Organize Your Papers with a Commercial Grade Scanner

This article outlines how I digitize and organize my paper files. I use the ScanSnap ix500 scanner to quickly digitize paper files and notes. Filenames are automatically prefixed with the appropriate date and the files are placed into a hierarchy of folders based on a high level topic that paper is associated with. This data is synced with the cloud. Now those notes from a previous meeting or my homework from last month are on my phone or just one sign-in portal away.

Background

So why did I get start this? Well … My dog ate my home work. Not really, but almost.

My sophomore year of college I attended a course where they expected us to hand in paper assignments into a mail box. I turned in my assignment but a few weeks later I got an email from the T.A. that he didn’t find it. I was in a tough spot. I had some notes that I could use to try to recreate the homework, but it was largely irreplaceable. They eventually found my homework, it had been pushed out of the tray by other assignments.

I attended college 2015 - 2019. The transition to all digital wasn’t totally complete. I’m not sure if this is relevant anymore especially as COVID-19 has likely accelerated the transition to paper-less, but adding the type of scanner you might find in a legal office helped me get organized. I still use it today.

Scanner

My solution, I bought a ScanSnap ix500, a duplex desktop auto feed scanner. It has two scan heads. When you put a stack of papers into the hopper it feed the pages one at a time, and in one quick motion it scans both sides of the paper.

ScanSnap has two revisions of the ix500 (Affiliate links below):

• ScanSnap ix1400, cheaper but no wifi no touch screen
• ScanSnap ix1600, more expensive and has all features (this one might be able to scan directly to the cloud using your wifi)

According to the spec sheet both scanners are capable of 40 pages per minute (80 sides). This speed makes scanning papers a breeze.

Storage

I used OneDrive to sync my files with the cloud and my phone.

Organization

I use a nested folder and file naming system to keep these scans organized. I spend more time looking things up rather than saving files, so whenever I save a file I think, “Where would I look for this?” and I try to put it there.

This turned into the following file structure:

Classes/
  Math/
    syllabus.pdf
    notes/
    homework/
    quiz/
    midterm/
    final/
  ...
  OldClasses/
    Fall2019/
    Spring2020/
    ...
Projects/
  Coding/
  Gaming/
  Lifting/
  ...
Other/
  ...

The high level catagories aligned with the highlevel areas where I spent my time, school and projects, inside of each, every class or project got its own folder, and under those notes or project specific grouping would happen.

I configured the scanner to always prefix the filename with YYYY_MM_DD_ this helps me find files if I know ballpark what month it was from. This was especially useful for quickly jumping to a receipt for an unexpected bill.

Conclusion

The scanner was a real treat.