What a fun review from Simplified Pantry! We received three eBooks, but I’m going to tell you about the one I’m the most excited about-Paperless Home Organization by Mystie Winckler. This book has been a game changer for me. You see, my darling techie husband has been after me to go digital. Get with the times he says. But I LOVE paper I say. One look around here will show my overflowing love for paper. Sigh.
I’ll be honest. I truly wrestled with myself on this one. I loved the idea Mystie presented, but give up my beautiful paper calendar? Let go of my fun notebooks with lists and notes and whatnots? Set aside my colorful pens? Again I looked around at my paper piles and realized change was needed. Now. Before we completely drowned.
Paperless Home Organization is only 75 pages, but it outlines a wonderful system for slimming down the papers in our lives. She uses three (free) digital tools: Gmail/Google Calendar, Remember the Milk, and Evernote. All three can be used together and on different platforms such as your computer, iPhone, and iPad. And yes, it works for Android, too. They all sync between platforms, and her system intertwines the three for a full bodied digital home management system based on GTD (Getting Things Done by David Allen) principles.
You can track appointments, to do’s, shopping lists, book lists, favorite websites, library books checked out, homeschool planning…and so much more. All without adding paper. Already have a ton, like someone we both know (ahem), scan it in and toss that bad boy! No more hunting for that piece of paper you wrote important information on. It is so much easier to search with a few keyboard strokes and mouse clicks than to weed through various piles, stacks, dare I say, containers of papers for that one little scrap. Pardon me, but my paper issues are showing! Phew.
The book leads you through step by step how to set up each tool, and gives you ideas on how to use them. It’s not difficult at all, and once you play around with it a bit, you’ll fall in love with the possibilities. I say possibilities because it might take you a while to actually input everything into the system. This is okay. You can get it set up, and get started in a short amount of time. The rest of your paper stacks can slowly be added into the system as time and need permit.
I love this system! I won’t be completely paperless as I love to journal and brainstorm on paper, but I’m converting my home management system to digital one day/one aspect at a time. I’m already falling in love with it, and my husband is happy to see me use my iPad as a valuable tool, and not just a fun pastime.
While going through Mystie’s book, I also discovered her blog-home to her 31 Days to GTD for Homemakers. I’m slowly working my way through this series, and find it helpful as I transition from paperfull to paperless.
Quick note: not all the posts are linked on the main post, but if you click on the next post link in each post, you’ll get to all of them. And check out more of her blog while you’re there. I love it!
Paperless Home Organization is available in both PDF and Kindle formats for $3.99. Seriously, this price is already terrific, but Mystie is also giving you, dear readers, a TOS Review Crew exclusive discount! Enter the code, TOS2013, and receive 30% off any or all of Mystie’s eBooks from now until June 3rd. Snag this deal!
This review is already long, so check out the other reviews covering these other two books. We tried some of the recipes from the GFDF one, and enjoyed them.
