Using an iPad or other tablet device in place of a paper planner, bullet journal, or other tangible notebook has been a trend for quite some time now. Needless to say, digital planners offer more flexibility than conventional planners. However, how will you find the ideal digital planner for you?
To understand this better, let’s look into the types of digital planners and how to pick the ideal one. Towards the end, this blog post also discusses how to use a digital planner in brief. But first, let’s begin with the basics!
What is a Digital Planner?
In terms of appearance, digital planners are specifically designed to either look like contemporary applications/websites or like real planners on screen. Some even combine the two for a modern, mixed-media, aka a hybrid appearance.
Simply put, digital daily planners are PDF files with hyperlinks that you annotate using an app on your tablet. One crucial component of digital planners is hyperlinks. They help you in navigating through your planner besides making it simple for you to jump between different file sections.
Types of Digital Daily Planners: Portrait vs. Landscape
Digital planners come in a wide variety. However, here are two major types of planners: landscape and portrait orientations.
With a portrait planner, your tablet’s screen has a single planning page. This makes you write on your tablet just like you would on a notepad.
On the other hand, landscape planners display two planning pages and resemble an opened planner spread on a screen. This makes you use your tablet in landscape mode, usually zooming in on the page you’re working on.
Categories of Digital Planners
Although there are different types of digital daily planners, they essentially fall into two major categories.
All-in-One Planners
This is for people who wish to have all of their planning needs met in one location. These planners list your weekly, monthly, and daily planning pages in addition to those for finances, productivity, meals, fitness, tracking habits, etc. Simply put, all-in-one digital planners might have hundreds of pages, yet they allow you to have a single digital planner for all of your needs.
Categorized Digital Planners
With this, you can organize and arrange particular areas of your life. For example, digital budget planners will come with every template you could possibly require for financial organization. Similarly, digital fitness planners will help you track your workout and health, and digital calendar planners will help you schedule your tasks and routine.
However, one benefit of categorized digital planners is that they offer more comprehensive tracking features. This implies that compared to an all-in-one, you’ll frequently get more planning templates and spreads that let you truly go into that specific area.
How to Pick the Ideal Digital Planner for You?
It’s crucial to select the ideal planner for your needs. In the end, it doesn’t hurt to experiment with a few different planners to determine which one works best for you. Hence, in order to choose the ideal digital planner, ensure asking the following questions to yourself.
- What are my current planning habits? Do I schedule time to plan weekly or daily? What would I like to have in my planner?
- Which aspect of my life needs to be organized?
- What are the goals in this area of my life?
- What kind of planning templates would I need to achieve my goals? (For example, a debt tracker to pay the debt, a meal planner to eat healthier, etc.)
- Do I want every template in one location? Or should I categorize it to plan more deeply?
Giving these questions careful thought and considering what you need in your digital planner will help you with what you are searching for.
How to Use a Digital Planner?
Using a digital planner is extremely easy. Follow the steps below to start with a smooth digital planning!
- Pick an ideal digital planner software or application.
- Download/Install it on your device (iPad or Android tablet).
- Analyze and study the features and interface of the planner.
- Start with adding tasks, schedules, and goals to the planner.
- Apply the different widgets and features available. Use the notification, reminder, and syncing facility.
- Customize it as per your style. Use different layouts, fonts, and colors to personalize it.
- Update and review the planner regularly to keep track of your goals and plans.
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Conclusion
Digital planning may appear to be a little intimidating at first. However, making use of the latest gadgets and tools is always fun. Whichever digital planner you decide on ultimately depends on your own preferences. The key is to experiment with all the editing tools, try out new planner widgets, and play around with different font styles and color schemes. In the end, it’s all about increasing our productivity in a smart way!
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