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Category:
Business/Investing
Publisher: Shannon L. Buck
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 44
Copyright: March 3, 2016
ISBN-13: 9781329946002
Price: $7.99 (eBook)
Green Your Freelance Business is a helpful book for the freelancer or anyone with an office. Discover many ways to green your business activities as well as your office.
If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, or if you're looking for more greening tips, this is the eBook for you.
Green Your Freelance Business has been edited, updatedwith new information, and provides action steps to help you along your greening journey.
A bonus section at the back of the book offers three creative projects for freelancers. Have fun!
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Papers, Mailers and More
Paper and plastic products abound in the freelance home office. There's such wastefulness happening in people’s offices, that it's sometimes hard to weed through it all.
It's time to find ways to lessen our impact on the environment by cutting back on the paper and plastic products we use, but how can we do this without losing the quality of our work?
Do we have to live without these products all together? Are there ways to work within set limits that we can challenge ourselves to meet? Using a minimal number of physical materials?
Paper Products
There’s a whole world of paper products out there that can be found in any freelancer’s office. Take stock of what's in yours. Is every paper product necessary? Can you live without some things?
Post-Its:
I've always had a tendency to use mega amounts of Post-Its for different things. While I'll most likely always use some amount of the marvelous things, I've found ways to lessen the amount of Post-Its that I purchase, and therefore waste.
1. I found a Stickies program for the computer that comes in handy for information I need to keep for a period of time. Once I put each note into practice, I simply delete the Stickie. Here are a couple of programs that may be helpful to you: Stickies at http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/ and Sticky-Note at http://www.sticky-notes.net/
2. I make my own notepads by cutting used sheets of paper into fourths and stapling them together. The blank side is perfectly usable.
I still use Post-Its to mark off sections of notebooks for my lessons, but not for much else unless I need to post a note to myself from my desks hutch so that I don't forget something urgent.
Update 2016:
While this can be done, I no longer bother with stapling the sheets of paper together, therefore I'm wasting less staples.
I do use Post-It flags and tabs for different projects, but these are long-term and most of the flags and tabs may not be thrown out in my lifetime. I don't go overboard on their use, but they do help with physical organization. These flags and tabs are smaller than regular Post-Its, so will lead to less waste later on.
Notebooks:
I do use a good number of notebooks. Big and small. 1-subject, 3-subject and 5 subject. I often use only a small portion of paper in them. I recently went through them all, tearing out what was no longer needed, and have set them up as my course notebooks. The Post-Its are being used to mark the separate courses for easier organization. This is working out well for me, and I'll save these notebooks because they have course notes. This will be less wasteful in the long run, than throwing out partially used notebooks.
Yellow Legal Pads:
I just can’t seem to get away from these, no matter how much I try. Why? Because I love using them to do my writings on. I write my articles and short stories out on these pads, but I also use them for note-taking. I recently cleaned these out as well, getting rid of used notes and first drafts that have already been typed. There was still plenty of unused paper left in each pad, so I set them on a shelf in my desk hutch, for later use, instead of throwing them out.
I'm making the effort to not write out entire blog posts, articles and non fiction eBooks, eCourses and special reports on them any more; only taking notes to use while typing these up. This will be less wasteful as well.
I only use one side of the paper in these pads so, when I'm ready to discard a piece, I can cut it into quarters and make note pads from them, thus lessening paper purchases even more.
Update 2016:
Rather than making notepads and wasting staples, placing the scraps of paper into a basket or drawer for later use is easy to do.
I love journals and Post-It tabs, and use them a lot. I won't lie, friends and family know they can't go wrong by giving me a journal as a gift for any occasion, and I'm always seeking deals on the tabs.
These are used for long-term projects; ones to keep on hand for years, not just for simple throw-away things: Journaling, blessings trackers, budgeting, record-keeping, success trackers, long-term blogs and other writing projects. These are used when I want to always keep the information.
I'm still reusing those old notebooks and yellow legal pads from years ago, lessening the amount of stuff I buy and throw out each year. And I still reuse scraps of paper from what little mail I get and the backs of old notes and outlines.
I work at an inn where a notepad is left on each night table every night. The cardboard backs are taken off each notepad before being placed in a room. I take those notepad backs home and use them as scrap paper. I figure I'm doing a little bit of good by making sure each is used for something before being thrown out.
There are two sites I now use to help me in my efforts to use less paper. One is Todoist.com, which houses my to-do lists. The other is Evernote.com. This one helps me to plan projects. Both are worth the minimal effort to set up, and will help you stay organized in a less wasteful way than with hundreds, or thousands, of papers each year.
Used Paper, Envelopes and Such:
I also reuse envelopes and backs of unnecessary receipts and shopping lists, as well as the cardboard pieces from legal pads and notebooks. This is good practice, and will lessen paper purchases further.
Once both sides of any piece of paper has been used, and is ready to be discarded, I shred the paper, using the strips when sending packages instead of using styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap. I'd rather have the paper end up in a landfill somewhere down the road, than the other materials.
Cardboard from different sources can also be reused. For instance, I make notes on the cardboard from pads of paper, from notebooks, and even from shirt package inserts.
Projects children did on poster board when they were young, as well as posters our family no longer need, are also useful.
1. Use the backs for projects you need to map out, or
2. Cut into scrap paper.
Update 2016:
I now use the backs of poster board and posters when creating vision/motivational boards for my writing projects.
When file folders have seen better days, you can make notepads from them as well. Use old, open folders as a mind-mapping tool. One side for project A, the other for project B.
And I love reusing index dividers for new projects as well; very useful if you organize with binders. And the backs of index cards make great shopping lists. The unused backs of index cards are great for business shopping or to-do lists, and can be used to list simple notes for action steps you want to add to a current manuscript.
There are many ways a freelance business owner can lessen her impact on the environment, simply by reducing paper use and reusing what you must use.
ACTION STEPS:
1. Locate a place that will accept shredded paper for shipping or other purposes, in case you end up with too much to reasonably use yourself.
2. Set a box out of the way, to hold paper, thin cardboard, and used envelopes that have at least one side that is not written on.
3. Look for sources for recycled paper products?
UPDATE 2016:
1. Regulate how you're using paper products. Can you cut back? How about using an App such as Todoist rather than writing out paper to-do lists? You could also use Evernote or another program for project planning.
2. Use both sides of a piece of poster board before throwing it out. For instance, use one side to create a visual motivational board for this year, and the other side to do the same for next year.
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