How I use my iPad for Productivity

I use my iPad for a lot of different things — it’s my favourite productivity tool! So I thought I would compile a list of all the productive ways that I use my iPad. I will say, when it come to my iPad, productivity and creativity do have a bit of an overlap because I use my iPad to do all of my creative work. But, for this post I am going to mainly focus on my favourite ways to use my iPad productively. I’m also going to share my favourite iPad apps for productivity! I mean, it does go hand-in-hand with this post… Anyway, it you are someone who recently got an iPad, has an iPad and doesn’t know what to do with it or is planning on getting an iPad — then you’ve come to the right place!

Digital Note Taking

I originally got my iPad when I went into my first year of university to use it for digital note taking. I used the app GoodNotes to take notes on my iPad all throughout post secondary. Now that I am done school, I still take notes on my iPad just not in the same capacity. Now I use it to make notes at work or when I am loaning a new creative project.

Digital Planning

I also use my iPad and the app GoodNotes to plan on my iPad. In the past I have designed a full-on planner but more recently I have just been designing templates when I need them. Right now I am primarily just using a to do list template for all of my daily planning and I have a simple weekly planner template.

Content Planning

I also primarily use my iPad for content planning (for YouTube, TikTok and my blog). The app that I use is Notion. I primarily use my iPad for this but I do sometimes pull up Notion on my laptop and do some work in there as well. Notion is a great tool overall — I used to use it to organize all of my assignments for school. But again, I am graduating in a few weeks so now I’m using it for content planning.

Video Editing

I do all of my short form video editing on my iPad using the app LumaFusion. I have been using this app for the past four years and it is by far my favourite editing app for the iPad. I also love this app because I can use keyboard shortcuts and that really streamlines the editing process. In my opinion, LumaFusion feels more like Final Cut Pro than the actual Final Cut Pro iPad app.

Mind Maps + Vision Boards

I like to do a lot of visual planning and brainstorming — especially when I am working on a creative projects. I like to use the app FreeForm to make vision boards and min maps for my various creative projects. I’ve used it to plan out my website design and graphics, to plan out my bedroom and even for my monthly vision boards! Freeform is a free app that comes on all Apple devices and it’s basically an endless canvas — which is why it’s great for brainstorming!

Graphic Design

I use Canva on my iPad to create graphics mainly for my website but also for my social media. I love using Canva because it’s really easy to use considering that I am not a graphic designer. It just makes it that I can do all my own work for my social media, my website or anything else I want to create. One note about Canva on the iPad, it’s a lot easier with a keyboard. And that’s probably because Canva is deigned for a computer and not an iPad.

Reading the News

Okay, this isn’t your typical productivity thing BUT I do think staying informed on current events is important. Also, one of my professors always said to read the news every morning — mainly to check to see if our clients are in the news but also news that might affect our clients. I use three apps to read the news — CBC, New York Times and Particle. CBC and New York Times are your usual news apps. Particle is a free news app that gathers information from many sources and summaries it. So you get the key facts in plain language. It also cites the sources is pulls from if you want to read more. Plus it shares key quotes, related topics and related articles. Plus you tell if your preferences and it learns what information you want more of or less of.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. My iPad is my favourite device — its obviously multifunctional — and I enjoy finding new ways to use it. I’ll do a post soon about all the creative and fun ways that I use my iPad soon. I also did a video not too long ago about all of the ways that I use my iPad if you are looking for some more ideas as well.

But, anyway that’s it so love you, bye!

- xo, Mary