Kelly Konrad

Hey everyone! Is it just me, or is summer going by pretty fast? I’m already getting the fall feels from my favorite Youtube channel, called PlanningtoProsper, a YouTube channel that talks about digital planning and budgeting. She also has an Etsy shop that sells digital planners and digital stickers, and I’m pretty much hooked. Today, she released her September stickers and such, and the stickers just scream “autumn!” in the purple, orange, and green, and the pumpkins, books (representing ‘back to school’), and cute hot cocoa mugs. Yes, she’s two months ahead of the game.

I have always been into using a planner since high school. I always used some kind of planner. I got into digital planning after using my Happy Planner, from Me & My Big Ideas, a paper planner with stickers and accessories that went with it. I also used Erin Condren for a short time. I accumulated so many paper products, my study started getting really cluttered. I got so fed up with the clutter, I wondered if there was any other way. Then I came across the concept of digital planning last July during the quarantine.

At first, I was using both a digital planner and a paper planner, but after going to a few craft stores to look for paper stickers and accessories, and having others buy most of them before I had a chance to get to them, I decided that digital planning was the way to go for me. I didn’t want to have to compete for planner items, and potentially miss out. With digital planning, there’s an unlimited supply of any digital files and such, so no need to compete.

What is digital planning, you ask? It is similar to paper planning, but it involves an electronic tablet, a stylus pen/pencil, like Apple Pencil, or something similar, and a pdf annotation application where you can write on the file, and “annotate” it in any way you want. I personally have an iPad, and an application called Goodnotes 5. I also use a stylus pen I found on Amazon that was less expensive than an Apple pencil.

What also sold me was that instead of packing a bunch of supplies with me to continue planning on the go, and my bag getting heavy as a result, I could simply grab my iPad, and my stylus. It makes traveling so much easier. Recently, I reaped the benefits of this fact when my husband and I went to Hawaii for a family vacation. I got to document the trip, and save all my photos and “journal” entries all on one iPad.

Even better, these memories and planners are saved on the Apple Cloud, so I have access to these on my phone as well. If one were to spill coffee on a paper planner, that would be the end of the planner, unless the coffee was cleaned up fast enough to salvage it. If coffee was spilled on an iPad, the iPad may glitch out or stop working, but the pictures and files are saved, so they would still be usable on another device.

May I add that digital planning can be less expensive than paper planning? There are thousands of digital planners on Etsy, some dated and some undated. The undated ones can be used over and over, which saves money from having to go out and buy a new paper planner each year. Digital stickers are reusable as well, which saves money as well.

All in all, I love digital planning because of the convenience, the cost, and the simplicity. I’m glad I made the switch. Even better, I love how it is getting more popular as an option for business owners, students, and stationary lovers. I didn’t even know it was a thing until on Facebook, I learned of WorthyGal, another digital planner and sticker designer. Her cute designs and tools had me hooked since July of 2020.

Just as a note: I’m not trying to convince people one way or another when it comes to digital planners or paper planners, as I’m just talking about my own personal experience. There are pros and cons to each type of planning, like paper planning maybe having a more personal feel to some, but more clutter, or digital planning being less clutter, more organized, and neater, yet there’s more to learn for some in how it all works. The trick is to find out what works best for you, and stick with that.