iPad Air: People are obsessed with IG influencers using it for ‘digital planning.’ Here’s why.

Hold on to your oat-milk lattes, avocado toasts, and açaí bowls! IG influencers Chantal Hurst (@papernroses) and Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_) paint a Pinterest-perfect vibe that makes me feel hectic compared to their clean aesthetic.

Their carefully curated lifestyles on their Instagram accounts are the visual equivalent of a chilled-out Colbie Caillat song or an easy-breezy Jason Mraz tune. (Or for the Gen Z readers who can smell the elderly Millennial seeping from my pores, Sabrina Carpenter’s chic-and-polished “Espresso” jam.)

Meanwhile, after peeling my eyes off my phone and looking around my messy room and cluttered desk, my environment encapsulates the entire Screamo genre.

After scrolling through their Instagram accounts with intense curiosity, there seems to be one thing they have that I don’t: an iPad Air and the mastered art of digital planning.

What is digital planning — and how is the iPad Air involved?

So what, exactly, is digital planning?

A screenshot of Hurst’s Instagram account.
Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

To put it succinctly, it’s a way to organize the tasks in your life by using a device — the iPad Air is one of the most popular — to set a structured plan for yourself. (It’s also worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 is another tablet one can use for digital planning for those who prefer the Android ecosystem.)

Many users like to download PDFs, from Etsy for example, for digital planning. You can import these templates into apps like Goodnotes, Notability, and other journal-friendly, planning-oriented apps. There’s a planning template for almost everything:

Hell, there are even PDF templates for iPad users with a green thumb. Boyd told Mashable on a call that, in addition to the more clerical type of organizing, she uses her iPad Air to organize her gardening and planting tasks.

Boyd uses a gardening digital planning template for her iPad Air.
Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

Plus, when it comes to traditional, physical planners, you’d have to buy several of them that serve your needs, which would only add to your clutter — and defeats the purpose of adding organization to your life. With the iPad Air, on the other hand, you can download as many planners as you want, which can all be saved on one device.

iPad Air: A tool for digital planning (and getting your life together)

First, let’s do a big-picture zoom out. Apple recently unveiled the new iPad Air.

13-inch iPad Air shot in Mashable’s studio
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

What’s new about this refresh? It’s got a faster M2 chip. To put this into perspective, this means that the iPad Air is fast AF for a tablet. (It’s almost as zippy as my own 15-inch MacBook Air, and comes close in performance to the likes of the Asus ZenBook Duo and HP Victus 16, a friggin’ gaming laptop.)

The iPad Air now comes in a bigger size: a 13-inch model.

Hurst’s Vision Board on the 13-inch iPad Air
Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

For the uninitiated, the iPad Air line typically comes in one size, a 10.9-inch one, but now, there’s an additional 30 percent larger tablet that delivers more screen real estate — perfect for the, “I use the iPad Air as a laptop” folks. The more spacious profile allows for more typing comfort when the Magic Keyboard is attached. (There’s a new Magic Keyboard, too, by the way.)

13-inch iPad Pro with the new Magic Keyboard
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Some use the new iPad Air as a companion for work and school. Others are artistic hobbyists, so alongside the new Apple Pencil, it’s a mid-tier tablet from Apple’s iPad line that lets them sharpen their talents.

However, zooming back in to the point of this article, there is a growing niche of users who are using the iPad Air to get their chaotic lives in order: the digital planning community.

Screenshot of Boyd’s aesthetic instagram
Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

What makes the lifestyles Hurst and Boyd show off in their social media posts so enticing is that they’ve found a way to make planning fun — there’s also something therapeutic and calming about the aesthetics of their Instagram that mimics the soft, serene and soothing vibes I’d want to emulate for my own life. Their videos make it feel like they’ve all found a way to exude organization and orderliness with nothing but an iPad Air.

Boyd plans her week on the iPad Air.
Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

Both collectively have over 100,000 followers, with many asking for tips on how they, too, can calm the chaos in their lives by diving into the world of digital planning. I decided to hop on a call with them to get advice on how I can leave my disorganized life behind — and finally embrace the elegant tranquility and orderly peace they’ve found for themselves.

