I had to install a floor in my attic to get long term storage space. The ladder is still in my closet right now because I know I have more that needs to go up there.

I'm not even thinking about my taxes yet, but I AM purging all my files. I've been through nearly everything in the files and, last night, recycled 30lbs of paper. I've got about 15lbs to shred or burn.

There is still too much in the drawers, though. I really need to JUST LET GO.

I've got so many marketing programs and examples of past work that I just can't seem to give up.

If I were hit by a bus tomorrow, no one on earth would care about all this.

Sigh.

I have a NeatDesk scanner, but there were issues with the Mac Software initially, so I ended up using it as a regular scanner. On the whole it was good, and it will stem the tide in the long run, but it's finding enough time to get it all set up correctly to begin with and then sticking to a good workflow.

Yeah, I think establishing a good workflow is my biggest obstacle right now. That's why I was wondering if something like NeatDesk wouldn't simplify my process. But maybe what I need to is look at what my process should be, and then look at buying tools to suit that, rather than just going out to get stuff and hoping to build my process around the stuff.

Yesterday I had a really productive day on the 15 minute timer. I have lots of really tedious work to do, so it's super helpful to break it up like that.

Today I am sorting through piles of dvds and converting my Roland VS2480 proprietary backup tracks to straight .wavs for use in Pro Tools. Thank heavens for the guy who coded the conversion software.

And I am doing some data entry that got missed somehow. Glad I checked before I sent out my final reports.

How is NeatDesk any more awesome than a regular scanner? I mean, I have to scan all my receipts, but is there something about it that is that much better than just using the scanner in my printer/scanner/fax machine?

I have a scanner at home and the office which can scan 10pp or so at time (or more). But I find with 1 sheet or so, I like the Doxie Go scanner. That has been wonderful and I've traveled with it, scanned items in and transferred the scans to my computer, no problem.

Well, there are two things, far as I can tell. One is it has trays set up so you just stick a stack of business cards in the business card slot or whatever and away it goes.

But the more important thing to me is the software side, where it then goes, hey, this is a business card, and presumably grabs the information and OCRs it and puts it in the right fields in a database, which I can then import to Quickbooks. Or it says, hey, this is a receipt, and pulls in the expense information and categorizes it so I can just treat it like I was doing manual data entry.

And then it keeps .pdfs of those receipts, which I can pull into Expensify or wherever, and keep those for the IRS, since the IRS will now accept electronic copies of receipts for under a certain amount, I think. (Note to self: check details.)

Presumably. I have yet to talk to someone who is actually using it the way I intend to, so I can know if it'll actually function that way or not. It seems like there is a more robust commercial equivalent (Fujitsu? I forget) but I can't figure out the software side of that one.

But honestly I think all I need is the software, which doesn't appear to sell separately. So maybe I should try for the mobile/cloud option? Which is a monthly subscription, which I don't probably want to do long term, but if I could buckle down and tear through my old stacks of paper, maybe that would work best? I dunno.

I have a ScanSnap scanners and they come with software to do OCR (and I think business cards as well).

Meaning: I think various scanners may come with that software.

It's not the OCR itself, it's what it does with the OCR'd info; i.e., puts it into a database with fields, address, name, number, or company, credit card, amount.

So, hey, ND, what is your Pro Tools rig setup? Dave's been bitching on facebook, and now a donor might be buying us our dedicated audio computer. Which is startling, because we hadn't actually yet thought through what we'd want to get.