All iPads 2023 Digital Planner/Notebook (any PDF)

[sracer]

Greetings all! 2023 is a few weeks away and it's the perfect time to start planning on how to be more productive and organized in the new year. If you have an iPad that supports the Apple Pencil then you have a great tool to assist you in this endeavor.

Many have downloaded and are using my 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 Digital Planner/Notebooks and have asked for an updated version for 2023. I have just completed it and it is now available to anyone who would like it... free of charge!

Here's a link to the 2019 digital Planner/Notebook thread on MacRumors
Here's a link to the 2020 digital Planner/Notebook thread on MacRumors
Here's a link to the 2021 digital Planner/Notebook thread on MacRumors
Here's a link to the 2022 digital Planner/Notebook thread on MacRumors

WHAT'S NEW FOR 2023

• 2023 Calendar pages
• Landscape orientation
• Two-page cover for personalization
• Year-at-a-Glance launch page. This allows you to go to a particular week of a month.
• Weekly detail pages
• Plenty of blank pages and whitespace to allow for customizations and markup

If you aren't currently using my Digital Planner/Notebook but are interested, this is what you'll need:

• any iPad with Apple Pencil support
• an Apple Pencil
• the GoodNotes app for iOS (optionally the macOS version for desktop access to the notebook)
• basic knowledge of using GoodNotes

NOTES:

• Any iPad (Pro or non) with their respective Pencil will work with this.
• Any app or device that can edit/import PDF files and supports hyperlinks can work.
• (*) This also works on Android tablets using a PDF tool that supports hyperlinks (like XODO)

How to use it:
This is the cover page.



Along the top are tabs that take you to the beginning of each month. The dog-ear in the upper right corner will take you back to the cover from anywhere in the notebook. (helpful when you are on a page with confidential information and need to hide it quickly)

You can write or type a title/heading anywhere on the page. You can also paste an image if you want to change the cover art.
Along the bottom are six "speed dial" tabs that take you to individual sections.

This is the new Year-at-a-Glance page.

Tapping on the Month's header takes you to the month overview page. Tapping anywhere on a week, will load the Weekly details page.


This is the monthly overview page.

Plenty of space to paste images, sticker, take notes for the month... it's really an open canvas. Tapping on any week will display the respective Weekly details page.

Here is where you can record highlights/outlooks for the month. At the beginning of the month, you can copy and paste one of the custom pages and templates included in the notebook as needed. (see instructions for copying and pasting pages within GoodNotes)

This is the new Weekly details page.

These pages have a weekday focus.



I've included month-specific blank pages for additional notes that don't fit on the weekly details page.




This is a "speed dial" page. Basically used for free-form subjects. The grey box is for writing/type a meaningful title for this section.



Here's the planner in action on my 9th gen iPad (landscape) and iPad Mini 5 (portrait).


The PDF file is attached. (2.8MB)

UPDATE: Here's the link to a monochrome version of the planner.

If you give it a try, please post your experiences! If you have suggestions for improving it, post those too! I'm very interested in any bugs you find.

 

[ericwn]

As per usual, thanks much for sharing!

 

[GerritV]

Congratulations sracer, such devotion in not only keeping your project alive but also adding/improving functionalities.
👍👍👍

 

[sracer]

As per usual, thanks much for sharing!

Congratulations sracer, such devotion in not only keeping your project alive but also adding/improving functionalities.
👍👍👍

Thank you for the kind words. I'm working on a type of planner that is more like a graphical adventure that I hope to have ready for testing after the holidays. It might not be practical, but I hope that it is fun.

 

[tekchic]

Hey, someone's a fan of Shag's artwork! Nice planner - thanks for sharing.

 

[sracer]

Hey, someone's a fan of Shag's artwork! Nice planner - thanks for sharing.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to spot the artist. 😁

 

[sracer]

I've got my eye on the Kindle Scribe as a possible digital notebook alternative to my iPad. But I'm not sure how well a monochromatic screen will work for me, so I've created a monochrome version of my planner to test things out. I already have a hotkey on my iPads to activate the Accessibility/Grayscale mode, but I wanted more control over how colors are translated to gray.

Here's a monochrome version of the planner....

 

[sracer]

Many people who produce digital planners use tools like Adobe InDesign. Those apps provide advanced functions and features that produce streamlined .PDFs. But I use Apple KeyNote, and then export to .PDF. But KeyNote has a few quirks in its pdf export functionality that produces bloated files.

One reason for the flat-looking layout, solid colors, and hyperlink placements of my planner/notebooks up to this point were to keep the resulting size of the .pdf below 5MB (which is the limit for MacRumors' attachments).

I've been experimenting quite a bit to see if I could determine a pattern for Keynote's PDF export bloat. I believe that I've resolved that.

Here is the result. The initial file size was 19MB. After making changes, the result is 3.4MB.

If you'd like to try it out, the "Week Planner 2023.pdf" file is attached and free to use.

muted colors, drop-shadows on tabs, tabs on left and right.


Year at a glance... month heading is a hyperlink to the monthly overview, each week is a hyperlink to the week's details. 12 numbered subjects.


Month overview page. Each week is a hyperlink to the week's details page.
Triangle in the upper-right corner turn to the cover. The calendar icon in the upper-left is a hyperlink to the year-at-a-glance.



Here's the weekly details page. The month header is a hyperlink to the monthly overview. Weeks start on Sunday and are "continuous" across month boundaries. (eg. if a week starts at the end of one month but ends at the beginning of the next month, it will be displayed as a single week)


Typical subject page.


