Is this the year you go digital? As an enthusiastic planner (pun not intended!) myself, I could go on all day about why I think everyone should make the switch from pen and paper to stylus and tablet. There are so many benefits to ditching the old-school version and starting to use a digital planner. 

I have a long history of using planners. In 1993, I opened my very first planner and immediately fell in love. I used the paper version for a long time until I found a new love in digital planning. 

I’ve been using my digital planner for many years now, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s changed my life. I thought paper planners were the bomb when I first got my hands on one. But after getting my iPad and beginning to use a digital planner in Notability and then GoodNotes application with an iPad Pro, my productivity went through the roof. I knew I’d never go back.

If you need a little convincing, here are my top 6 arguments to level up and use a digital planner. 

1. Digital planners are more mobile (yes, seriously) than paper planners.

Think about how bulky (and heavy, especially as time wears on and more paper gets shoved in and added) your paper planner is. That’s a lot of weight to add to your shoulders when you’re carrying it around in your bag or purse.

Digital planners are easier to carry with you than paper planners because you’re not packing around a bunch of bound paper in a notebook or leather-bound notebook; your entire planner is digitized and accessible from your smartphone or your tablet. If you’re carrying anything at all, that’s it!

You can easily share your digital planners with friends, co-workers, or family, too. This makes it easy for everyone to see what’s on the schedule and collaborate to add or update things as needed. You certainly can’t do that with an old-school paper planner.

2. Digital planning saves time.

Digital planning is an efficient way to plan your days because while it does require the same kind of time to organize – and, you know, make your plans – as it would if you were using a traditional paper planner, you can move through a digital planner more easily.

Here’s what I mean by this: Digital planners are searchable. That means you can search for whatever you’re looking for – even handwritten stuff – in your note-taking app (like Goodnotes) instead of flipping through every page of your planner to find that note you took last week about something.

Everything is hyperlinked, too, so you can navigate from one page to another page in the opposite section of your planner without so much as having to revisit a table of contents to figure out where it is.

Additionally, if you want to get really organized, you can connect your digital planner to a project management app, like ClickUp. Your inner-Martha will love how organized your life will be when you use a digital planner and your productivity app together. 

and !

Paper planners just can’t compete.

3. Digital planners are endlessly customizable.

Your digital planner has some basic elements that were designed to help make it as easy to use as possible, but when it comes to personalization, the options are endless.

Customize the look and feel of your digital planner. Dress it up or down, move pages around, add some color with photos or digital washi tape… make it your own. You can even color-match the colors of a planner you’ve made or purchased. You can truly use any color you want, in fact, by simply knowing the HTML HEX CODE. 

You can reorganize your planner to fit your needs. 

Here are a few ways you can reorganize.  

• Add extra pages — never run out of space.
• Duplicate a weekly spread to save time setting up the next week.
• Reposition pages to keep a recurring weekly tasks list, a quarterly calendar with notes during a client call, a monthly habit tracker, etc., next to your weekly spread for quick access.
• Create a uniform appearance (like a template that improves productivity) – make something once and copy and paste it as many times as you need. (This massive time-saving feature is one of the main motivations for switching from my A5 paper planner to a digital planner.)

take control

You can take control of your planner and customize it in a way that works just for you. 

4. Digital planning saves space and is environmentally friendly.

Are you one of those people who has lots of great plans and loves to be crafty… but ultimately ends up collecting the supplies and lacking the finished projects? 

Think about that spare bedroom that’s full of craft paper and unfinished projects… the 1,000 rolls of washi tape… A digital planner can help you return your spare bedroom to its former glory. You can have company over again and your guests could actually stay over!

Digital planning saves space and eliminates paper and gadget clutter. You don’t need hundreds of little (or big) things to make it fabulous and helpful. You just need one tablet device.

You also don’t have to worry about wasting paper. Once you’re finished with a section or page, you can archive or delete it without adding to the trash pile. Archiving is especially helpful because if you ever need to go back, you can still search your archived digital planner pages.

The lasso and the eraser are both helpful tools for anyone with a perfectionist streak or those who simply make a mistake and need to correct it. I love moving written plans between pages using the lasso: No more whiting or crossing out because I can just select a section and move it or copy and paste it and go.

When you use a digital planner, you do the earth a kindness. Everything in it is digital – there’s no waste of any kind.

5. Digital planning can save you money.

Every year, you’ve got to buy a new paper planner – whether it’s dated or not – to keep track of all the new plans and dreams for the coming months. At around $40 a pop, that adds up to a lot over the years.

If you’re into decorating and making your planners your “own,” you also have to factor in the cost of stickers, washi tape, sticky notes, and other adornments that (you guessed it) all add up over time too.

Buying and using a digital planner means you buy once (in the case of an un-dated version) and never have to buy another planner again. 

Alternatively, you can buy annually dated versions at a much lower cost than their paper counterparts and because it’s digital, you’re saving money by using your other digital decorations rather than stockpiling more craft materials.

6. Using a digital planner is FUN!

I know, I know… this is totally subjective and not a great argument for why digital planning is worth the switch. But I’ve got to admit, it’s totally true.

Digital planning is a fun and creative outlet. I even use my digital planner in a few “un-planner-ish” ways, like adding digital coloring pages to color with joy to decompress after a long day.

There are so many great things about using a digital planner – you can’t deny that it’s a great tool and applicable for every area of life. I can promise you from personal experience that once you try digital planning on your iPad with a stylus, you’ll never want to go back.

Happy Clicking + Planning!

in the freebies library

Grab the sample planner and goodies in the FREEBIES LIBRARY.