… statistics claim we use more toilet paper in our lives than we use paper for printing… Unless, of course you’re lucky enough to call a smart toilet your own.

Fact 2: Digital Transformation is hard work

However, what about the digital transformation I started talking about? Until recently I called myself the proud owner of roughly 1000 music CDs and approximately the same number of movie DVDs – part of my lecturing equipment.

Have I listened to them all? Watched them all? Yes, of course, and some of them many times over!

I “disposed” of most of them by now. Some of them were so old, my CD/DVD player refused to play them, others, well, I’ve outgrown them I’d say. Some of the music CDs have kindly been added to my digital library by one of the largest online retailers I bought them from. The majority I digitized. Unfortunately, all the DVDs I’ve ever bought have not been added to this digital library. I am still in the middle of a very tedious “ripping” process.

Which leads me to ask the same question I’ve asked so many times before, again: I’ve bought the DVDs and thus the right to watch these films. Why is there no online repository for me? It would make my live so much easier, lighter and more mobile.

I’ve subscribed to Netflix and Amazon, and still they are restricting me to watch locally copyrighted content only. Moreover, they also put restrictions on what I can watch while travelling. However, the industries wonder why people do what they do to get hold of what they cannot get legally. (The same, btw. applies to ebooks, but at least, this is getting a bit better now.)

Fact 3: I run a digital business

How does this link with business? I run a small aaS (as a Service) business for Marketing, Talent and Business Development with customers in various countries around the globe and offices in the UK and US.

Without digital processes, this would not be possible: virtual, video meetings, document sharing and real-time co-editing, digital signatures, online banking, online tax filing – you name it. I am grateful for all the latest technology. Without it, I could not do what I am doing.

Fact 4: We all can be more digital and less-paper

Whenever I work with a client who is not quite there yet (and this does not only apply to the wonderful artists I’m so blessed to work with), who are still struggling with digital processes, I support them embracing new technologies, new ways of communication, and help them draw a roadmap for their personalized digital transformation.

Interestingly enough everyone is happy to embrace the new tools as they feel, just like I did initially (and still do): I am decluttering my workplace (and life), my work becomes more focused, streamlined, organized and ultimately more productive.

Fact 5: It is all in the head. And on my computer

It’s no secret, I’m a GenX. I didn’t grow up with iPhones, iPads, not even a computer. They have been around but we weren’t very advanced at home when it came down to the latest technology. So I had to wait until the first computer course at school to meet the black & white screened magical boxes. I didn’t like them. It was all 1s and 0s and that wasn’t me. But during college, I learned to love word processors and shortly after that my first Mac. Could I imagine a life without those, now not so grey any more boxes? Certainly not. Would I have everything I need, everything I want with me while I live where ever I live, and travel to where ever I want or need to go? Not without my computer and now even more so my smartphone.

I don’t need books or an expensive stereo set to chill out and make my home feel cosy. My home is where my heart is. And my computer (and my tablet and my smartphone). And my internet connection. I’d be lost and homeless without these.