what's on my iPAD PRO (best apps for digital note-taking & work)

I've been an iPad user for years now. I had the first iPad, I actually found it here because I'm at my parents' house. I remember this being like the most satisfying thing ever, it's still very satisfying. But in the last year and a half or so, I really started to embrace the iPad as a working tool both for school when I was a student and now for my work. So today I am talking all things iPad, I'm going to go over which model I have, accessories, what I love, what I don't love, all of my apps. And I'll definitely be sure to highlight some favorites and ones that if you have an iPad yourself, I think you should have. It's going to be a good one. So let's get into it. The iPad that I have in front of me right now is the iPad Pro 12.9 inch. This was the model that came out right before those new fancier iPads that you probably are now familiar seeing today. I also have the first generation Apple Pencil because that is the pencil that is compatible with this model. On my pencil as you can see, I have this silicone sleeve and I always get a lot of questions about this. I bought it off of Amazon, it was like under $10 and it is the best thing in the world. There'll be links down below to this, to my iPad, the newest models, and all the other things I talk about in today's video. This was definitely necessary because as you can see, the first generation Apple Pencil unlike the second generation is all circular. So it gets very slippery and I find if you are doing heavy writing, especially if you are a student and you're looking to use an iPad for note taking during class or study notes, that sort of thing, you're going to be using this a lot. So having that extra little grip makes a huge difference. Because I use a pencil so much, I find having a screen protector pretty important. I just have a pretty generic one from Best Buy, but there are specific screen protectors that you can get that can help create more texture so that when you're writing with the Apple Pencil, it doesn't feel like you're writing on a super smooth surface. One of the things I really love about this iPad is the size. This mimics the size of a real piece of paper. So when I am writing notes, it doesn't feel like I'm writing on a really tiny screen. I also really love how well the pencil and the iPad communicate with one another. I find writing on this definitely something you have to adjust to, but once you kind of get the hang of it, it is really comfortable. I like that I can put my palm on the screen and it not interfere with what I'm writing. I love that I don't have to constantly be connecting them. The Bluetooth is pretty seamless so that anytime that I whip this out, it's ready to start drawing or writing or whatever it is I'm doing. The thing that I probably find the most annoying about this iPad isn't so much with the iPad itself, it's with the first generation Apple Pencil. Unlike the second generation iPad Pencil, this does not charge by sticking to your iPad. The second generation one has a magnet and it just kind of adheres to the iPad. This one involves taking off the cap and then there's a small little adapter that somehow I have yet to lose, but I feel like that day will be coming and you have to attach it to the same cable that you would use to charge an iPhone and then stick this in. I find that annoying. I find it annoying that I can't tell the battery life directly on the pencil itself. I also have found that there's this little piece that has come loose on my pencil, so it is also a mystery how I haven't lost this yet. Okay, we'll deal with that after. Obviously, this isn't a really big issue, but I feel like as someone who does use my iPad and my Apple Pencil quite often, it is annoying enough that I get a little frustrated by it. So just something I wanted to note because I feel like if you are a student who is taking this on campus all the time or you're taking it to work or you're just being more mobile with your iPad and you want the Apple Pencil component, that might be something to think about is that second generation pencil only works with certain devices and does have that seamless magnetic feature that kind of takes out the inconvenience part about this one. Of course, there is a price tag that comes along with that, but just something, like I said, that I think you should consider. I am someone who gets really excited about tech and trying out new devices, and I have tried a few other devices that have stylus components to them, and I feel like across the board, tablets have come a long way and the stylus component has come a long way that you can get really good handwriting with many devices out there, but I think what makes this stand out and has made it become something I gravitate towards every single day is the apps. So we're going to talk about those apps and take a closer look at what's on my iPad. When you first turn on the iPad, I had my lock screen screensaver. I quickly designed it myself. It has an Oprah Winfrey quote on it that says, you get in life what you have the courage to ask for. When my iPad is in landscape mode, you open it up and on the left, you'll see some widgets. I just