16 Ways I Use my iPad for Mindful Productivity and Focus

Digital Simplicity

Jul 16, 2021

When we think about our devices, whether it’s our phones, computers, or tablets, we don’t usually think about how they can bring about mindfulness. In fact, we usually associate our technology with the opposite: social media spirals, Netflix binges, hours of watching YouTube, getting bothered by every ping from new emails and work instant messages, etc.

I could argue that any device can be used mindfully (without installing a bunch of site-blocking plugins or setting screen time rules), but I find the iPad to be exceptional for mindful productivity.

An iPad-First Workflow

I’ve been an iPad user for several years now, on and off. Honestly, I've gone through cycles of purchasing and selling my iPads several times in the past decade simply because I found myself not using them.

For a couple years now, I’ve been using my iPad daily, and my use has increased tenfold with some setting changes and an accessory purchase or two. My workflow is now iPad-first.

I can get a LOT of work done without ever having to open my laptop. Plus, I can usually get more focused work done on my iPad compared to on my laptop, because on the laptop it's so easy to have tabs upon tabs of browser windows open, and there's so much screen real estate to where you can have a dozen apps open at one time.

Here are 16 ways how I use my iPad Pro for intentional living to boost focus and productivity.

Pin for later

16 ways to use your iPad as your main device for focus and productivity

Digital Planning

The main reason I grab my iPad throughout the day is for digital planning.

My ideal process is to plan for the next day before I sign off for work the previous night. That way, when I wake up the next day, I've set an intention of what tasks I'll work on, especially during my sacred hours of morning work before I begin my 9-5.

When working on my digital planner in Notability, I pull in events from Calendar, forward unfinished tasks from days prior via the bullet journal method, and add any additional tasks from Todoist.

I use minimalist digital planning templates that I designed and created, and I love the flexibility of my workflow. I can just grab a copy of whatever template I need next in my planner and paste it in to begin working on the next thing.

My planner templates were designed to be minimal and neutral. The color palette is easy on the eyes, and I provided a dot grid for a guided writing experience. Each page contains a notes section to capture those random thoughts.

You can purchase these 9 layouts here.

Journaling

I've been using Day One since 2012, and I love how beautiful the interface is and how it gently reminds you that you have entries from years past available to read if you so wish.

I recently paid for the subscription because I wanted to support the company, and also because I now utilize the multiple journals feature (more on that below).

The only thing that stinks about Day One is that you can only really journal by typing. Sure, they have a doodle feature for premium members, but the experience isn't optimized for writing with the Apple Pencil.

However, I found a hack for handwriting your journal entries on the iPad: I'll write out my journal entry in Notability, and then export that PDF and paste it into Day One.

It's a bit of a clunky workflow, and the handwriting becomes unsearchable once you move it out of Notability, but it works for me. Rarely do I need to search old journal entries by searching for keywords, anyway.

Writing in Notability is as gratifying as writing with pen and paper for me, especially when using a matte screen protector for the iPad, because the experience is so pleasant. Plus, I can experiment with colors and the undo button makes it easy to keep things neat.

Keeping Track of Milestones and Quotes

If you have kids, you know they say the darndest things.

I used to keep track of my sons' "-isms" in Apple Notes, loosely tying them to their ages or the current year. But I've found that by creating a separate "Kids" journal in Day One, I can assign their hilarious quotes and big milestones to a specific date and time (and location, if you're into that).

I use hashtags for their names so that I can quickly filter in the app.

Plus, because of Day One's "on this day" feature, you get great reminders of what they might've said or done X number of years ago. Pretty sweet.

Logging My Health Journey

I like to keep track of my health journey for a physical condition on my hands. This involves taking progress pictures, keeping a log of the potential trigger foods that may make my skin worse, or other potential lifestyle triggers.

I keep these in a separate health journal in Day One.

Having this dated log in Day One makes it easy for me to see progress in a sequential way, whether I'm looking at it myself or sharing my journey with a doctor.

Plus, having health journey photos locked away in a password-protected journal makes viewing my pleasant memories in Photos less jarring. No one likes to be scrolling in a photo album with cute kid pic after cute kid pic and be interrupted by weird photos of my hands.

Reading and Taking Notes

I love reading, and I'm making a more concerted effort to do it daily. I don't have anything against paper books, especially if they come from the library, but I do especially love the convenience of reading a book on the Books app or the Kindle app on my iPad.

