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Yesterday morning I was in my office and told my wife, Trisha, I needed to get my iPad from the living room.

“Why?” she asked.

“My iPad is my notebook,” I replied.

My answer somewhat surprised me. For years I have been using an analog notebook to collect fleeting thoughts and scraps of information. I’ve also created several volumes of bullet journal-style notebooks. Those notebooks have been my constant companion and my external brain.

Last fall I decided to experiment with a digital planner on my iPad. I don’t remember the precise motive, but I recall inspiration coming from YouTube videos and the desire to make more use of my Apple Pencil. I bought a Cyberry Digital Planner and started my experiment.

I quickly came to enjoy the Cyberry planner’s daily log pages and the monthly calendar views that I could use for at-a-glance information of events and milestones, like anniversaries and birthdays. I liked how easy it was to add images and spruce things up a bit with highlighters, emoji, and stickers. Working in my planner in a dimly-lit room, especially in the evening while Trisha was watching TV was an unexpected bonus.

There were some initial conversion pains, as I got used to structured planner pages rather than blank notebook pages. One adjustment involved weekly reviews, a habit I have developed over the past few years as I have cultivated a bullet journal practice. I created a weekly review format in my notebook that helped me stay on top of things and celebrate small wins as I completed tasks or projects. I benefited from the visual overview of the week’s top tasks and projects. The practice helped me feel on top of things, especially during busy or stressful periods.

The Cyberry Digital Planner has three different weekly pages, but none really meshed with how I structured my weekly reviews or organize the type of information I want available at a glance. I ended up creating a Frankenstein’s monster of a page that is functional even if it leaves a lot to be desired aesthetically. Solving that problem made me one step closer to adopting the digital planner.

There were three other obstacles, though, to me considering my iPad as a replacement for my physical notebook. One pain point concerned general notes and fleeting thoughts. I regularly ran out of space in the notes section of the Cyberry’s daily pages. Then what was I supposed to do? Where could I continue taking notes but keep the overflow associated with the previous ones? My fix here was to create a separate notebook in GoodNotes as a space to collect thoughts and ideas about things that needed more space and potential for room to grow. Essentially, the digital notebook serves the same function as my analog notebook. I can quickly jot the date and let the ideas flow.

There were other things that threatened to doom my iPad-as-notebook experiment. The first was simple and straightforward: the joy of using analog tools. I like putting pen to paper. I enjoy a finely crafted notebook with quality paper like the Leuchtturm 1917 and appreciate a decent pen (right now, I’m smitten with the BaronFig Squire). I have found a bullet journal to be a stress reliever and a place of calm in the occasional storms of life. Simple acts and rituals of opening the physical notebook, flipping pages, and putting pen to paper are therapeutic.

The final things that nagged me when turned on my iPad to take notes or manage my day were guilt and worry. I found something ridiculous about how much technology and computing power I was marshaling to do something as simple as jot a task list or write down a dumb thought that just needed to get out of my brain. There were associated worries about charging. A notebook and pen never needs charged. What if I became dependent on my digital workflow and something happened to my iPad or Apple Pencil? What if I dropped the iPad and it broke? What if I lost my Apple Pencil, or the batteries on the iPad and Pencil degraded to such an extent that the devices became unusable? What if the developer of Cyberry made changes to the planner next year that I didn’t like?

Some of these concerns were legitimate and some were just the byproduct of an overactive worry machine that is sometimes my brain. Nevertheless, my comment to Trisha yesterday, so simple and only five words, reflected my decision and the results of my experiment: I’ve come to enjoy using my iPad as my notebook and now prefer the advantages of digital notes and note taking.

There are still moments when a physical notebook is the right tool for the job, so I keep one near at hand for those occasions. When I produce something in it that I want to keep, I scan the page and insert it in my digital notebook for safe keeping and to keep my notes in one master notebook.

I might change my mind in another few months, but for now, I am finally comfortable saying, as I did yesterday, my iPad is my notebook.