have a trending on Google one snapshot of my daily art app, which we'll get into and my Google calendar telling me some of the things I have on schedule today. I'll also have a link in the description box below to this background image that I have. Let's get into the app. So I only have two pages on my iPad. They are not full at all, and most of my apps have been put into folders just to make it really easy to find everything. Top apps are the generic apps that come with iOS devices. Any Apple device really FaceTime photos, camera, clock, maps, files, settings, app store. And then I put a ton of other ones and other random apps in a random folder on the second page. These are apps that I don't necessarily want to get rid of because there sometimes is a use for them, but definitely not ones that I visit all the time. First category I have is my news apps have the Apple news app, but I also have the CBC news app and the Toronto star app. If it wasn't already clear, I am Canadian. I can't say there's anything too exciting happening on that front. In the folder to the left, I have the notes section, which has again, the reminders and notes app that we're all used to seeing. I do end up using the notes app quite a bit because I have other Apple devices. So with iCloud, everything kind of talks together. So if I do something on here, I can go onto my laptop and access that same note. And I have all my notes sorted into folders, video outlines, video ideas, video descriptions, recipes, random, blah, blah, blah. I also have good notes, which I will be talking about, but this is the old good notes for I have the good notes by, which is the latest version of good notes. So I just keep it here in this folder. Speaking of good notes, let's go to the school category. These are the apps that I used a lot in school. If you saw any of my digital note taking videos, I did one last summer and I'm going to be doing an updated one this summer. In my previous note taking videos, I've talked a lot about how much I love good notes and one note. I still use these apps today for work, um, but they're just still, I haven't, I haven't moved them from the school category yet. I think I'm in denial. It's been a year since I finished school and I'm still like, I'm a student, right? I didn't graduate. That didn't happen. Good notes is one of my favorite apps on the iPad, whereas I used to use it a lot for study notes and textbook notes and lecture notes. Now that I'm working, I use it for meeting notes, outlines, video concepts, trying to think like what else? If I watch like a tutorial, I'll take notes. If I'm listening to a podcast that has like tips and stuff, I'll take notes. I'm always taking notes and something that I've even tried to experiment with is some digital planning. Obviously you guys know that I am a big fan of bullet journaling and using like my physical planner that's right here. But digital planning is a lot of fun too and something I'm embracing more and more. I designed this weekly planner sheet on Canva and I'm actually going to have a downloadable link on my website, CaitlinDeSilva.com, link will be below so that you can access this if you like what you see. I've loaded it as a sheet on GoodNotes and then each week you can just swipe and access a blank sheet. It is also a fillable PDF, so even if you don't have like a stylus or an Apple pencil, you can still use it with your keyboard. I'm having a lot of fun designing different planner sheets and I'm hoping I can get some of them to you soon, so stay tuned for that. If you have any specific planner sheet design requests, leave them in the comment section down below. I love all the beautiful covers you can get for your notebooks. I love the fact that you can zoom in on the sheet and get more precise writing as well. OneNote is still on here, I occasionally use it, but definitely was something I used more often in school because it was so easy to organize my notes for different classes. I really prefer OneNote for any of my typing note needs and I love the fact that I could access these notes no matter what device I was on, whether it was on my iPad, my laptop, my phone, very convenient. I also have Microsoft Word, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Don't use them as much on here. I do use Microsoft Word a lot these days, not typically on my iPad though, that's more of like a laptop thing, but if I have to access any of those files, it's really convenient to have the app already on my iPad. The business section, so this is the category of things I use a lot for running all of this, my YouTube channel, my socials, my website now. I have Analytics and Squarespace, these are both Squarespace apps. The Squarespace app is for drafting blog posts and posting, and the Analytics is pretty self-explanatory, it's the analytics for my site. I also have Monday.com, this is a project manager app and I've been using it to kind of give myself more detailed plans for projects that I have in mind for different things under Caitlin's Corner. As you can see here, I have a social media schedule for the next couple weeks and I can keep track of due dates and the project status for each of those steps. I have QuickBooks, which