The Good, The Bad, and The (not so) Ugly.

It’s surprising, the number of conversations I had about going digital. This is with people from both sides of the fence, questioning why would I or wouldn't I.

My planner twin, Katrese (Plan_likeaboss on Instagram) is a down hard paper planner. She is also very artsy, she likes to make crafts and doodle, (so I understand her attachment to paper) she was the first to question my transition. "Girl, what are you doing?" At the time, all I could give her back was a "Girl, I don't know".

One of my co-workers who is 100% digital, all of the time, ask me, "What would make you go back to paper?"

Yes, I know, it is a lot of first world problems but here it is: The Good, The Bad, and The (not so) Ugly.

The Good:
The amount of things that I can do hold in my digital planner is unmatched. I took a picture of the testing bell schedule for the day and saved it to the notes sections of my daily planner (picture below). I can make the image as small as I needed it to be and then zoom in when I needed to referrer back to it. I cannot express how convenient this was. I didn't have to write it, I didn't have to try to keep up with another sheet of paper for that day, I had it when I needed it, without it taking up a large amount of space on my page.

Normally, I would cut it out and tape it the page, but then I couldn't control how much space it would take up. Had to just deal with it. Being digital took care of that problem for me.

The Bad:
I'm not a fan of the handwriting - to - text feature in Good Notes. Not being able to pinch in and out to make the text larger seems crazy to me; instead I would rather just use my own handwriting. Not a problem, but it taps when I write. And I do mean taps, noticeably, loudly and others can hear it.

So, now I am in meeting with serious people, and I am trying to write down notes, quickly and quietly. At that moment, I wished I had a sheet of paper. I'm sure I can learn to write without the taps, but its an hassle.

The (not so) Ugly:
Typically, when I am working, I have a pen in my hand. When I need to check off something in my planner, I just reach other and color in the dots. Quick, efficient, not much thought to it.

But this iPad and with this Pencil, they both go to sleep after sitting idle for a bit of time. I have to figure out how to keep my iPad awake for a longer period of time, but this pencil.

I get it, minor problems; but super annoying. I have to put down my pen, get the iPad Pencil, wake it up, wake up the iPad, tap the edit icon, tap the pen icon, and then I can color the circle to show I've completed a task.

This has been the worse part of going digital. Between the amount of steps it takes to get the iPad to point where I can use it during the day and switching between my actual pen and this iPad pencil, had me cursing out loud several times.

The big question, is it worth it? Does the good out weight the bad?

Right now, I am still learning the program and my iPad and I am not quite ready to throw in the towel just yet. Plus, I am dedicated to using it for all of March.

So, I'm taking the good, the bad, and the ugly and planning accordingly.