How I use my iPad for productivity

I remember saving up my money for my first Apple product — the iPod nano — when I was in elementary school. And I similarly save/splurge to this day.

But in the last few years, I’ve begun to use one of my favorite Apple products, my iPad, as a tool, and not just a toy.

It’s quickly become one of my most valuable productivity buddies.

So much so that I now have two — the Air and the mini — so that I can have one on me wherever I go.

Here’s how I like to use them to boost productivity:

🗓 As a digital planner

I go back and forth between digital and physical planning, but in times when flexibility is a priority, I love being able to use my iPad as a planner so I can shift things around as needed and access my planner on any device.

Planning on an iPad is truly top tier because you get the best of both worlds — the connectivity of digital and the ability to physically write things out.

I like to change up which digital planner I use every once in a while. I got really into making my own planners last year — my personal favorite was my Productive as F*** one — but this year I’m testing out the yearly undated Flourish Planner and I’m digging it so far.

📓 For notetaking

This is really what initially kicked off my love of the iPad as a productivity tool in college. I created different Goodnotes notebooks for all of my classes and was able to create editable, handwritten notes that were also searchable.

I’m not in school anymore, but I still get to squeeze a lot of value out of the iPad’s notetaking capabilities. When I’m jotting down notes in meetings, brainstorming ideas, setting goals, or organizing my thoughts for a piece of content, I’ll house them all in their respective notebooks.

The searchability really is the best asset here. If I ever need to reference notes from a client call 2 months ago, all I need to do is search up a keyphrase and it will pinpoint it from my handwritten notes.

🖥 As a second monitor

I’m not typically a huge second monitor person, but there are times when you need one. And especially if I’m on the go at a coffee shop or WeWork, I’d be SOL without my iPad.

Sidecar is one of the smartest functionalities of iPad in my opinion. You basically can just extend your screen onto the iPad and use it just like you would with a monitor.

Even when it’s not in sidecar mode, I like to pull up notes or outlines on Google docs or notion on my iPad when I’m writing so I don’t have to toggle back and forth between tabs.