Highlighting is super easy and way faster than it is on the actual Kindle.

For taking notes while reading, I can use split screen and have the book on the left, and Notability on the right to take handwritten notes.

When I take notes, I do my best to take synthesized notes instead of copying direct quotes into my notes. This means I re-word things so they've been processed through my brain.

When I take these book notes and move them into the Zettelkasten method (more on that below), I'm less worried about taking direct quotes from the author and I can rest assured knowing that the notes I'm moving into my more permanent notes library are my own.

After I'm finished with a book, I'll export the PDF from Notability and attach my full handwritten note to my book log in Notion.

Synthesizing Notes Into My Second Brain

This is something I'm working on getting into my routine. The Zettelkasten method, or the slip box method, is a way of using one note per "notecard" and then having those notecards be free agents, unattached from the source.

If done in the traditional way, the Zettelkasten method allows you to take all of your notecards and arrange them how you wish. You can create a library that's sorted by topic and relevance, or you can pull random notecards to work on a smaller piece (say, a blog post or a YouTube video), so that your work is backed by your own research.

This video by Elizabeth Filips helped me figure out how to do the Zettelkasten method in Notion, and is a super powerful way to keep everything organized. (In fact, I feel like I need to go re-watch that video….)

Focused Writing

The iPad is easily the best place to get focused writing done.

This isn't something I would've said a couple of months ago, nor even a couple of weeks ago… but since I purchased Apple's Smart Keyboard Folio for a trip, I found that I can truly get so much writing done on the iPad.

Yes, I went back and forth, wondering if I should get the Magic keyboard versus the Folio keyboard, but in the end I went with this option (which was easier on my wallet) because I needed the ability to fold the keyboard all the way back on itself so that I could easily switch between typing mode and drawing/planning/handwriting mode.

Anyway—I love writing in Apple Notes and Notion.

Apple Notes used to be my go-to for everything, simply because it's Apple's native app and it's so nicely and minimally designed.

I still use Apple Notes all the time because it's easier to get in and start writing, plus it's the default app that pops up when you touch the iPad's sleeping screen with the Apple Pencil (a super awesome hack that's great for quick note-taking… which is why I am sure to include Apple Notes in my weekly inbox cleanup checklist).

However, I'm working on moving all of my writing efforts to Notion. It's a bit more of a process to get into the app and start writing, but my goal is to use Notion as a content library to capture everything I write and publish in one searchable, dedicated place.

Publishing (Without Getting Sucked Into Mindless Scrolling)

When I went on vacation recently, I was surprised at how easy it was to publish my writing on social media platforms like Twitter.

I could have my writing in Notion on one side of the iPad screen, and Twitter on the other, and copy and paste until my thread was complete.

Even as I'm writing this post on my laptop, I noticed that I opened Twitter on my second monitor and began replying to mentions and DM's. I got sucked in that easily.

I guess I should take my own advice and write on my iPad, not my laptop….

But because of the reduced screen real estate on the iPad, especially when in split screen mode, it's easier to stay focused on the publishing task at hand.

Intentional Project Management

Oh, how I've run the gamut on project management apps.

Seriously. Anyone who knows me well enough knows I've tried nearly every project management app under the sun. Asana, ClickUp, Sunsama, Todoist, and Trello, to name a few.

My new favorite? You guessed it: Notion. Especially for my spouse's company and the projects we work on together, Notion is an amazing place to keep track of the things we think of and who's responsible and where in the priority list it should fall.

Plus, we can easily switch between a kanban view, a database view, a list view, etc. And collaboration in Notion is super easy.

Yes, Notion has its learning curve. I can tell you from experience that I had quite a few false starts with the app because it just feels so darned overwhelming. But once you find the right-for-you templates and methods, you may also get pulled in.

Learning

I love learning. Lifelong learning is one of my core values, and a lot of that ties into my reading point above.

Between Skillshare and YouTube, I'm able to learn new things that excite me for a relatively low cost, or for free (respectively).

Skillshare is amazing, and I have a few classes published on there myself. It costs less than the monthly price of Netflix and is a great way to learn from people who are passionate about what they do.

