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I'm now into my 3rd year of graduate school and honestly think to myself every day - what the heck would I do without my iPad?! BUT my iPad would be nothing without the slew of notetaking apps that have been my daily companions throughout my PhD program.
Here is my current iPad set-up:
My iPad Set-up
I've talked about How I use my iPad and what kinds of apps I use as a PhD student, but today I thought I'd do a deep dive on the two most popular note-taking apps, Notability and Goodnotes, and what you can expect out of each of them! I use both Notability and Goodnotes daily, so I think a case can be made for each of them!
Notability ($8.99)
Notability is a note-taking app that, for me, primarily functions as a PDF reader with a crazy sophisticated note-taking component attached to it. You can write, draw, highlight, insert a post-it note, type text, add an image, or even insert audio as you are taking notes. Although you can certainly use it without the PDF reading component and just use it as a blank page to take notes, I think notability is most powerful when you're using it with lecture slides or an article that you need to read for class.
Of all the apps on my iPad, for my PhD, I use notability the most by a landslide. I started using it at the beginning of my grad school career to download all of my readings so I could highlight, write, annotate etc all over the PDFs and not have to print out a mountain of paper every single week. Even though I'm no longer taking classes as a dissertator, I'm still reading tons of papers for my own research so notability is an app I use daily!
Organization: One of the key differences between notability and goodnotes is the way notes are organized. Notability is organized in more of a traditional "computer-y" style. You can organize your notes by subject, then group those subjects into dividers, and color code them to your heart's content! I have to admit that this isn't my favorite organization style. I don't find it very intuitive and it feels less like taking notes in a notebook and more like a collection of computer files. This is why I treat notability more as a PDF reader where it houses my library of annotated articles and books.
Use Cases:
Reading and annotating articles: This is the most obvious use case, but it should not be underestimated! I've been in grad school seminars where other students have printed out all of the readings and highlighted and written on paper. While there's nothing wrong with this, it's time-consuming, isn't great for the planet, and isn't easily accessible if you want to search for a certain note from your readings. For me, buying an iPad just to take notes on academic readings has been one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Taking notes and recording audio during classes: I think this is truly where I fell in love with Notability. You can also download lecture slides and take notes on them in real-time during lecture. On top of that, you can also record audio and take notes at the same time. Notability's audio feature has allowed me to record entire lectures via audio and it syncs with my written notes to show me at what point in the audio I took which notes.
Document scanning and taking notes on books: Depending on your field of study, you might be reading entire books for your classes rather than journal articles. I read a mix of both for my research and notability has been a game-changer in this area because I can check out books from the library, use the document scanning feature on Notability to scan important pages, and then annotate them without destroying a precious library book :)
Where Notability Wins: Notability definitely wins when it comes to being able to annotate. There's truly no comparison. The one thing that is common to nearly all grad school experiences is that you are constantly reading A LOT - and when you're reading hundreds upon hundreds of pages of research content each week, being able to highlight and write all over your readings is truly a godsend. Plus, I feel like the longer I've had it, the more uses I seem to find for it!
Goodnotes ($7.99)
Goodnotes is the most common note-taking app pitted against Notability - and while they have many similar functions, Goodnotes' organization system is slightly different than Notability's which means it may be better for you if you are someone who prefers to have things organized by notebook rather than by file. With Goonotes, you can also upload files, annotate files, insert images, etc. In essence, Goodnotes can do everything that Notability can do, but is organized slightly differently which can make a huge difference if you are someone (like me!) who has very strong preferences for how things are organized!
Organization: I have always been an avid notebook, planner, and journal user so I find that Goodnotes is a much better replacement for that due to its notebook based organization system. In Goodnotes, you can actually create a notebook OR a document and then you can nest those notebooks or documents within folders. While the document storing on Goodnotes is fine, it is definitely more catered to the notebook system because you can create a cover for each notebook that is visible when you open the folder. In addition to that, Goodnotes offers a whole host of built-in templates like different notebook paper, graph paper, and planner pages.
Use Cases:
Planner: I have been an avid planner addict for years and purchasing Goodnotes, it has become the home of my digital planner where I use daily, weekly, and monthly spreads to plan out my teaching, research, and dissertation-related responsibilities. I love having a digital planner because you can pick templates that work best for you and switch between templates if you have a busier vs. more relaxed day.
Goal Setting: Like I said... I am a big planner nerd 😅 so I've gotten into the habit of doing all of these goal setting worksheets and planning goals at a weekly and monthly level. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - but Goodnotes has always been the home for my goal-setting planner because I can collect different goal setting templates and fill them out all in one place!
Notebook - Like I mentioned before, Goodnotes has essentially eliminated the need for all of the notebooks I had floating around my home before! If there are any thoughts or to do's I want to jot down quickly, I'll jot them in a catchall notebook on Goodnotes so I can re-visit and even search for them later.
Scrapbook/bulletin board: In my free time I enjoy doing crafts or DIY projects and I've found Goodnotes to be the perfect fit for planning out those projects. For example, I'm currently loving making my own polymer clay earrings and to plan this project out, I've collected photos of my favorite designs and put them all together in a scrapbook style Goodnotes notebook where I take inspiration from my favorite designs and make them my own.
Doodles, illustrations, coloring: I also find that Goodnotes is a great place for me to collect simple coloring pages and create simple doodles and illustrations. It's definitely no Procreate, but if I'm just designing my own sticker for my planner - it does the trick!
Where Goodnotes Wins: More flexibility and as a notebook replacement. If you're looking for a true notebook replacement, Goodnotes is where it's at. You can choose notebook paper templates that work best for you and replace just about any type of paper based notebook in a way that is easy to understand and user friendly. It also has a lot more flexibility when it comes to how you want to organize your notebooks - which allows for a more free flowing, creative application.
The Lowdown on Both: Syncing & Cost
The downside is that they both cost money - something that isn't true of all notetakings apps- and I know that with the low stipends given to most grad students, an expensive app may not be in the cards. The good news for both Goodnotes and Notability is that they are one-time purchases (not subscriptions) so once you buy it, it's yours to keep. The bad news is that if you want it to sync across your different devices (e.g., your Mac) you will need to buy the Mac version of the app. If you buy the iPad version of Goodnotes or Notability, you can automatically download it to your iPhone, but if you want it to sync to your Mac, it requires a separate Mac app.
I wrestled with buying the Mac app in addition to both iPad apps but in the end, I think it was well worth it. I use both apps daily and when I'm writing notes on my iPad but then want to switch to typing up a summary on my laptop, it's nice to be able to swing around to my laptop and have it available there as well. For me, paying for both the iPad and Mac versions of both apps has been WELL worth it because of how much headache and trouble they've saved me.
Another downside I wanted to point out for both apps is that syncing your notes across both apps is not always a seamless process. I have had issues with both apps not syncing and needing to troubleshoot the apps by updating them, deleting them, redownloading them, forcing it to sync over and over again - you know the drill. 80% of the time the syncs work well, but that remaining 20% of the time is frustrating AF. If you choose only to have the apps on your iPad though - which is still GREAT - then you'll never run into this problem 😝
It's common for students to either use Notability OR Goodnotes - but not necessarily both. I use both apps but for slightly different purposes and have found that both apps bring a whole lot of value to my PhD and personal life. Whichever notetaking app you choose, I think, largely depends on how you plan on using the app and what your personal notetaking style is like. I hope this deep dive was helpful! If you have any other questions, drop me a comment below and I'd be happy to help!
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