As a university student with a busy school schedule, I’m always looking for ways to save time. Studying and doing homework often takes up a lot of time during my day, leaving me with little time to do things that I actually want to do. I’m really big on writing out my notes by hand because I genuinely believe that it helps me retain information better. However, this can be very time-consuming. It can also be difficult to organize and store my papers, which is why a lot of times I lose or misplace them. I had heard quite a few people rave about the iPad and the Apple pencil as their primary tools for notetaking and studying. So, I decided to try it out this year and I can safely say that it’s absolutely changed my life and I’ll never go back to paper notes again.
To take notes, I use the app called GoodNotes, although I know there are many other apps that individuals use and approve of, such as Notability, Evernote and Apple Notes. I write my notes directly on the GoodNotes app. They have many paper options like unlined, lined, graph, dotted, Cornell style, legal and more. The papers also come in different colours like white, tan and black. One of my favourite parts of the app is the abundance of writing tools it has to offer. There are options such as ballpoint, fountain and brush pens, as well as a highlighter. I can customize the thickness of each writing tool and its colours. There’s also a ruler on the app so I can draw lines perfectly straight. These features are very convenient because I don’t need to carry a bunch of stationery items to school every day. They’re all on GoodNotes, ready to be used. One of the main differences between taking notes on an iPad versus on paper is how easy it is to delete mistakes or to change up the format of my writing. I take a lot of math classes and it often takes me multiple tries to get a calculation correct, meaning I’m constantly erasing and restarting problems. My iPad however allows me to do this with ease, I either press the undo button or use the eraser option. When I erase something on paper, I’m not able to fully erase my work (there’s always some residue) or the texture of the paper gets ruined. So, I often end up restarting on a fresh piece of paper. This can be very frustrating, not to mention wasteful. With my iPad, I don’t have this issue.
The majority of my professors use PowerPoint slides to teach during class. I upload a PDF version of these slideshows to the app and follow along with what the professor is teaching during class. I’ll highlight keywords on the PowerPoint and add little notes on the slides. This helps a lot as it usually takes me quite a while to write out notes. Rather than focusing on what the professor is saying, I’m usually trying to frantically get down all the information on my page. Now, I just highlight the most important content and words on the slideshow. Not to mention, highlighting with the Apple pencil is so easy! I’ll upload pages of my e-text to the app as well. I can read, highlight and write notes on the pages of the books with ease. Also, e-texts are usually cheaper than physical textbooks, so I purchase the online version of all my textbooks and upload them to the app. This also saves a lot of space as textbooks can be very heavy and difficult to fit into my backpack and uploading content on my iPad is much more convenient!
Finally, I use my iPad to plan out my entire schedule. I either upload templates of planners I’ve found online to GoodNotes or I’ll create my own weekly calendar by using the tools on the app. There’s a dotted paper option on the app, so I can even use the iPad as a bullet journal! This online agenda allows me to reschedule things with very minimal effort. I simply use the eraser tool to get rid of events or the lasso tool to move it to another date. Additionally, I can colour code all my classes and tasks as there are a profuse number of colour options. This organizational tool allows me to stay on top of all my schoolwork so that I never miss an assignment, quiz or exam.
Overall, I’d say that the iPad and Apple pencil are great investments. They’ve drastically improved my life, as I’m able to complete tasks in a fraction of the time that it took me before and my organization and productivity skills have gotten a lot better. If you’ve been thinking about making the switch to digital note-taking, I highly recommend it!