Of course, being a YouTuber and all, I also strongly believe in the power of YouTube. The platform is a powerful search engine of creatives, and you can pretty much find anything on there. The weirdest things I've learned on YouTube:

How to cut my own hair (yes, I do it all the time)
How to cut my spouse's and my son's hair (we save a lot of money around here)
How to remove a toilet so you can refinish a bathroom. I'm leaving this one up to my spouse, but I found the video fascinating regardless

Learning on the iPad is so great because, again, it's the perfect tool for focus. The lack of screen real estate or being able to CMD+N a new browser tab will keep you engaged.

Yes, you can split screen both of these apps and have your notes app or maybe Procreate on the other side, but it's a more intentional experience if you watch first and try after.

Budgeting

Budgeting is probably the least sexy of all of the things in this list, but it's something that has to happen, and doing it on the iPad feels pretty good.

I've used Mint for several years now and am working on learning how to use You Need a Budget, also known as YNAB. There's quite a learning curve for that one.

For Mint, the iPad makes it nice to categorize transactions, see upcoming expenses, check your budgets, and see all of your accounts at a quick glance. No, you won't be able to have a spreadsheet up at the same time, so more intense financial stuff should be reserved for your computer.

The rest of my financial institutions also have iPad apps, but I truthfully only use Mint on my iPad right now.

Catching Up With Friends

Texts and phone calls on the iPad? Heck yes.

There's nothing quite as satisfying as being able to type out your text messages to your friends on a keyboard within Messages instead of trying to use your thumbs to hunt and peck for your letters. Texting on the iPad (with the keyboard accessory) kind of reminds you of the old AIM days when everyone used that platform.

And if you use your iPad in conjunction with your iPhone, you can also get phone calls and FaceTime calls if your friends call your number.

Of course, you can also use your iPad for video conferencing calls like Zoom or Google Meet, but those experiences are kind of weird because the camera is off to the side instead of at the top like on laptop.

Either way, the iPad is a great way to keep in touch with friends intentionally. Depending on how you have your notification settings (spoiler alert: 99% of mine are completely off, meaning no badges or pop ups), you'll be able to maintain focus on whatever you're doing, and then intentionally hop over to Messages to catch up on texts. No more constant interruptions and pings on your phone; just check Messages whenever you want to be fully "present" for your friends and family.

Music for Focus and Productivity

The iPad Pro speakers are phenomenal, so if you wanted to listen to music on those native speakers you can absolutely do so.

I have my go-to mix for instrumental music on Spotify so that I can block out distractions and get into focused writing mode.

As a personal aside, I'm still looking for the perfect bluetooth over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones that don't squeeze my head… but for now I just plug in my headphones with a USBC adapter or use my dying AirPods when listening to music. If you have recommendations, I'm all ears. (See what I did there?)

And because you can download music from Spotify, you can easily take your iPad into a wifi-free zone for some extra focused productive time.

Managing My Business on My iPad

Besides project management and the activities mentioned above, I also use my iPad to manage my business.

I use Slack, Gmail, Files, Google Drive, and some social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. (Just not Instagram… because IG on an iPad isn't native to the iPad, which is very frustrating.)

Files is an especially great app for me on the iPad because I can technically access all of the files on my laptop without bogging down my iPad's storage space. This access has proven to be very helpful especially if I find myself without my computer but I need to work on something and someone around me has a Mac. I can just AirDrop a file from Files on my iPad to their computer, complete the task, and then AirDrop the final file back to my iPad.

Being Creative

If you're new to this site, you may not know this, but Hello Brio was a big platform for creativity and hand lettering a bit ago. I've since moved a lot of those things over to Lettering League.

I still love Procreate, like a lot, and I love sketching out ideas in Apple Notes or elsewhere.

The feature of being able to draw on the iPad is so liberating, because that undo button is truly a godsend. Some artists may call that cheating, but it's such a timesaver and it allows me to try stuff without that looming doom of having my next move be permanent.

Intentional Relaxation

Ugh, ok, so I've previously blogged about how I quit Netflix and was so super proud of myself for doing so… but since I wrote that post I've reconciled my relationship to TV (thanks, therapy) and I now not only allow myself some relaxation time, I look forward to it and I enjoy it.

What I watch may completely put me in a box: new episodes of Grey's Anatomy on ABC, new episodes of This Is US on NBC, and old episodes of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. Ugh… I know. But Grey's is just so darned good.

The iPad is a Surprising Unicorn for Productivity and Creativity

A lot of YouTube videos or bloggers talk about how an iPad can be a replacement for a computer. The iPad Pro's sure are a powerhouse technically, but what truly makes them a great tool is using it for monotasking.

