We wanna talk to you about the basics of digital planners, what they are, what they aren't, and why you might want to consider using one.
It is not a paper planner, although it has a lot of features of your traditional paper planner, it's obviously not that. It is also not a printable planner, so it's not a PDF that is designed for you to download and print out and make your own planner.
- A digital planner is also not an app that you download to use with your planner, and it's also not something that runs off of Google Calendar or an alternative to Google Calendar. - So you might be wondering what is a digital planner? So it is a planner that you use on a tablet with a pencil, and we're gonna review it in a second, what kind of tablet you need.
First of all I can write in it, just like anything that I would have on pencil and paper.
With my handwriting and pen, I can highlight, and erase.
I can also navigate easily to anywhere I would like in the planner, just like I could in a physical planner. I can navigate specifically to certain days very quickly, just like this. Here's a day that I've actually filled out, I can also easily move tasks around.
So let's say that I didn't get this done on this particular day, and so I want to move it to the next day so I can just grab it and move it over. So those are just a few of the things, you can also use stickers and insert pictures, the sky is really the limit.
But for me, it pretty much replaces my physical planner, but allows me to do so much more. I can have weekly view, daily view, monthly view, all in one, as many pages as I want, and it never gets any bigger, and I can more easily access what I want.
One other thing that is super important that I wanna show you that it does, which is an advantage over a paper planner is if I go here to my may monthly pack and all of these, you can get at the link below.
And I just wanna take this and say, make this section into something that I can copy it and paste. Then I simply tap, and I'm gonna convert that into regular text. So I can basically convert my handwriting into text, and then I'm free to Air Drop it, copy it and paste it, anything like that.
So that's just the basics of what a digital planner does, and I think you can see how much you can have at your finger tips, how easy it is to go to wherever you want and what all you can do with writing and really kind of still having that feel of a paper planner.
So let's go ahead and talk about, if you're interested in this, what do you need to actually use one of these? - So you will need a tablet and a tablet pencil of some sort. So if you already have one of the later generations of an iPad and an Apple Pencil, then you should be good to go.
And you will also have to run the digital planner off of a third party app, like GoodNotes. But if you don't have a tablet and you're looking for how to do this, most affordably, you can get the Samsung Galaxy Tablet.
And this will run your digital planner and you can get a pencil that will work with it. This tablet, when we bought it was around $250, I wanna say, is that right? - I think it even a little bit less, and we will link to it below.
And the pencil you purchase separately and it was about $30. So this option is the most affordable way that you can get started.
So I believe an iPad Pro is around a thousand dollars. In addition to that, I have this Apple brand keyboard and slash like cover on it. This is an additional purchase that you wouldn't have to have.
You also need to have the pencil with your iPad. And so this is kind of your most expensive deluxe option. - And your pencil is the latest generation pencil as well.
the main reason is getting a tablet was to use digital planners and do some basics like check email, send some photos and do some online browsing.
If you were using the off brand table pencil for artistic purposes, the pressure sensitivity is different, but if you're using it just to like do regular text under the digital planner, you're gonna be perfectly happy with the cheaper alternative.
- And the most important thing about this cheaper alternative is it still has what's called palm rejection. So I can take my pencil and I can write on my iPad while laying my hand on my iPad, and it won't think that this side of my hand is trying to write.
This cheaper alternative that we have for the Samsung tablet does not have palm rejection. So it means that if you're writing on the Samsung tablet, you have to keep your hand up and off of the tablet or else it's gonna think that this side of your hand is trying to write.
Palm rejection is a feature that I would be willing to pay more for, because really it does work just like you're writing on a piece of paper. It is amazing how much it really does feel like that and how I can write just like I could, and even better because of how I can zoom in.
So if I wanna write neatly, if I wanna squeeze more text on there, I can quickly zoom in and out. And I find myself wishing I could do that with my paper planner after using this. - So we already talked about how this pencil for the Samsung Galaxy Tab A doesn't have palm rejection, which I think is a really big drawback.
But another thing if you are in the market for a tablet is that the operating system on this tablet is a lot different than what you would find with an iPhone or an iPad. So if you are an iPhone user looking to use a tablet, you are probably gonna want to go with an iPad because it's gonna operate just like your phone.
