We are already a month into school and time has flown by in the mess of zoom, and rereading our syllabi to be sure we aren’t missing out on anything. I had chosen this year to go paperless for school and transitioning my learning experience completely digital.
Funny enough, the inspiration for going paperless came from my hours of TikTok scrolling during quarantine. I’m sure many other people remember when Procreate was a trend and it seemed like everyone was buying an iPad. I did have an interest in digital art but knew that I couldn’t make a huge investment just for a hobby. Then, that scary FBI thing happened where my entire TikTok “for you” page was about going paperless and digital note-taking. I took this, and the fact that school was completely online this year, as a sign to dive into research.
This is when I had the realization of how much going paperless would help me stay organized because I use paper for everything. Planning out articles, printing off readings and even taking notes for class are all things that I could condense into a device of my choice. This was the point that pushed me over the fence completely because I had given myself enough reasons to make the investment.
After a month of research and back-and-forth debates in my head, I opted for the iPad Pro with the second-generation Apple Pencil. I wanted the ability to still handwrite my notes and ideas so that I process them as I would using paper and pencil. I also went for the price tag of an Apple product so that the sharing and syncing between all of my devices would be done easily. The iPad and IOS are also compatible with so many different apps that I explored, which could help me.
The first app I have fallen in love with over this month is GoodNotes. It is simply what the name says, a good note-taking app. It allows you to make different folders and different notebooks to keep yourself organized. I have a folder for all things school related, and then a folder for all things extracurricular. I separate my notebooks even further by class and club or association. Another app that I have been loving is OneNote, which is a part of the Microsoft package that Laurier students get for free. I have transferred my lecture notes over to OneNote from Word because of the syncing ability between devices. This lets me download my lecture slides, upload them into OneNote, take handwritten notes alongside the slide in class, and then view those on my laptop without any lag.
If I am talking about my beloved apps, I have to give a shout-out to Procreate, which is one of my most used apps as well. I fell into the trend, and love it, for sketching out drawings and even for doodling during class. I have used Procreate to start my personal digital portrait business too, which you can follow on Instagram @SincerelyKoyal.
Overall, going paperless was something that I am glad I did. I definitely have been making good use of the money I spent. The two questions I asked myself, and you should ask if you are thinking about going paperless are: Will it help you with the way you learn or succeed at your job? Is it going to help you become or remain organized? If both of your answers are yes and this article has inspired you in a way, then take this as a sign, and go paperless!