Why I Ditched the Paper: Digital Planning on an iPad

What Did I Decide On:

Why it is Awesome: 

There are no limitations on options. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual planners. Wide range of notebook and paper templates. Intelligent search with results form both text and handwriting. Convert handwriting to text functions. Add stickers, photos, screenshots, and internal and external hyperlinking.

Why You Might Think Twice: 

I do miss the feel of pen on paper, even with the addition of a paper feel screen protector. It is also a little more difficult to cross reference, I have always ben big on notes on notes, but that is really only until you realise all the tricky IT shortcuts you can use. 

The Story Behind the Decision:

I have always loved notebooks and diaries and planners. It does not shame me to say that I have been known at MULTIPLE places of work for my stationery. It took years of using different planners and notebooks, but I did finally find the perfect planner, a quarterly subscription from The Control Freak, which is clearly very aptly named. I thought this was it. Of course, life throws curveballs at you all the time.

I found myself without an office job.

My amazing paper planner was sitting unused. It was sacrilege. I still needed to keep track of some things, general life admin, but not the way I was when I had multiple competing priorities and countless meetings each week. When it came time to renew, it hurt, but I cancelled my subscription. 

Now What?

I had recently bought my first iPad (that's another post) and decided to get a better note taking app than the standard one provided. Que montage of trawling the internet. Goodnotes was what I found. It is great in that you can have absolutely EVERYTHING. Daily planner what you need? Sure, you have that. Prefer a weekly or monthly planner? Got that too. Maybe you want a habit tracker, or just countless notebooks? No worries. I am now able to take my 700 page planner plus all my university study notebooks everywhere with me. I can download and open PDF's directly into a notebook, and then annotate, or screenshot and cut and paste. 
Some incredibly boring Sociology notes

Exert from my digital planner

Goodnotes has completely changed how I think about note taking, and I am still able to spend time on the Bullet Journaling and washi tape placing that I fell in love with using paper. Sometimes I miss it, but really, not that much. When I get a new office job, I am not even sure if I will go back to my amazing Control Freak, but that is a bridge I will cross when I come to it. 

For more info, or just a sticky beak, have a look a the Goodnotes Blog.

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