Every time I tell people that I have a paperless law office, the first response is almost always something like this “Oh, I can’t read onscreen, I have to print things out to read them properly.” Usually I just roll my eyes. People don’t print out CNN.com, their e-mail, or their favorite blog. Everyone who uses a computer reads volumes of text a day without printing it out.
I think people still think about their old CRT (that’s cathode-ray tube) monitor. You know, the big, unwieldy, television-like thing taking up the entire desk. Yes, those are hard to read from. And they hurt your eyes. And if you still have one of those, I would be surprised to find you reading this blog.
Plus, if you print everything out, you waste a ton of time, to say nothing of paper. I used to think I needed to edit a hard copy. What I found was I would get two pages in and then go back to my computer to edit from there. And really, editing on paper means editing twice. What a waste!
So force yourself to read onscreen for a while and see how it goes. If you find yourself squinting, check your prescription or get a bigger monitor. Or just zoom in a bit more.
Sam Glover is a business and consumer rights lawyer and the creator of Lawyerist.
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