While they won't fully replace your computer, especially if you create videos or graphics, an iPad is a great choice for writing and productivity.

I hope by sharing my mindful 16 workflows, you can find a new way to use your iPad to get things done and simply enjoy your purchase even more.

  
    Click for Full Video Transcript
  
In this video, I'm going to be showing you 16 ways of how I use my iPad pro for productivity and mindfulness. 
When we think about our devices, whether it's our phones, computers, tablets, or anything else, we don't usually associate them with mindfulness. In fact, we usually associate our technology with quite the opposite, social media spirals, Netflix binges, constant pings from work emails and messages and things like that. But it does not have to be that way. 
In fact, when I use my iPad, I get done more than I normally do when on my phone, of course, but also when I'm on my computer. You can argue that any device can be used mindfully if you set it up the correct way, but inherently the iPad is designed to be a lot more productivity-friendly. 
And to top it off, I have an iPad first approach, meaning that I can go a very long time without even touching my laptop or bringing it with me if I'm traveling. 
The first thing I always pick up my iPad for is for digital planning. I love using Notability for digital planning, because it is inherently such an easy app to use. And I like the scrolling feature more so than other apps that have like a page flipping feature, which just seems a little bit jarring to me. I have created my own templates, which can be easily duplicated based on the day or day of the week or month or whatever that I need it so that I can just have the next page be whatever I need it to be. It's similar to a bullet journaling approach where you literally just have kind of a blank notebook and you go from page one to page X and you can just fill in the blanks as you go. However, with the templates that makes it a little bit easier and faster for me to plan out my days and plan out my weeks, keep track of habits and things like that. If you're interested in digital planning in Notability or trying these templates in something like good notes or another app, I have these downloads available for purchase on my website. 
Journaling is huge for me. It's always been a very important part of who I am. And for those of you who miss the handwritten journaling aspect, I have a hack for you. Personally, I love the Day One app. Day One has been around for quite a while. I really like Day One because it's organized and it's encrypted and you can have multiple journals, which I will get to later in this video. But those of you who like to write your journals out by hand, what I do is I use Notability and then I will export that as a PDF and import it into Day One. It's very easy to do. And you'll still get those notifications from Day One saying you have three journal entries from this day in previous years. So it's just a really cool way to be able to revisit where you were in years past. 
The other thing that's really important to me with journaling is keeping track of milestones and things that my kids say only because if you have kids yourself you know the things that come out of your kid's mouth are such absolute gold. Sometimes that you just want to keep a record of it. So I have a separate kids journal within Day One where I will input voice memos, whether they were singing in the shower or something really silly, or if they said a quote that I want to remember, and then I'll get reminded of it later on because of Day One's functionality for that.
I also use Day One to keep track of my health journey. I've had various physical issues, and I want to make sure to keep track of things, whether it's through photos or whether it's so keeping a food log. And of course these aren't really photos that I want to see when I'm like scrolling through my nice memories and photos. I want to be able to have it all in one place so that when I'm ready to sit down with a doctor or look back and see how my progress has been in the past few months, I can just open my Day One journal specifically for my health journey and see exactly where I was during a specific date and time, or what could have been a trigger for me, whether it's a food or like a lifestyle thing, et cetera.
The next thing is I love using my iPad when I'm reading and taking notes. So if I'm reading digitally, I will use either the Books app or the Kindle app. And I love both of these apps for different reasons. And I actually do have a separate Kindle. However, I love taking notes when I'm reading. And I find that the best way to do this is to take handwritten notes while I'm reading that way. I won't be as compelled to write down quotes verbatim from the book. I will be forced to kind of synthesize the notes as I go so that they become more concrete for me. And so that when I'm ready to use that as a resource for something that I'm writing or creating, I can just take my version of the note so that it becomes a little bit more of my own. I take those handwritten notes in Notability, and then I will export it when I'm completed with the book and synthesize it. 
And that takes me to my next thing. When I'm synthesizing my notes—and this is still something that I am working on fitting it into my routine—but being able to take individual notes and make them into the slip box method, also known as the Zettelkasten method has been really pivotal because that way you have these floating blocks of notes that you can use for anything anywhere, and you can sort them based on the topic that they're about, the relevance they might have to a project, et cetera, without having to go through sheets and sheets of notes at a time. Every piece, every note, every bullet point that you take while reading something or listening to something becomes its own thing, its own entity, which is really cool. So I keep track of that in Notion.
