Genius Scan App

Use the Genius Scan app to scan from anywhere and share the files as images or PDFs to the cloud or others.

My family tells me that I am extremely organized when it comes to my planning journal, but far less organized and unstructured (aka messy) when it comes to the physical world. It is true, I have to admit. I have a tendency to allow papers and projects to pile up on my desk. When my desk gets too cluttered, I will expand my collection to the drawers. However, recently, I have really made an effort to digitize as much as possible and minimize the need for physical organization of files and paperwork.

Genius Scan

One of the tools that I use to help with in the process of digitizing information is an app on my iPhone called Genius Scan. I have used Genius Scan for years as a way to scan on the go. The quality of smart phone cameras is excellent, and you can obtain high quality scans of documents quite easily.

Genius Scan, developed by The Grizzly Labs, promises to be "a scanner in your pocket," and it is actually that convenient. Some of the examples provided by the developers for the use of Genius Scan include:

• Equipping employees for scanning from remote locations for contracts, training handouts, and brainstorming documents
• Providing a convenient way to scan receipts from travel
• Decluttering work areas (as I discussed above) by digitizing paperwork

The export screen for PDF

How to use the app

To use Genius Scan, simply take a photo of a document or select an existing photo. The app will prompt you for the boundaries of the document. The document will corrected with options for a black-and-white scan or a color scan. Once scanning is complete you can share the document with others via e-mail or text or upload the document to a cloud storage solution like Google Drive or DropBox.

How I use Genius Scan

Usually, I save documents to folders on DropBox. I have a folder for maintenance so I no longer have to save the multi-page paper receipts from the car dealer and the exterminator. I also have a document saved within the Genius Scan app to capture any business cards given to me. When my daughter's high school grades arrived in the mail today, I scanned the paper and tossed it.

At the end of each year, I review my journal and use Genius Scan to capture any notes from both the weekly pages and the notes section if I believe I will want to reference the information later.

While many apps exist for scanning documents, I encourage you to check out Genius Scan. The full version of the app is $6.99 but it is worth it.