Go Paperless and Communication-Free Now (You’ll Have to Anyway While Abroad)

I’ve been pimping Tim Ferriss’ The 4 Hour Workweek pretty hard over the past few weeks. Maybe too hard. But because his writing revolves around simplifying your life, he also presents a great deal of useful tips and advice for travelers.

One of his recent posts (okay, it’s about six weeks old) entitled How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another Phone Call … deals with simplifying all of your communication and transactional overhead (how’s that for coining a phrase?). Forget writing checks; lose the voicemail; stop answering the phone; etc. They’re all things you almost have to live without while traveling anyway. And if you can live without them abroad, you can certainly live without them at home.

So why not start now? Trust me: it’s a lot easier than you might think. It’s good for your stress level, good for preserving your only nonrenewable resource (i.e. time), and good for the environment. It’s a win-win … -win.