is how I keep track of my expenses, invoices, fun business-y stuff. iNode is an app that I use for brainstorming sessions. I like using this specifically for when I'm trying to think about the flow of a video or the flow of a blog post. I can quickly just get all of my thoughts out in this web formation and then from there I'm able to see what ideas I have and I can go into a more sophisticated outlining stage. This is one of the newer additions to my iPad, but I usually always use scrap paper for this process. It's very nice to now be able to do it digitally. I have my music folder with Apple Music, Podcasts, and Spotify. I make monthly playlists with all the tracks that I'm really loving, but I also have themed playlists for Study Work Music, which is my most popular playlist, Rainy Days, Throwback, so that will also be linked down below. In the Books category, I have the Apple Books app and also the Kindle and Libby app. Back in 2011 when I had this iPad, I read off of it all the time, but these days I know it's not the best for my eyes. Even though I like the experience of it, I do try and keep my digital reading to my e-reader, but that being said, whenever my e-reader dies and I don't want to wait for it to charge, bam, here we are. If you are a reader, the app that you really need to be looking at though is Libby. Libby is great because it allows you to borrow books from your local library, but digitally. So I connected mine to my Toronto Public Library library card, and now I can access so many books for free directly on my devices, and it's the best thing in the world. There are no late fees because it just automatically returns the book for you. There's magazines on here and audiobooks as well, which is extra exciting because I and so many other people love audiobooks too. The first app in my Create folder is my most used app by far on this device, and that is Procreate. If you have watched any video about the iPad, I am sure you have come across Procreate because it is just that good of an app. You can do digital art, doodles, graphics, titles. I rarely can be convinced to purchase apps, but I happily paid the, I think, $9.99 for this. And like I said, it's my most used app. I use it every day for different things to do with Caitlyn's Corner. I sketch out concepts for bullet journal spreads. These are the spreads that you end up seeing in my Play With Me's. I've started creating doodles to accompany my blog posts. So this is one that I used for my skincare posts. It's also an app that I use a lot for video editing. Whenever you see animated text or doodles on the screen, I am doing it with this app. I have a whole IGTV video that goes into the specifics on how I do it, but to create the doodle that you're seeing right here, all I had to do was take this blank canvas, handwrite something down, duplicate your layer, and on the second layer, I'm just going to make it a little bit bigger, and then I'm going to duplicate the smaller layer, and duplicate the bigger layer, and then go to animated PNG. And I've got a unique moving piece of text that has been done with my handwriting, so I think it really adds a cool personal touch to the videos. And I love that scrapbook-y look it gives my content. As a side note, one of my favorite things about this app is that with two fingers, I tap the screen and I undo whatever it is that I drew. And then when I want to redo something, I just use three fingers. And that right there, two tap to undo, three tap to redo, has become so ingrained in me when I'm using Procreate that whenever I go to an app that doesn't have those features, I go a little crazy. So please, everyone, let's just get behind this function right here because it makes life so easy. Procreate is definitely the app that I use the most, followed by Canva. Canva is what I use to design printables and graphics for Instagram posts, Instagram stories, so many things. See, I wanted to undo something on this and it wouldn't do it with two tap, making me go crazy. And then some other apps that I sometimes use are Adobe Sketch and Adobe Draw. I have the Adobe Creative subscription, a really great value subscription if you are using Photoshop, Lightroom, any Adobe app for work. I still have to play a little bit more with their sketching apps though because Procreate has just kind of taken my focus right now. There's also this really cool app called Adobe Capture. Cool thing about Adobe Capture is you can actually use it to pick out colors from photos. So it's really great if you like a photo and you want to create a color palette from it for whatever digital piece of art or printable or banner spread that you're putting together. I also have the Voice Memo app because whenever I am using a lav mic, I actually record the audio onto my phone or my iPad, whichever one has the most space available. Next to the Create folder is my Photos and Videos folder. The app I definitely use the most often these days is the Lightroom app for my photo editing. It's definitely an adjustment to get used to Lightroom and I have a lot to learn, but I have really been loving experimenting with presets, which are pretty much just like filters that you can buy from other