#3 How I Went Fully Digital (And Love It)
Part two! Plus a spy thriller, T-Swift and white civility, an epic adventure (that reads quick), and high heels that are actually comfortable?
⭕️ Slow Horses Many of my favorite things, all in one show: London, secret service agents, underdogs, Kristin Scott Thomas, a very good country cottage. If you like a spy drama (that can poke fun at itself), Slow Horses has Sebastian and I hooked.1
⭕️ White Celebrity and Rituals of Civility
⭕️ James by Percival Everett The newest novel from the author of Erasure (which was made into the film American Fiction in 2023) is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of Jim. It’s a propulsive meditation on identity and belonging, with more than one major plot twist.3
⭕️ Alae Pump by Aerosoles I have these in almost every color because they’re a classic shape and ridiculously comfortable. Perfect for the business casual life I lead downtown four days a week.4
Welcome to my Digital Planner 😊
Heads up: This is 2/2 of a two-parter! Last week, I sent a meditation on my relationship with planners (and their contents) over the past ten years. Read on for part 2!
You may have heard about how Joan Didion taught herself to write very good sentences?
I always say Hemingway, because he taught me how sentences worked. When I was fifteen or sixteen I would type out his stories to learn how the sentences worked. I taught myself to type at the same time. A few years ago when I was teaching a course at Berkeley I reread A Farewell to Arms and fell right back into those sentences. I mean they're perfect sentences. Very direct sentences, smooth rivers, clear water over granite, no sinkholes.
I was in college when I came across this practice, and I’ve been applying it to learning ever since.
Not just with writing (Amy Hempel is the writer I’ve copied out most), but anything I want to absorb and better understand: best practices in brand strategy, monthly horoscopes, tarot archetypes, manifestation tactics, sometimes entire websites of copy I want to emulate.
It’s a practice that works for me, but it’s also a practice that fills pages at alarming speed; Joan typed, I handwrite.
So, a little over a year ago, I made the switch from paper planners and notebooks to an entirely digital system.
Here’s what I love about going all-in on digital note-taking and planning:
🔸 Everything in one place: I can access anything I’ve written down, no matter how long ago, if I have a device (iPad, iPhone, or laptop) with me. Plus, I can search my handwriting for key words to locate pages more quickly!
🔸 Notebooks never fill up: I can create as many digital notebooks for as many topics as my heart desires — and the page count is limitless.
🔸 Nothing is precious: My inner perfectionist (we’re working on it) used to feel bad wasting nice paper or crossing things out or even just confronting a blank page.
As someone who cares very much about look and feel, I did go deep into making my iPad ✨ aesthetic ✨ when I first set things up.
This took some time, and honestly was a bit of a headache, but it’s held and I really like seeing the home screen every time I power on.
Here are some of the resources I used to make it look more pretty:
🔸 Lots of YouTube videos: I started with How to customize your iPad 💛🏡 and Organizing & Customizing iPhone for Spring 2023 (some of it works for iPad), and then did a deeper search for specific things I couldn’t figure out how to set up.
🔸 Pinterest: For sourcing imagery to replace the standard app icons. I’m not sure how Hilma would feel about me utilizing her art in this way, but I have a feeling Duncan and Vanessa would be into it; they were all about decorating the mundane.
🔸 Widgets: Widgetsmith is great for creating image-based icons for your iPad and iPhone screens. They also have customizable calendars!
For keeping my monthly, weekly, and daily to-do’s organized, I use the Good Mondays Midyear Portrait Planner, which integrates with the Goodnotes app. I really like it, and bought a second one for 2024-2025 in July!
Here’s what I like about Good Mondays and Goodnotes:
🔸 Highly customizable: At purchase, you can choose color schemes, planner covers, orientation, page style (dot, grid, blank). Any page in the planner can be deleted, if you don’t need that type of page.
🔸 Easy to navigate: Page numbers, dates, and certain topics come pre-hyperlinked in the planner! It’s a breeze to tap around and get to where you need to go, quickly.
🔸 Tidy containers: The Good Mondays planner opens in the Goodnotes app, where you can also create countless open-ended notebooks, import and edit docs, and more.
I keep separate notebooks for journaling, morning pages, this Substack, and work. I love having the topics neatly sorted into different notebook buckets. It makes my head feel less cluttered, and I can access it all on any device I have Goodnotes installed.
Janice has a great video on getting started with Goodnotes (she’s the creator of the Good Mondays planner).
When I first got started, I played around a lot with the stickers and extras that came with the Good Mondays planner, adding images, using different highlighter colors, and filling in the monthly habit trackers and goals pages.
My approach now is much simpler! But it’s consistent and it works for me. I copy/paste each day onto the next, erase items that have been checked off, and update the agenda.
I created a custom notes section where I keep track of monthly bills, and I use the year-at-a-glance pages at the front of the planner to list out birthdays.
Some months I make a mood board!
I feel a little vulnerable sharing these, lol, but this is what they look like. I use the collage tool in Pinterest (which is only accessible in the mobile app version) to create them, choosing images based on what I want to feel or prioritize that month.
Some things I searched for and considered adding to my mood board for September include: Witches of Eastwick, strength training, consistent sleep, PNW fall, fire pit, sunrise, apples in a bag, family meals, be in body, save / track spending, walk outside.
Obviously, writing on a glass screen with a plastic stylus is not the same sensory experience as writing in a luxe notebook with your favorite ballpoint pen!
Here’s what I use to make writing on an iPad feel really nice:
🔸 Paperlike iPad screen protector: This is the #1 most important thing! It creates a bit of drag for the stylus and dampens the tappy sound of writing on glass. They’re a little spendy, but come in a 2-pack and I’m still on the first, a year in.
🔸 Squishy pencil grip: Just make sure to check which generation stylus you’re using — they aren’t all the same size! I like this one just fine: it makes writing for long stretches more comfortable.
🔸 Pencil tips: Although you can customize the thickness of your pen in Goodnotes, these replacement tips create a greater sense of control in-hand.
🔸 iPad case: The one I have isn’t anything fancy, but it has a slot for the stylus — and it *just* fits!
Switching from paper to digital felt like a big leap when I made it, but now I wouldn’t go back — although, every so often, when I’m shopping for school supplies for the boys at Muji, I get a hankering…
What do you think? Would you try digital planning and journaling?
Lucky you: there are now FOUR seasons to binge!
Spoiler alert: It’s white people, who aren’t as intensely confronted by systems of oppression.
Look, I know I sent you here last week, but Anne Helen Petersen hits hard. No paywall on this one!
Two ways to make them more affordable:
Aerosoles often runs a sale, and
Whenever you place an order with them, Aerosoles gives you points that translate into big dollars.
This created a snowball effect for me, so by the time I ordered my fourth pair, it was almost free. I don’t think they’ll go out of style anytime soon, so they’re a good investment!
I like to wear them like this 👇
I loved JAMES. Our book club did it too.