Why I switched to digital planning

Hello everyone, my name is Erin, and I have fully switched to digital planning.

Something that I never, ever thought I would say – I have ditched my paper planners and notebooks and went digital. So here’s a story of how and why I switched to digital planning (and why you should too!).

To start of, this whole post was supposed to be a digital haul of the planner and stickers and notebooks I purchased and also I wanted to include a list of websites offering freebies such as stickers, planners, inserts, and everything related to digital planning. But of course I’d have to tell you the story of how and why and when I went digital and that alone would take up the whole post so I decided to split it into 3 posts; why I switched, the digital haul, and where to get freebies instead of just compiling all of them into one post.

I’ve always been a fan of paper planner and notebooks. Ever since in primary school, I have kept a diary or journal as you’d call it and I’d write to my heart’s content in there. Some of the cringey journals I’ve discarded a long time ago because I couldn’t bear people finding it and reading it because it’d be super embarrassing but I do keep the latest ones which now that I think about it I forgot where I put them. Oh shit.

Anyway, in 2019 – a few months before my wedding in November – I went on a huge shopping spree of stationeries, it’s insane! I think I spent more than RM1000 easily on them. The Leuchtturm1917 notebook alone was RM130, I bought some Muji stationery, this super pretty A6 ring binder, and loads and loads and loads of stickers and washi tapes and stamps and stickies. You name it – I probably have it.

I did some bullet journalling and daily journalling using all of the washi and stickers but I do have a lot so I never finish any washi or sticker packs. And then I stopped bullet journalling and switched to a normal planner. I got the ana tomy planner which I love so much as it’s personalised and has my name on the cover. It was an undated 12-month planner and the best thing is you only need to buy the refill once you run out of paper.

I was on the last few pages of the weekly planner and have been on the website many times trying to customise my refill but never quite found the will to checkout. I browse Etsy every day and on the front page was listings that I have favourited. One of them was an undated digital planner. So I thought, “eh, why not?“, did some research and purchased it. By research I mean reading the reviews and comparing prices to other shops.

The thing is, I did try digital planning a few months ago (I downloaded GoodNotes 5 right after I got my iPad Air) but at that time I used free one that I downloaded online and was not feeling it mainly because as it was free, it doesn’t come with much, just the calendar and weekly planner. I tried using other inserts with the planner for daily planning and such but I felt finicky about it as they didn’t look uniformed, you get what I mean? So my husband ended up using my GoodNotes for his work and studies, and I completely ditched the app aside from the occasional “so what has my husband been doing on this?” and looked through his notes. LOL.

Now that I have a proper planner that comes with over a thousand pages and loads of inserts, I am obsessed with my digital planner. It’s probably the most revolutionary thing I discovered this year due to the pandemic because I’m always online and finding new hobbies to get sucked into. 🥲

Why I love going digital

Somewhere along the road, I’ll probably miss the feeling of writing on paper which is perfectly fine. I can go and write on my notebook, no big deal. But for now, I am loving digital planning and everything it has to offer.

Have you tried digital planning?