As I sit here in the fresh, cold air-conditioning of Cavender Toyota in San Antonio (while husband drools over a few trucks and we wait for my car to be serviced), I can’t help but think of my contentment. Mostly for life in general, but also productivity and work-wise.
We have had an iPad mini for a while – but bought it as a toy without really a purpose and haven’t used it very often. We recently were at our local AT&T store and noticed the awesome ZAGG Folio Keyboard/Case that one of the associates had and thought it would be easier to use our iPad mini with a keyboard attachment than the LifeProof case we have always had it in. Googled it – yes, they do make them for mini’s!
Found one for half-price on EBay and a few days later… we have an adorable mini-laptop that is super user-friendly!
It had been set-up on my husbands iCloud account, but he realized how much more I would use it with the handy keyboard (he is a chicken-pecker-typist) and told me to set it up with mine! I did – and now… all of my amazing apps sync seamlessly with my iPhone, iPad Mini, MacBook Pro, and iMac at work. I LOVE it so much!
I have been trying to avoid adding my work emails to my phone to encourage healthy ‘switching off’ habits, which I really have a hard time doing, and now with ‘lil iPad in the mix, I have found a happy solution! I added my work accounts to the iPad, and only have them on a manual fetch instead of push, so I can have access to them if I need to – and honestly who would rather type an email on a phone than full qwerty keyboard anyway? No one, that’s who.
It also fits perfectly in my handbag! And this tiny handbag was a gift and not one I would have bought for myself, mostly due to its size that seemed way too small to be practical at first – but I love it so much now! It is a Coach (also not a brand I would have chosen) and only about 8 inches long, by 4 inches wide, by 6 inches high. (Tiny!) As it turns out – I have habitually had way too many useless items in my handbags that I never truly needed to tote around with me.
Now, items in my handbag include: Aweseome ‘lil mini; iPhone; Headphones (aka, lifesavers); Vera Bradly ID/Card holder; Business Cards and Holder; Pen and Checkbook; Compact Hairbrush, Blistex and 2 lipsticks; Name Badge; Car Key, House Keys, and Work Keys; and a lot of receipts.
I would say that is a economic use of space and full of necessities!
Some of my most favorites apps have to be:
ToDoist; iCal (my life organizer); Paprika; and MailChimp.
Without these, I don’t know what I would do! I had the bright idea at the start of the year, to spend a pretty penny and purchase the beautiful Erin Condren LifePlanner (spiral bound paper planner), thinking it would come into use with all of my new tasks to remember. Wrong. So. Wrong. I used it for about a month and it only confused everything! No reminders, location settings, concise to-do list, or repeat settings are available with a hand written planner! Who needs paper when you have always legible, cloud convenient, and handy apps? Only the Pinterest perfect stay-at-home moms! LifePlanner? HA! Life confuser! I can not carry around a spiral bound notebook everywhere I go.. but always have my phone with me. :)
Some other ways that ‘lil iPad is easier than my phone (in traveling cases where I am not at my desk with MacBook Pro or iMac) is that, with the keyboard, it is always in landscape mode, making drafting MailChimp Campaigns and emails, editing websites, and using any website on Safari, super-duper easy! And with having OneDrive and GoogleDrive apps on it, combined with the full version of Microsoft Excel and Word – my capabilities on my mini-office are practically endless. Apart from Adobe inDesign, I have yet to think of anything I can do at my iMac that I can’t on ‘lil mini.
🙌🏻 Whoop-Whoop!
…plus… Emojis on iPad! 😛 hehe
Dühring Life 