There is definitely a learning curve whenever you switch over to an Android device, and where everything is located and how you load your apps onto it, and all of those things just doesn't work the same way on an Android tablet.
And I have used both of these,I use the iPad primarily, and I would honestly say that I think it is worth the splurge to spend a little bit more money to get an iPad. I think it's more reliable,I think it performs better, and being able to have that $30 pencil that has the palm rejection, I definitely think the iPad is the better choice here.
- But this Samsung, if you just really wanna use a digital planner, you can live with not having palm rejection. It's not the end of the world, but it is a little bit annoying and It's gonna feel less like paper, and you really want to get it, this will do the trick, but just about $150 more, will get you the iPad.
And like I said, the basic iPad is all you need. There's no need to get anything more than the basic. So once you have your tablet with pencil, the only other thing you're gonna need besides the digital planner itself is an app to run the digital planner.
There are several available, but I think the best one for an iPad is GoodNotes. It's about $8, you only have to buy it once though, and you can use all the digital planners and things that you want.
I've done a lot of research and most people conclude that it's the best and I've tested our own digital planners in it, and so I would highly recommend getting that one. I will also mention, as of the time of this recording, GoodNotes is not available for non-Apple devices, but there is a chance they are telling us that it's coming pretty soon.
So that's one thing to consider when you're watching this video. If you have a non-Apple, it's possible that GoodNotes is available by the time you watch this. - So if you are watching this and GoodNotes is still not available forAndroid, there is an alternative.
It is called Noteshelf, or sometimes NoteShelf 2. And it is about $10.
And it works similarly to GoodNotes, if you have the option to get GoodNotes, I would go ahead and getGoodNotes, it's a little cheaper, we have more experience with using it. But Noteshelf, you can load your digital planner and do the same things generally that you can do with GoodNotes.
- And one other thing I'd like to mention about apps in general is that you definitely, no matter what you need an app that does a couple things. It needs to let you write in your digital planner or else it's not gonna do you a lot of good.
And here's the second thing that I think a lot of people don't actually realize, you want your hyperlinks to work. So this is where I can click on a tab and go right there, or I can click on a day of the month and go right to that day.
If you just opened, you bought a digital planner, which is typically a PDF download, and you just opened it in the PDF reader that comes on your tablet, you may be able to write in it, but you're not gonna be able to use those hyperlinks.
You're not going to be able to navigate from one month to the next easily, and that's gonna make it, I think it would be really hard to replace my paper planner if I couldn't do that. So if you've tried digital planner in the past and you're like, "I don't get, what's so amazing about it.
" It's probably because you didn't know what it did and you may not have used the best app with all the features that'll let you take full advantage of it. - Yeah, because you do not want to be swiping through every page when it's July, and you're trying to make family vacation plans in November.
Having those hyperlinked tabs is really a game changer. - And for me, when I started using this digital planner, I honestly was doing it because we are creating some and I wanted to test it out before I made it for you all and make sure that it worked great and all of those kinds of things.
But I didn't think I was gonna replace my paper planner becauseI'm such a paper girl, but once I started using it, I just can't stop. And my favorite planner has just sat there because of how easy it is to take everything with me, have everything at my fingertips.
And I will tell you to be honest, it probably took about three days for it not to feel strange to write in my iPad, but now that I'm used to it, I just don't think I can go back. - And you can just have, like she said, everything in one place.
You can use notes pages and keep your grocery list and your meal plan, and it doesn't add bulk. It's the same device, the same size, the same weight, and you can have everything you need there.
You can use your grocery ordering apps all on the same device instead of needing to juggle everything, and it is so much easier I think, to take your planner with you everywhere. Which is what is gonna help you make your plans and stick to them if you actually have access to your planner anywhere that you are.
And I also wanna mention when it comes to accessing your planner anywhere, they have GoodNotes available for your smartphone and for your computer. While you can't write in it with your smartphone or your computer, you can still access everything that you've written, so you still have access to it at your fingertips wherever you are.
So that's one really cool feature. Now, if you are looking for a tutorial on how to use the digital planner in GoodNotes that's more in depth, I've got that coming up for you, or maybe already here, check the links below to go ahead and watch that.
And if you're looking for a digital planner, we also have links below to the digital planners that we have created and the ones that we use. So go ahead and let me know in the comments down below, I'm really curious, have you used a digital planner before, or are you interested in trying one out?