In the past my offices have always been a mess – papers everywhere. My home was the same and I was sick of wasting time shuffling paper looking for that lost piece of information. A few years ago, I decided that was not going to happen in my new job. I didn’t have any money, having been out of work for quite some time, but I decided to call a professional organizer who recommended I try Paper Tiger.
To cut a long story short, people started commenting on how tidy and organized my office was – something I had never heard before. When someone asked for something, even something obscure, it would be in their hands in seconds: they were just blown away. And it took me only the equivalent of a day or so, spread over a week to set up, checking and re-filing all the paper I inherited, plus the papers I was creating and receiving every day.
I use Paper Tiger to organize me at home too. For once in my life I know where my tax return is, where my vehicle documentation is. I’m now a part-time university instructor (I’m the part-time bit – not the university), a communications coach and a career coach. I need to keep these roles separate, yet I have only one place to keep all these papers and materials, plus personal stuff. Paper Tiger means I can do this perfectly – everything is organized, separated yet integrated, and takes so little time to keep it that way.
I’m a Mac fan and a continuing frustration over the years has been the lack of a Mac version – I had to keep an old clunky desktop pc just to run PT. I also hated having to work fixed at one spot to use the program. I tried using LogMeIn for remote access on my Mac laptop – better, but it just wasn’t ideal. The pc finally gave up and took everything with it. I was lost – I was even tempted to try a bit of reverse engineering to try to create a Mac version for myself.
The Paper Tiger support staff helped me get going again on a laptop a friend donated – they were very patient and helpful. Then during the recovery process, I just happened to enquire about a Mac version. The wonderful support lady, Janet Baker, mentioned there is now a web-based version. I knew how much I missed PT and how much I wanted to run it on my Mac, so I jumped at the chance. Once I knew I had the database back, I signed up. Didn’t need to check it out – I knew already what PT had done for me and I knew I was lost without it. Plus I’m now liberated from my crappy pc. I’m a very happy man – I have my Mac and my PT.
I’ll always be grateful to my organizer friend, to PT in general and Janet in particular – thanks. I recommend it to everyone.
David Woodward
Tags: document management software, get organized, The Paper Tiger 'Finding' Filing System
