Here is a story about document automation.
First, the problem. Paperwork all over the place, desks, boxes, filing cabinets, and random piles. Some of it slightly organized, but mostly not. Some of it very important, down all the way to junk, and everything in between.
Idea, let's get all this organized. Sorted out. Filled in some manner that is retrievable, and categorized. Did I stop at this point and do a big picture estimate, No. Did I have a plan of action, No. I just bought more boxes, and file folders. Nothing got done. It was totally overwhelming.
New idea, just stop, and think about this. What is the end state I am trying to achieve. This turned out to be the most important thing I did. It took a while, but I figured out that the end state would be to have all this paperwork in a digital form on a computer. In some kind of searchable, and easily discoverable manner. So now I knew the beginning state, and the end state. On to how.
First attempt, I bought an expensive flatbed scanner, a big complicated, high quality thing. Ran some paperwork through it. Then these scans just sat in a folder on my desktop. Now I had two copies of crap, unorganized. So I threw away the paper. But I soon realized all I was doing was moving the the pile. In fact it was much harder to find anything on my computer, than when it was paper. Failure.
Second attempt, I know let's find a software solution. I spent months looking at all different kinds of databases, organizing systems, tagging and filling programs. There is a metric shit ton of these. I bought and tried a few on. Soon discovered it took 3 times as long to use, and much more cognitive resources, than I was willing to spend. Also lock-in to a proprietary system. Again failure.
About this time I was writing a lot more, and doing more research for this writing, and I had stumbled across this idea. Keep it simple, stupid. Oh I tried a bunch of those writing systems. All had advantages, and drawbacks. But the fastest, most compatible writing system, was just flat text files. They were quickly searchable, universal, small, and worked everywhere.
Third attempt, take this flat file system, and apply it to the mountain of paperwork. So now a new problem, instead of images of paperwork, I needed to convert these scans to text. Not easy for mass amounts of paper. Found and used a bunch of OCR programs. Settled on one, so a two step process, scan and OCR. This worked ok. Finley some progress.
But I still had a major problem, this took time. I was just barely keeping up with the incoming flow of paper, not making a dent in the piles in filling cabinets. I needed to automate this. By this time I had a highly developed system of flat text files, and a couple of ways of searching them and tagging them. Storage and organizing them was not a problem, since I could search a huge number of them in many different folders, very fast and efficiently.
So I gave away the big scanner. Bought a small fast simple scanner that had OCR built in. Now I could see the end state well. I worked at the big filling cabinet intermittently, just grabbing a handful of paper, and feeding the new scanner. I did not need to tag, or categorize anything, as the search was where all that happened. No up front effort.
Now this is what I do. When paper enters my house, I divide it immediately into two categories,
1. To Shred.
2. To Scan.
I often scan before I read it.
But the most important thing is to do it immediately.
So now I have about 2 gigabytes of flat, OCR'ed text files. Backed up.
I only need to see them, or care about them, when I need to.
Search does all the work.
Oh yes the filling cabinet is now empty of paper, and is out in the shed as a tool bin.
First, the problem. Paperwork all over the place, desks, boxes, filing cabinets, and random piles. Some of it slightly organized, but mostly not. Some of it very important, down all the way to junk, and everything in between.
Idea, let's get all this organized. Sorted out. Filled in some manner that is retrievable, and categorized. Did I stop at this point and do a big picture estimate, No. Did I have a plan of action, No. I just bought more boxes, and file folders. Nothing got done. It was totally overwhelming.
New idea, just stop, and think about this. What is the end state I am trying to achieve. This turned out to be the most important thing I did. It took a while, but I figured out that the end state would be to have all this paperwork in a digital form on a computer. In some kind of searchable, and easily discoverable manner. So now I knew the beginning state, and the end state. On to how.
First attempt, I bought an expensive flatbed scanner, a big complicated, high quality thing. Ran some paperwork through it. Then these scans just sat in a folder on my desktop. Now I had two copies of crap, unorganized. So I threw away the paper. But I soon realized all I was doing was moving the the pile. In fact it was much harder to find anything on my computer, than when it was paper. Failure.
Second attempt, I know let's find a software solution. I spent months looking at all different kinds of databases, organizing systems, tagging and filling programs. There is a metric shit ton of these. I bought and tried a few on. Soon discovered it took 3 times as long to use, and much more cognitive resources, than I was willing to spend. Also lock-in to a proprietary system. Again failure.
About this time I was writing a lot more, and doing more research for this writing, and I had stumbled across this idea. Keep it simple, stupid. Oh I tried a bunch of those writing systems. All had advantages, and drawbacks. But the fastest, most compatible writing system, was just flat text files. They were quickly searchable, universal, small, and worked everywhere.
Third attempt, take this flat file system, and apply it to the mountain of paperwork. So now a new problem, instead of images of paperwork, I needed to convert these scans to text. Not easy for mass amounts of paper. Found and used a bunch of OCR programs. Settled on one, so a two step process, scan and OCR. This worked ok. Finley some progress.
But I still had a major problem, this took time. I was just barely keeping up with the incoming flow of paper, not making a dent in the piles in filling cabinets. I needed to automate this. By this time I had a highly developed system of flat text files, and a couple of ways of searching them and tagging them. Storage and organizing them was not a problem, since I could search a huge number of them in many different folders, very fast and efficiently.
So I gave away the big scanner. Bought a small fast simple scanner that had OCR built in. Now I could see the end state well. I worked at the big filling cabinet intermittently, just grabbing a handful of paper, and feeding the new scanner. I did not need to tag, or categorize anything, as the search was where all that happened. No up front effort.
Now this is what I do. When paper enters my house, I divide it immediately into two categories,
1. To Shred.
2. To Scan.
I often scan before I read it.
But the most important thing is to do it immediately.
So now I have about 2 gigabytes of flat, OCR'ed text files. Backed up.
I only need to see them, or care about them, when I need to.
Search does all the work.
Oh yes the filling cabinet is now empty of paper, and is out in the shed as a tool bin.