Keynote is a deceptively powerful tool ("deceptive" in that it is capable of doing more than what initially looks possible) so I'm thankful that the experimentation has paid off. I have a few ambitious projects on the design table (ministry-specific) that are now possible because of the file size reduction. (the resulting PDFs would've been 100MB's in size, but now will probably be in the 20-30MB range).

 

[sracer]

More experimentation. I exported the Apple Keynote file to PowerPoint (.pptx), and then imported that .pptx file into Google Slides. From there, I exported it to .pdf. With all of those conversions, the formatting and hyperlinks were retained... but the resulting filesize is only 1.1MB.

I could use Google Slides to create these, or continue to use Keynote (and test using Keynote's pdf export) and go through the conversion chain after all of the testing is done.

The performance is super snappy now. Enough experimenting, now on to more additions. 😄

 

[sracer]

I've been having fun experimenting with using Keynote to design layouts and page templates, and using Google Slides to create the actual planner. Here's a journal/planner that won't be for everyone (I designed it specifically for people in my congregation), but for anyone who finds it useful, please feel free to use it.

Here's the cover


This is a brief introduction to using the journal/planner


Year at a glance can jump to a monthly overview or weeky details


Monthly overview


Weekly details... the whitespace is for freeform notes or modular customization (more later)


A template for sermon notes


A template for studying the Bible


A thanksgiving journal template


A personal cross-reference for verses that are helpful


A Prayer request tracker


The first page of the reading tracker... regardless of the plan used, people can simply color in the box as they read.


I'm starting to branch out into creating stickers and modular components.
Here's a sticker page (in Goodnotes format) that can copy and paste into the planner.


This is the start of modular "stickers" that can customize the functionality of the planner. Eventually, this will be a journal/planner "construction kit"... allowing people to simply copy and paste components that fit with their style of planning.

 

[GerritV]

I've been having fun experimenting with using Keynote to design layouts and page templates, and using Google Slides to create the actual planner. Here's a journal/planner that won't be for everyone (I designed it specifically for people in my congregation), but for anyone who finds it useful, please feel free to use it.

Here's the cover
View attachment 2154877

This is a brief introduction to using the journal/planner
View attachment 2154874

Year at a glance can jump to a monthly overview or weeky details
View attachment 2154875

Monthly overview
View attachment 2154873

Weekly details... the whitespace is for freeform notes or modular customization (more later)
View attachment 2154876

A template for sermon notes
View attachment 2154878

A template for studying the Bible
View attachment 2154879

A thanksgiving journal template
View attachment 2154880

A personal cross-reference for verses that are helpful
View attachment 2154882

A Prayer request tracker
View attachment 2154881

The first page of the reading tracker... regardless of the plan used, people can simply color in the box as they read.
View attachment 2154883

I'm starting to branch out into creating stickers and modular components.
Here's a sticker page (in Goodnotes format) that can copy and paste into the planner.
View attachment 2154889

This is the start of modular "stickers" that can customize the functionality of the planner. Eventually, this will be a journal/planner "construction kit"... allowing people to simply copy and paste components that fit with their style of planning.
View attachment 2154893

Nice work! I specifically like this "matte" color scheme.

 

[secretk]

I've been having fun experimenting with using Keynote to design layouts and page templates, and using Google Slides to create the actual planner. Here's a journal/planner that won't be for everyone (I designed it specifically for people in my congregation), but for anyone who finds it useful, please feel free to use it.

Here's the cover
View attachment 2154877

This is a brief introduction to using the journal/planner ...

Looks cool! Not for me but just wanted to tell you that it looks great. Also quite admirable that you share it for free with people as I am such that you took you quite the time to do it!

 

[LibbyLA]

This is awesome! I don’t use a digital planner (just an Android PIM) but I appreciate all the work you’ve done and your generosity in sharing it.

 

[LibbyLA]

I downloaded your planner and bought GoodNotes so I could take a look at it. Your planner doesn’t work for what I was hoping to use it for but I have figured out how to use GoodNotes to accomplish what I wanted to do (several notebooks, different purposes and styles) so it’s well worth it. Thanks for being the incentive I needed to try GoodNotes!

 

[sracer]

I downloaded your planner and bought GoodNotes so I could take a look at it. Your planner doesn’t work for what I was hoping to use it for but I have figured out how to use GoodNotes to accomplish what I wanted to do (several notebooks, different purposes and styles) so it’s well worth it. Thanks for being the incentive I needed to try GoodNotes!

Thank you so much for your feedback. I'm interesting in hearing about what you were hoping to use it for. I originally created these planners based on how I work, but because they're so easy to create, I make variants and entirely new designs for people.

There may be things that you want in a planner that could be helpful to others.

 

[Jimmie Geddes]

Thank you so much for creating and sharing this!

 

[StellarVixen]

Love the skeuomorphic look and feel. Looks like a cool app. Would use it if I had an iPad capable of running it.

 

[LibbyLA]

Thank you so much for your feedback. I'm interesting in hearing about what you were hoping to use it for. I originally created these planners based on how I work, but because they're so easy to create, I make variants and entirely new designs for people.

There may be things that you want in a planner that could be helpful to others.

I was kind of looking for daily pages, but I ended up just using a plain notebook and journaling in it. I created one for inspirational stuff (memes), one where I can copy/paste any dog-training-related FB post’s I make, and another for the one-page 30-day habit tracker.

There is not a thing wrong with your planner! I didn’t have high expectations when I downloaded it because I didn’t think the setup was what I was looking for, but I wanted to see it because I’ve admired your hard work for several years. It was the push I needed to try GoodNotes (I’ve had Notability for a long time) and that’s worth a lot to me.