creators or people on the internet. There's a lot of cool presets online, even for free. I've been loving that and it's been a really easy way to, I think, just make my Instagram feed seem a lot more cohesive. Side note, if you're not already, go follow me at Instagram at Caitlin Marie DeSilva. I always have lots of fun stuff happening over there. AppSeed is another app that I use a lot. I specifically love using it for whenever I have a lot of whites in my photo that I want to brighten. VSCO is another popular one. I used to use specific filters on VSCO for my feed, but now that's kind of moved to Lightroom, but I still occasionally go to VSCO, especially for Instagram story content. Canon Camera Connect app is an app that allows me to actually have a live view of what my camera is recording on my iPad and I can start recording and stop recording and adjust settings. I actually have it set up on my laptop right now to the right of you, the right of you from my perspective. I guess it's to the left of you, but I use this to help me make sure that things are in focus. I film by myself and my camera's quite far away from me right now, so this helps me make sure that the footage is going to turn out okay. And then I also have the Clips and iMovie app. These I don't use very often, but if I ever need to quickly video edit something for Instagram, then it's really convenient to have them. Social isn't too interesting. I've got YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, all apps that you are most definitely familiar with. On Pinterest though, if you don't know, I do have boards for different categories like bullet journaling and home decor inspo and study tips and easy recipes. I bring up Pinterest because the next app, which is Tailwind, is actually the app that I use to ensure that I'm constantly posting on Pinterest. It is a pin scheduler and it changed my Pinterest life. There is a free version, but I do pay monthly for it because I just feel like it has gotten me a lot of value. The Pinterest algorithm really likes it when you feed it all the time with content and that's really hard to do manually. So Tailwind allows me to just take one to two hours a week to schedule out my pins and then I don't have to worry about it for the next week or so. In my fun folder, I have Duolingo, which is an app that I was using quite regularly to learn Portuguese. My background is Portuguese, my last name is Priscilva, but I have fallen off my game with it, so I need to get kickstarted on that again. I have two coloring book apps, Millie Morota and Lake. Coloring can be really therapeutic, so sometimes I'll just spend some time digitally coloring. And the last app I have here is another one of my favorites, it's called Daily Art. What happens is pretty self-explanatory, each day there's a new piece of art and they give you a little description about the artwork itself and the artist. You can go back and see previous arts of the day. I feel like this isn't something I normally go and investigate myself, so it's just a fun little thing to read during the morning when I have coffee. That's pretty much it for my fun category, I don't really have games or anything that could be too tempting for me because I know I use this device a lot for work. I don't want to make that process more difficult for myself because I am easily tempted. If there's any apps that you really love that I don't have on my iPad and you're like, how do you not have that on your iPad, Caitlin? Leave them in the comment section down below because I'm always looking for new things to try out. I personally love the iPad. I wouldn't ever be able to use it exclusively as a replacement for my laptop because I do video editing and I just like the way that process is on a laptop, like a physical device, with a keyboard and all that stuff. I get lots of questions about whether or not I think an iPad Apple Pencil is worth it, and I think it really depends on what your computer needs are. Like I said, I still feel like I need another device in addition to my iPad, it can't be my only working device, but if I was a student that only needed to do light web searching and note taking, then I would get a keyboard accessory and I probably would be able to get by with this. There are other people who are going to have more intricate computing needs and this by itself isn't going to be enough. This is more of an add-on and if we're talking about it being an add-on, then I feel like if you don't have a stylus option and you feel like this is something you would get a lot of use out of, like apps like Procreate and GoodNotes and things where you're using Apple Pencil, then it's pretty awesome, I will say. If there was anything I didn't cover that you're still having questions about, leave them in the comment section down below and I'll try and answer any questions that you guys have. An updated digital note taking video will be coming out in the summer. If you want to see me do videos on things like Procreate, also let me know down below. If you liked today's video, be sure to give it a big thumbs up, hit the subscribe button if you haven't already, and I will see you all very soon with a new video. Until then, bye guys.