While replacing my hard drive this weekend (talk about inconvenient timing to be without a computer!), while waiting from files to transfer from my backup drive over to the new one, I spent some much needed time cleaning my office. Sorting papers, going through business cards, and separating items into piles to be recycled, shredded, donated, or thrown away made me think about what the home office of the future might look like.
I’d love to streamline my life by having a paperless office and feel that I’m taking little steps to get there. As a fan of the cloud, tools like Office 365, SkyDrive, OneNote, and Google Docs help me work between PC, Mac, tablet, and smartphone in my home or on the go while Master Lock Vault serves as a secure place for me to store passwords to my various accounts. Being able to sign documents with apps like DocuSign and Sign Easy eliminates the need to print them out and waste paper.
The ability to work anywhere and at any time is certainly changing the home office of the future to literally break down walls that once kept us in one place. Mobile printing allows us to access documents and send them to a mobile printer for pick up later. What kinds of things can you do with mobile printing? Print out DIY gifts that will be ready to wrap when you get home, send vacation photos to your printer so they’re ready for immediate framing, or search for pretty things on Pinterest, pin them, and print them later.
What about business cards? The giant stack that I threw in the recycle bin over the weekend made me resolve to find a new way to share contact information. When I first started blogging, Poken characters came out as a way to tap hands (or high five) to share information but sadly they never took off among the masses. Since then there have been other apps and maybe the Bump app is worth a try to help eliminate paper business cards from my home office but I feel like there might always be a need for the traditional business card.
The office of the future will be streamlined with integrated products that work across all avenues of our lives from personal to professional and beyond. Certainly I’m starting this week out with an incredibly clean office and can only wonder how long until more paper creeps into my live, threatening to take over my desk as I work to live a paperless existence.
This post was sponsored by iiNet who aims to have you connect better. All opinions are my own but visit iiNet to find out more.
