Switching from paper to digital for daily planning can mean many things: a smart calendar, an app like Notion, or a PDF planner annotated by hand on a tablet. Digital planning specifically refers to this last approach.
In this article, you will discover what digital planning truly is, the different ways to plan today, and how to identify the approach and tools that best suit your working style.
What is digital planning?
Digital planning involves using a tablet, a stylus, and a hyperlinked PDF file, opened in a note-taking app, to replicate the experience of a paper planner while enjoying the benefits of digital tools.
In practice, the PDF file mirrors the structure of a traditional planner: yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily pages. Integrated hyperlinks allow you to navigate from one section to another with a tap, without having to scroll through hundreds of pages. You write by hand with the stylus, just like on paper, but with the ability to erase without a trace, move text, change colors, or duplicate a page infinitely.
It is this precise combination—tablet, stylus, and hyperlinked PDF—that defines digital planning in the strict sense. The most commonly used applications for this method are Goodnotes, Notability, Noteshelf, and Samsung Notes.
The different ways to plan today
Those who decide to switch from paper to digital planning find themselves with a range of different approaches, which are worth distinguishing before choosing yours.
Smart calendars. These are classic calendar apps, like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. They are mainly used to block time slots, schedule appointments, and receive automatic reminders. No handwriting here; everything is done via keyboard or click.
Hybrid applications. Tools like Notion, Asana, or Morgen combine notes, tasks, databases, and calendars in a single workspace. They are powerful for project management and team collaboration but require a longer adaptation period and do not replicate the handwriting experience.
Interactive PDF planners. This is the method this article focuses on: a hyperlinked PDF file, opened in an application like Goodnotes, Notability, or Samsung Notes, and annotated by hand with a stylus. This is the approach we use at InMotion Planner.
Custom creation. Some people prefer to design their own layouts and planners from scratch, using tools like Canva. This option offers complete freedom but requires time and design skills to achieve a functional result.
These four approaches meet different needs.
Those who choose PDF planning are often the same people who, before tablets existed, already used one of these two paper styles: modular organizers like Filofax, with their interchangeable sections, or the bullet journal (bujo), with its page-by-page customizable layouts. Digital planning adopts the same logic, simply transposed onto a tablet.
If you're looking for the feel of writing by hand in a structured planner, without having to design it yourself, interactive PDF planners are probably what you're looking for. This method has made digital planning so popular, and it's what we'll explore in detail next: what you need to get started, how to customize your planner, and how to make the most of it every day.
Why switch to digital planning
There are many reasons to switch to digital planning. Here are the three that convinced me the most.
The first is to eliminate the clutter of paper planners and desk accessories. I have always been passionate about paper planners and notebooks, but I equally love an organized and minimalist space. This is what pushed me to try digital planning in the first place.
The second is to always have my planners with me. I use several different planners for my professional and personal needs, and they are all accessible from my iPad, wherever I am. For a nomadic lifestyle, this is a real advantage.
The third is flexibility. A digital planner is easily customizable: reorganize tasks, add or remove pages, change the order, add stickers or photos. It's a real playground for creatives and perfectionists.
Digital planning excites me, so I wrote an article dedicated to the benefits of adopting a digital planner if you want to delve deeper into the topic.
What tools to get started
To start digital planning, you need three things: a tablet, a compatible stylus, and a note-taking application that supports hyperlinked PDF files.
Several applications are well-suited for this purpose, each with its strengths. Discover which one to choose based on your needs.
If you use an iPad, our guide to getting started on iPad covers everything you need to know: stylus choice, installing your first planner, and basic navigation.
Goodnotes, the app I use daily
Among all note-taking apps, Goodnotes is the most popular for digital planning on iPad, and it's the one I use myself every day.
It allows you to import your PDF files (like a hyperlinked planner), your course documents, or create your own notebooks. You can write by hand with your stylus or type with the keyboard in a text box, add images, move or duplicate elements from one page to another.
What I like most about Goodnotes is the creative freedom it gives me in note-taking. Our essential basics with Goodnotes 6 show you how to get started, step by step.
Using your digital planner effectively every day
Once your app is installed and your PDF file imported, the main task involves navigating between pages using hyperlinks and then writing with your stylus as you would on paper.
Each app offers its own tools for more advanced use: customisable coloured pens, highlighter, lasso for moving or duplicating text, adding images. Our Goodnotes features tutorial covers these tools in detail, section by section.
The latest applications also integrate artificial intelligence features, capable of converting your handwriting to text or summarizing your notes. Discover how AI works in Goodnotes 6 to see what it concretely changes in your planning.
Personalize with digital stickers
A digital sticker is an image file, most often a PNG with a transparent background, that you import into your note-taking app to decorate or organize your pages. Unlike paper stickers, they are infinitely reusable: you copy, move, and resize them without ever wearing them out.
In a digital planner, they serve two roles. The first is decorative: to add color and personality to your pages. The second is functional: a color code or an icon per category (work, health, family) allows you to spot a type of task at a glance.
Discover how to use digital stickers with Goodnotes to learn how to import them, organize them, and integrate them into your planning.
Which template to choose
The planner that suits you best primarily depends on what you want it to contain. Personally, I designed my templates around what matters most to me daily: creativity, organization, but also my reading and physical activity. Some are designed to structure deep life goals, while others remain intentionally simple to track only the essentials.
Dated or undated, goal-oriented or minimalist, each structure corresponds to a different way of functioning. I wrote a comprehensive article on choosing the right digital planner that details the criteria to consider, model by model, to find the one that suits you.
Key takeaways
Digital planning, in the strict sense, is the combination of a tablet, a stylus, and a hyperlinked PDF file to replicate the experience of a paper planner on a screen. Around this method, other ways of planning digitally exist: smart calendars, hybrid apps, custom creation, each with its strengths depending on your needs.
If you miss handwriting and the structure of a paper planner, PDF planning remains the closest method to that experience, while benefiting from digital flexibility. The linked articles on this page cover each step in detail, from the applications to use to personalizing your planner.
At InMotion Planner, this is precisely the approach we have chosen: PDF planners designed for Goodnotes, Notability, and Samsung Notes, with the structure of a classic planner and all the flexibility of digital.