The iPad is also amazing for writing, and no, it hasn't always been like this for me. I would always have to get my laptop out, you know, put up the screen and start typing. And that would be my happy place for my writing. However, since I bought the keyboard, the folio keyboard, it's such a nice writing experience. I love writing on it plus because the iPad tends to be a little more geared towards mono-tasking. It is just a wonderful writing experience. I can do it anywhere anytime, and I don't need an internet connection. And usually when I'm writing, I will write either in Apple Notes or Notion. I have historically only written in Apple Notes simply because it's so quick and easy to use. However, I want to a content library within Notion so that it's cross-referenced as a database. But yeah, I love writing in either one of those apps and it is just such a wonderful experience. The other thing that's really cool about writing on the iPad as you can use split-screen and you can have your references on one side and your new draft on the other side, or you can even have an old version of the draft on one side and your edits on the other side, it's just a really fantastic way to research and write and edit, et cetera. 
I will also use my iPad for publishing and this becomes a really important thing when I'm publishing writing pieces on Twitter, in a Twitter thread, or when I'm posting to Instagram through Planoly because then I'm less tempted to scroll through everything just because there's a little bit less screen real estate. I'm not going to be distracted by popups here or there. And I definitely will not ever put Instagram on my iPad.
For project management, Notion is my go-to right now. I'm working on making it truly my second brain for everything that's in working status. So whether it's stuff for my 9 to 5, whether it's things for my business or my YouTube channel or for clients that I may have, that is where everything goes. And it's so flexible because you can have Kanban boards, you can have lists, you can have checklists, et cetera, and you can share the pages with people. It's just such a great tool for project management, because everything is in there and you can collapse the sidebar. You can really just get a huge focus on what you're working on at that moment without having again, multiple windows to distract you. 
The iPad is also amazing for learning. I have Skillshare and YouTube on here, and that's usually where I do most of my learning. I try my best to make it a point to get in learning on a regular basis. And because it's on the iPad, I can also simultaneously take notes using Notability on one side of the screen. And you saying the other side of the screen for whatever video I may be watching or blog posts, I'm reading, et cetera.
Budgeting is something that's amazing on the iPad as well. I use Mint and YNAB (You Need a Budget) and I'm working on getting everything over from Mint to YNAB simply because I've heard that it just helps you stay more on track than Mint. Yes, it costs money, but it ends up being a little bit better. And of course we know if we're mindful with our money, we're just going to be in a much better place. 
The iPad of course is great for keeping up with your friends, whether it's through FaceTime or Zoom, Google meet, or even just text messaging, because you're able to type, instead of sitting there and hunting and pecking for the keys on your phone, it's just going to be a much better tool. Plus, if you configure your settings correctly, you will only have to go into your messages app when you want to. And you're able to have a meaningful conversation or reply with intention because that is literally going to be the only thing that you're doing on the iPad.
On the iPad, I also have music apps which are Spotify and Sonos. Spotify, I will use directly in the app and use headphones so that I can listen to music. That's perfect for focus. I have an instrumental playlist that I love and I will use Sonos throughout the house if I have no one else home and I can play music in the room without having to worry about bothering anybody. 
In terms of the apps I use to manage my business, I will use things like and Files and Google Drive. And of course, Gmail. So all of those apps working together, along with the ones I already mentioned, like Notability for digital planning and Notion for project management. I use all of these on my iPad and I don't have to go into my computer to access these.
For art and lettering and creativity, I have Procreate. I love Procreate. It's an amazing tool. I love all the settings you can do. You can make animated gifs, which I've done for this channel before. And it's just one of my favorite places to learn as well. So here again, I will have Skillshare up on one side or YouTube and then procreate on the other. Creativity is such an important part of intentional living as well, because it really can be one of those times where you're really focusing on something purely for enjoyment sake. 
And finally, of course, yes, the iPad is also great as a mini TV, right? So if you want to have intentional relaxation, which to be honest, I used to beat myself up for, if I were to sit down and watch TV instead of working on X, Y, and Z. But it's important to get that balance in life. So I have things like Netflix and really all I watch is Grey's Anatomy. 
There are many things you can do to make your iPad more of a focus tool. And I will share those tips in another video. 
I hope you enjoyed kind of this walkthrough about intentional living through an iPad, whether it points to focus or flow or productivity, and yeah, I'll see you in my next video. Thanks for watching.

  
  