Why not use your iPhone or MacBook?

I’m crossing my fingers for the debut of a touchscreen MacBook one day, but as Boyd and Hurst pointed out to Mashable, it doesn’t have this capability — and therefore doesn’t support a stylus. The Apple Pencil is an ideal tool to have for the digital planning process. Both explained that the Apple Pencil Pro helps them scribble out their thoughts, tasks, and to-dos in a more fluid manner.

Boyd holding the Apple Pencil Pro.
Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

You may be thinking, “I already have an iPhone! Why do I need an iPad Air?”

iPhone 15 Pro models
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable

Of course, you don’t need anything. However, your iPhone, which is no larger than 6.7 inches, won’t give you enough screen real estate to take advantage of the expansive PDF templates digital-planning enthusiasts love to use.

How to get started with digital planning via iPad Air

First, you’re going to need an iPad Air, of course. For her part, Boyd, better known as @flourishplanner_, uses the new 13-inch iPad Air — she has the blue one with 1TB of storage.

Next, you’re going to need a stylus. Hurst, whom we know as @papernroses, uses the new Apple Pencil Pro with her iPad Air. As I mentioned during my hands-on experience with the Apple Pencil Pro, it has several new features, including a novel squeeze perk. This lets you squeeze the lower-end of the Pencil with your pointer finger and thumb.

Boyd using the squeeze feature on the iPad Air.
Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

“Squeeze function on Apple Pencil Pro is going to increase productivity especially in apps like Goodnotes and Freeform,” Hurst told Mashable. “[It’s] less time switching between tools or quickly undoing mistakes; I can see this being really helpful taking notes in meetings or during lectures if you’re a student.”

Hurst has been using the iPad since 2019. The device allowed her to gain some semblance of orderliness and organization with her day job at the time — and she hasn’t looked back. “iPad really changed the trajectory of my life personally,” she said.

Hurst using the squeeze feature on the iPad Air.
Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

Next, you’ve got to download some apps. Which ones does Hurst suggest? “Procreate and Goodnotes,” she said, which are respectively $12.99 and free with in-app purchases. “They’re the greatest apps and they’re so inexpensive, which is crazy for all the things that they’re able to provide just regular people with,” she added.

Another app Hurst suggests is Zinnia, another freebie with paid in-app purchases. “It has a lot of pre-built planners for all sorts of things. You can use it to plan out which books you’re reading. You can use it to pregnancy journal. You can use it to scrapbook — all sorts of stuff,” she said.

Hurst warned that it’s easy for one to procrastinate when it comes to planning simple things like an annual physical or that every-six-months trip to the dentist, and the iPad Air, alongside the aforementioned apps and templates, ensures that those to-do’s get done.

Boyd video editing on the iPad Air
Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

Boyd, who started using iPad in 2018, concurs with Hurst. Procreate and Goodnotes are her favorite apps. “I plan on my iPad every morning. I’ll sit down and write my to-do list for the day. And I love doing it on iPad because I can use all of these different highlighters and colors.”

Boyd also recommends Freeform, a free, pre-installed Apple app. “It’s basically like an endless canvas and I love using that for brainstorming with brain webs — and you can keep zooming out and have more space.”

Digital planning tips

Interestingly, some people aren’t aware that the iPad Air features a split-screen feature, which isn’t exclusive to the iPad Air — it works on other iPad models as well as the MacBook. For example, as Hurst explained to Mashable, you can pull up Pinterest on the left and Procreate on the right to get some inspiration from the visual discovery platform.

Hurst’s weekly digital planner on the 13-inch iPad Air
Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

Boyd suggests getting a matte screen protector, like this one, as it grips the screen a little better. “It makes it feel more natural,” she said. She also recommends the Magic Keyboard. “It’s my favorite keyboard for the iPad. It’s just so easy because it connects with Bluetooth. You can snap it on and it just transforms your iPad to basically like a little laptop.”

Magic Keyboards on the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models.
Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

The iPad Air has a starting price of $599, and comes in the 11-inch model, which you can grab from Apple’s official store. If you want to step your game up, you can get the 13-inch model, which has a price tag of $799.