Back to School
Time to declutter – the right tech can help
Steve Chad, Customer Engagement Manager at PFU (EMEA), discusses the psychology behind why people hold onto paper and how document scanning can make a difference.
T
he start of the new school year seems like the perfect time to give homes a clear-
out and chuck last year’s homework sheets, exercise books and random paper documents to make room for this year’s. It is more than a chance to tidy up; a clean, clutter-free space can enhance focus and productivity, and makes the transition to a new academic year smoother for parents and school children. And it is not just paper clutter from
kids’ school stuff. Look around you. Whether you’re sat at your office desk or working from your home office or even at the kitchen table, you’re likely to see plenty of paper around the place. In fact, according to new research by ScanSnap – carried out to understand people’s relationship with paper – us Brits are the worst hoarders in Europe. Te average UK household contains 5,681 A4 sheets of paper. In total, that’s over 160 billion sheets across the whole of the UK – enough to reach the height of London’s Shard tower 49 thousand times if stacked. But why should this concern us? Te answer is revealed in the survey response which found that a majority (68%) of respondents
36 | September/October 2024
admit to feeling stressed by the paper clutter in their homes or workspaces, yet most (76%) admit they just can’t bring themselves to part with their paper because of a ‘I may need this someday’ feeling. We live in a digital age, when it
is entirely possible – and as simple as pressing a button – to turn those documents into a digital format for safekeeping forever. So, it seems pertinent to ask the question: why do people hold on to paper documents despite the simplicity and practicality
of digital alternatives? Understanding why is important, because we can see from the survey results that paper hoarding can impact productivity and even cause anxiety and stress. Te research showed that there are several psychological drivers, which contribute to our attachment to paper:
Perception Te research revealed that the vast majority of people (83%) believe that it is important to keep paper documents. Not surprisingly, the most significant driver of this is the requirement to keep paper
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