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Agendas, calendars, and bullet journals all have their advantages over screens, but with the right apps and templates, a phone or tablet can feel quite similar. I personally dig these digital productivity templates. Here, I’ve made some notes.
I Can Still Jot By Hand, Without a Notebook and Pen
Writers understand. There’s something about carrying a notebook and pen that made many of us fall in love with the craft in the first place. I wrote my first stories as a kid in a composition notebook. When I need to write something down quickly at my desk, I still grab a pen and write on a notepad faster than pulling out my phone and opening an app like Google Keep.
With Samsung Notes and a college-rule notebook template, I can have the same experience on my phone. I pull out my stylus and hold down on the S Pen’s physical button to launch Samsung Notes. I’m then a tap away from writing (one ofmany clever uses for the S Pen). If I need more or less space, I can make the template wide-rule instead.
This similarity to a notebook is one of the reasonsI use Samsung Notes dailyand one of myfavorite things about book-style foldable phonesin general.
Handwriting Gives Me More Creative Power
When I need to plan something out, jot down things I need to do this week, or just organize my thoughts, I prefer to write by hand. Something about handwriting gets my juices thinking differently. I’d say it’s just me, but there’s research to back this up. I can link you to a journal locked behind a paywall, but it’s easier toread about this phenomenon from NPR.
We don’t have to spend too much time thinking about brain chemistry and biomechanics to make sense of this. There are plenty of straightforward advantages to pulling out a pen. It’s faster to write a bullet list than to tap a list icon on a toolbar.
I can scratch things out without trying to remember the shortcut for striking through text. If I want to circle something, I just circle it—no need to fuss with inserting a circle graphic that, with its perfection, is both more time-consuming and oddly less helpful.
Digital Notes Can Be Edited In Ways Physical Can’t
Jotting down an event into a paper calendar is faster than creating an entry, allocating time, and setting up reminders in a calendar app. When you use a handwritten calendar template, you get the same ease and speed. But there’s a big perk over the physical version. When you need to reschedule something, you can simply drag your handwritten words from one date over into the next.
I do this all the time in my to-do lists. If I want to change the order of items, I just highlight the handwriting I wish to move and drag it over to where it needs to be. Even basic erasing is easier. You don’t have to worry about smudging pencil markings or wearing a hole through the page. Erase as often as you need.
It’s this flexibility that, in the past, would nudge me toward typing up notes rather than writing by hand. Now I can have the best of both words.
Some Apps or Devices Have Better Templates Than Others
Unfortunately, using a touchscreen as your new notepad or calendar isn’t as simple as picking up any device that comes with a stylus. The available software and the system-level integration with your hardware will significantly impact how much you can do.
For example, I’ve owned a Moto G Stylus. That phone has a built-in stylus, but Motorola’s software isn’t nearly as powerful as Samsung Notes. With my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, I can start writing a note merely by tapping my S Pen twice against the screen, even while the display is off.
As good as Samsung Notes is, I don’t quite like the default templates as much as those I had on my Boox tablet. Likewise, the Z Fold 6 feels a bit cramped to use as a calendar compared to a larger tablet.
Going digital doesn’t completely free you from the constraints of the physical world. You may be able to erase as often as you want, but a bigger pad is still often preferable to a small one.
Like a Notebook, You Don’t Get Reminders
While I do like the ease of writing things down into a calendar compared to the logistics of managing a calendar app, there’s a reason I still put in the work to do the latter.
There are some events that are important, but I’m still likely to forget them without a reminder. A handwritten calendar isn’t going to buzz or beep you when the time comes, no matter whether it’s physical or digital. Don’t expectfancy integration with a to-do list app, either.
Writing something down might help you to naturally remember things compared to typing. It also helps if you establish a daily practice of looking at your calendar as you start your day, so that you more actively make an effort. Still, that might not be enough. It hasn’t always worked for me.
I Can’t Write as Fast (or Long) as I Can Type
My Galaxy Z Fold 6 does a remarkable job of converting handwriting to text. So did the Boox Tab Ultra C that I used to own. Yet for stuff that I need to publish, I still tend to pull out a keyboard rather than a stylus. I can type significantly faster than I write. I may not get paid by the word, but I still lose money if it’s taking me too long to get words out of my head and onto the screen.
Still, I wouldn’t do without the option to transcribe handwriting to text. Sometimes, my fingers grow tired of typing, and a change of form enables me to keep working. In that situation, a slower pace is faster than not writing at all. On other days, I simply can’t get the creative juices flowing when I sit in front of a monitor or hunched over a laptop, but I feel refreshed while writing outside on a bench.
In other words, digital productivity templates aren’t a replacement for things that work better on a PC, but they do enable you to do much of what you might be compelled to buy a physical agenda for. They may just inspire you to bring back handwriting habits that maybe you had in the past.
Personally, I like that when I carry around my Z Fold 6 in my pocket, I not only have my books, magazines, music, and games in my pocket—I have my notebooks and agenda, too.
