iPad — The Cake or the Icing?

If you’re like me, you’ve been attending city council meetings multiple nights every month, sometimes three nights a week, for a lot of years. (OK — you’re probably not like me, but play along.) You lug a big accordion file with you to every meeting — a different one for each city or village you represent. Then you lug it back to the office the next morning with even more paper.

That file probably has a legal pad so you can take notes of the meeting and record newly assigned projects. You’re probably carrying copies of all the ordinances and resolutions being considered that night ( and maybe copies of old ones so you can keep track of the current state of the local law). It might have a copy or two of the city charter, a zoning code, a contact list, a thoroughfare plan, an audit report, an invitation to a ribbon cutting ceremony, and a draft of a silly letter where you’re thinking about asking for an increase in your hourly rate. I had all of that and more. Until I got an iPad.

My kids had been begging me to get an iPad. (Not really — I wanted one for myself, but it sounds better to say that the kids nagged me until I broke down and bought one). In fact, it was my Father’s Day gift to myself. I though it would end up being a pretty cool toy for me, and if I could figure out a way to use it for work, that would just be icing on the cake.

Well, it’s turned into a whole lot of icing. I have since turned that iPad over to the kids and upgraded to a 32GB fourth generation model with 4G LTE. All the ordinances, charters, letters, and zoning codes have now been scanned into digital format and loaded on the iPad. Everything in that giant paper file has been replaced with the iPad, including the legal pad itself. In fact, that’s all I carry to meetings anymore. I take handwritten notes, my calendar is always with me to schedule follow up meetings, and all of my usual online resources are now available to me with just a touch. Now I wonder how I ever worked without it.

I have experimented with a ton of apps (like Wunderlist v. Toodledo v. OmniFocus), and I’m still fine tuning a more efficient and productive workflow. I even wrote this post in a text editor on my iPad and then uploaded it using the WordPress iOS app. I’ll talk more about the apps I use in future posts, but trust me — I’m finding more and more icing everyday.